Design of North Bank Bridge Park in Boston, Charlestown, and Cambridge, Mass., reclaimed a post- industrial riverfront area and transformed it into a vibrant public park. Photo: Mark Flannery
merly derelict underbridge space, enriching the community’s experience, and providing an uplifting public realm. “[The North Bank Bridge Park is] an interesting way of celebrating this great piece of engineering while opening up new vistas of the city, from what could so easily have remained an unloved and harsh urban landscape,” said Eliot Postma, a member of the 2017 WAN Landscape Awards jury. Postma is an architect and group leader at Heatherwick Studio in London. Connecting a formerly inaccessible portion of the Charles River, on both the north and south banks — referred to as “The Lost Half Mile” — the North Bank Bridge Park created the first river-edge connection between the Charles River and Boston Harbor. A key feature of the park is the Underbridge Plaza, an unexpected ur- ban outdoor room that borders on the Charles River and uses the Zakim Bridge as its roof. The North Bank Bridge, the project’s sculptural center- piece, spans a rail corridor and other obstacles to form vital pedestrian and bicycle connections between neighboring Cambridge and Charlestown. CRJA-IBI Group worked with the bridge designer to develop the bridge’s reverse-curved horizontal alignment to create a seamless interface with approaching park pathways, while offering a dramatic view centered on the Zakim Bridge’s north pylon. Part of reclaiming this urban waterfront entailed using rigorous sustain- able measures, such as native planting to restore parts of the riverbank and form the east abutment of the North Bank Bridge, reclaiming stone seawall blocks and granite cobblestones from other parts of the Central Artery Project, and coordinating a complex brownfield reclamation ef- fort. Cobblestones and reclaimed seawall blocks extend the greensward landform into the underbridge environment. A leveling course beneath the guardrail and seawall capstone smooths out the horizontal and vertical variations in the existing seawall, enhancing the esplanade experience. Information provided by CRJA-IBI Group (http://crja.com), a landscape architectural design and environmental planning practice with offices in Boston and Knoxville, Tenn.
CRJA-IBI Group, a landscape architectural design and environmental plan- ning practice, received the World Architecture News (WAN) 2017 Land- scape Award for its landscape architectural design of North Bank Bridge Park in Boston, Charlestown, and Cambridge, Mass. CRJA-IBI Group served as landscape architect and member of the Prime Consultant Joint Venture team of Ammann & Whitney (now The Louis Berger Group); Greenman-Pedersen, Inc.; and Stantec. Selected from a shortlist of six international finalists, the award recogniz- es the North Bank Bridge Park project for reclaiming the post-industrial riverfront area in the vicinity of Boston’s Zakim Bridge and transforming it into a vibrant public park. “CRJA-IBI Group is honored to receive this prestigious global award for a significant and community-changing urban public park in Boston,” said JohnAmodeo, principal, CRJA-IBI Group. “The planning and design for the North Bank Bridge Park, which took nearly a decade, was guided by the overriding conviction that the public would one day be thrilled to come into this new realm, to see the city from a new vantage point, and to appreciate the unique experience of being up close with the colossal Zakim Bridge structure. We are delighted that these worthy goals have been realized and appreciate the expertise of the WAN Awards and jury for recognizing outstanding landscape architecture and design.” The WAN Awards provide an opportunity for recognition and exposure of design projects on a global platform. Judges use their experience in the sector to assess projects on a variety of factors including originality, inno- vation, form, function, sustainability, and context. The WAN Landscape Award was established to celebrate and promote the best in landscape architecture from enhancements and small developments to the largest master plans. The North Bank Bridge Park project received top honors in the landscape category for creating a memorable urban plaza in a for- Riverfront reclamation CRJA-IBI Group receives international landscape award for Boston park.
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june 2018
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