Urban Design

The Collaborative's designers work with buildings, streets, public spaces, whole neighborhoods and districts, with the goal of making places that reflect and contribute to a community's identity.

Windows into Boston

Boston Visions Design Competition

“Windows into Boston,” one of thirty-two concepts published in the Boston Visions National Design Competition catalog, provided new glimpses into the city’s exciting and important world of underground urban systems. This design proposal, developed by Ed Shoucair of the Collaborative and Don Reed, involved the installation of a variety of openings – via “windows” – into the seldom-seen and under-appreciated subterranean cityscape of pipes, telephone cables, subways, roadways, and gas lines.

The windows provide permanent views of the city’s infrastructure and present a new urban aesthetic. Adjacent interpretive plaques help increase awareness of Boston’s man-made environment and raise appreciation of the effort involved in building the city. A large window along the depressed Central Artery tunnel reveals multiple layers of the city’s past and present.

Windows into Boston - Boston Visions Design Competition

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