LAB Architects Stephanie Goldberg and Mark Reed’s design was selected as the winning entry in the Living with Water Competition for Site 1, the Prince Building in the North End of Boston. The Prince Building Piers submission proposed to transform the adjacent Commercial Street into an urban shore that protects existing buildings through the use of landscape forms. The berms, bikeways and boardwalks of the new district extend the length of the former street, concealing waterproof dams and utility tunnels. The space above the landscape is developed under a ground-lease framework that ensures funding for the immediate capital costs and for the long-term maintenance needs. New housing units, suspended in front of existing buildings, utilize hanging gardens and natural cooling systems to create a new typology of vertical courtyards and micro housing. To read more about this competition and the winning projects, click here.
