Boston East, currently under construction on a site that has been vacant for decades, will support a combination of public and private uses.

Boston’s historic waterfront – once a booming working center for our region’s shipping and maritime industry – is experiencing an inspiring rebirth. Surprisingly, new private development, particularly along East Boston’s waterfront, is working as a catalyst to unlock the potential of vacant, underutilized property to foster public engagement and reintroduce residents and visitors alike to our city’s seaside roots.

While the thought of private development serving to open land to public users may seem counterintuitive, the work being done along East Boston’s waterfront stands as a notable case study on ways collaborative property development and cohesive design can produce an inspiring new destination for public enrichment.

East Boston was a busy port and hub for industrial activity as early as the 1800s. The neighborhood served as the center of the city’s thriving Clippership building industry, home to many shipyards, wharves and warehouses that dotted the neighborhood’s waterfront. Even after the age of wooden shipbuilding, East Boston remained a hub for shipping, marine repair and industrial activity. In later years, East Boston’s waterfront was home to coal storage warehouses, slaughterhouses, sugar processing facilities, metal works, foundries and working docks. While the waterfront buzzed with activity, there was little to no opportunities for public engagement.

A Waterfront Reimagined

It wasn’t until the late 1900s that these waterfront lots were seen as valuable locations for development and leisure activity. During this time, a number of former warehouses were redeveloped for residential purposes and the award-winning Pier’s Park, which hosts thousands of visitors per year, was introduced to the community. This well-loved park offers stunning views of the Boston skyline, free summer concerts, a playground and open green space for rest and recreation.

With this ongoing revitalization of Boston’s waterfront comes a number of new opportunities to utilize smart development in a way that refreshes underutilized land along the waterfront and draws the public in to further enjoy our city’s unique maritime connection. Site design is underway for two new East Boston developments, along with one newly completed project, that do just that by weaving a welcoming common thread through the landscape design and wayfinding along the water’s edge.

Among these projects is The Eddy, a residential project developed by Gerding Edlen and designed by Stantec, which opened its doors to residents late last summer. The landscape scope of work includes the design of engaging waterfront-centric public amenities such as extensive seat walls, a great lawn and monumental deck with sweeping vistas of downtown, a dedicated water taxi stop, fishing stations and an accessible boat launch.

Located on a site that has been vacant for decades, the Boston East project, currently under construction, will bring a combination of public and private uses including an apartment complex with “live-work-sell” units for artists, a kayak launch, a community gallery and open space. As part of the Boston East development, Copley Wolff is collaborating with developer Trinity Financial and design firm ICON Architecture on the design of a public park that will display interpretive artwork reflecting the site’s shipbuilding and marine railway history. This interpretation of the social and historical meaning of East Boston in its local context will provide outdoor space that is unique and meaningful to its users.

Finally, The Davis Companies’ redevelopment of 99 Sumner St., located on the old Hodge Boiler Plant site, will make what has long been an inaccessible portion of the waterfront open to the public as it will provide a critical missing link in the harborwalk. The public portion of the project includes the design of a broad water’s edge walkway that serves overlook areas, a shared public-private open space with shade structures and seating, a pier and a connection to an adjacent public park. The leading edge of the project is also designed for coastal resiliency by creating planted buffer mounds and collaborating with marine engineers to reestablish the dilapidated seawall edge.

The Harborwalk

The Eddy at 10 New St. in East Boston opened its doors to residents late last summer.

The development of these three sites is helping to reposition the East Boston waterfront as a hub once again, but this time as a destination for public recreation, learning and interaction fully integrated with private use. While each of these properties feature landscape design components that are unique to the architecture and rich history of each site, the overall design integrates universal landscape strategies that carry a cohesive theme to create a continuous harborwalk that draws people from the street, through these properties and right up to the water’s edge. Complementing these unifying elements are unique design features intended to encourage people to relax, socialize and learn about each site’s individual history.

There are inherent challenges when designing public spaces as part of a private development. Thoughtful landscape architecture is essential in order to provide the public with cues that encourage engagement with the space and inspire a natural flow of foot traffic for exploration. For example, to draw people in from the street to the water’s edge, the site design takes advantage of sight lines that clearly display the harborwalk as a destination from the neighborhood sidewalks. This visual connection is reinforced with accessible tree-lined walkways that extend the sidewalks into each site to make an inviting and welcoming connection despite traversing private property. The landscape design is then punctuated with a strategic placement of gateway markers that clearly indicate public routes to the water.

The Boston East waterfront is also unique for the grassroots involvement of local stakeholders and community members alike, who have helped encourage and facilitate collaboration among the various developers along the waterfront. This is apparent in the master planning collaboration that is currently taking place between the various development teams and local advocacy groups to take advantage of the synergy between the multiple ongoing developments along the waterfront to envision a holistic approach to developing the harborwalk through cohesive signage, interpretives and way-finding.

With numerous studies showing that access to the outdoors has a number of positive impacts on both the physical and psychological well-being of individuals, our community stands to see great value from the ongoing evolution of Boston’s harborwalk. In addition, public spaces increase social interaction and a sense of community by offering residents a place to relax, take part in events and participate in recreational activities.

From a tactical perspective, our city benefits from the integration of landscape elements that provide resiliency for the coastal edge and help mitigate the effects of rising sea levels, intensifying storm surges and the unrelenting corrosive marine environment. This is done through the deployment of natural buffering elements such as green spaces planted with native coastal species and the inclusion of well-crafted details that are built of time-tested durable materials. 

Ian S. Ramey, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP, is a landscape architect with Copley Wolff Design Group. He may be reached at iramey@copley-wolff.com or 617-654-9000.