Neponset River Reservation Master Plan and Trail Design

State of Massachusetts

The Collaborative completed a Master Plan and Park Design for a four-mile long recreation corridor along the Neponset River in the Boston, MA for the former Metropolitan District Commission. The project included a market study to determine the area’s “recreational footprint,” community participation, park planning and design, and the creation of a river corridor brand. The brand identity, which celebrated the river’s history as a rich fishery Native Americans called “Neponset” or “Harvest River,” was used in communication materials and throughout the reservation. The Collaborative organized and lead more than 35 meetings and community-design events during the course of the project. Public acceptance of the plan led to the passage of a $40 million bond bill to implement the master plan recommendations. A key element was the design of a multiuse trail design that linked numerous new active and passive park areas. The plan received the Master Planning and Landscape Architecture Award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architecture.

The Neponset River is a river in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its headwaters are at the Neponset Reservoir in Foxborough, near Gillette Stadium. The Neponset River forms the southern boundary of the city of Boston, passing through the neighborhoods of Readville, Hyde Park, Mattapan and Dorchester, and forming with the northern border of the city of Quincy. The Neponset River is fed by a drainage basin of approximately 130 square miles, a watershed that includes numerous aquifers, wetlands, streams and surrounding upland areas. Some 250,000 people live in the Neponset River watershed.

Online information about the Neponset River Reservation:

• This Picturesque Park is an Undiscovered Oasis Just Outside Boston, Massachusetts
• Neponset River Reservation

Boston State Hospital Master Plan

Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management, Boston, MA

The Collaborative prepared a Master Plan Update for a 60-acre site located within a 175-acre property that previously housed a state mental hospital, surrounded by a dense mixed-use urban environment. Located in the Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods of Boston, the site lies adjacent to the 66-acre open space of the Massachusetts Audubon Nature Center, which presented attractive options for development. The Update defined a pattern of usage for the site that responded to the community’s vision of a development stimulus for the local neighborhoods as well as nearby retail districts.

The Boston State Hospital was founded in South Boston in 1839. By the 1880s, new ideas about the care of the mentally ill emphasized the importance of fresh air, hard work, and separation from the adverse influences (both social and environmental) of city life, an approach that was referred to as “moral treatment.” Almost all of the buildings from the former BSH have been demolished except for three cottages that have been restored and are now being used by the Mass Audubon Nature Center, and another old building that will be renovated by the University of Massachusetts Biologic Laboratory.

Military Housing Site Reuse

Town of Nahant, MA

Working with the Nahant Town Manager and attorneys from Sherin and Lodgen, LLP, the Collaborative evaluated the potentials for re-using a military site containing twelve single-family housing units. The housing was built and used by the U.S. Army and then the U.S. Coast Guard. The town was interested in a number of objectives, including recovering its $2,000,000 purchase price, providing for affordable housing, maintaining the character of the neighborhood, and minimizing environmental impacts.

Fort Ruckman was a U.S. Coast Artillery fort located in Nahant, Massachusetts. Originally called the Nahant Military Reservation, the fort was laid out in 1904-1907 and covered an area of about 45 acres just northwest of Bass Point, on the southwest side of the Nahant peninsula. The fort was decommissioned after World War II and the property was sold to the town and to private owners beginning in about 1947. Today, most of the area within the fort’s World War II boundaries has been converted into residential real estate, recreation, or park land for the Town of Nahant.

MIT Northeast Sector Campus Plan

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

While at Wallace Floyd Associates, Jim Purdy, Collaborative VP and Ed Shoucair, Collaborative President, created a master plan for more than a quarter of MIT’s campus. The plan resulted in one million square feet of building development, and a system of pathways, lobbies, and open spaces that bring people together and support the interchange of ideas. This represented a planning and urban design challenge equivalent to building a new village. A major objective was to create buildings that could learn, consistent with MIT’s philosophy of designing buildings that are capable of being scaled up or down to meet the changing needs of the Institute’s programs.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is often ranked as one of the world’s most prestigious universities. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the physical sciences and engineering, but more recently in biology, economics, linguistics and management as well. MIT’s 168-acre (68.0 ha) campus in the city of Cambridge spans approximately a mile along the north side of the Charles River basin.