Liberty Wharf has been honored as "Best New Open-Air Center" by Retail Traffic magazine's 2012 Superior Achievement in Design and Imaging (SADI) awards. The magazine partnered with the American Institute of Architects' retail entertainment committee for the award program, which is now in its 23rd year.
Liberty Wharf has rapidly become a waterfront destination since its completion in the spring of 2011. Set over the water on a new pier spanning a historic seawall in Boston Harbor, Liberty Wharf is the new flagship home of Legal Sea Foods, in addition to four other restaurants, office space, a broad expanse of outdoor decking, a marina, and a new section of Boston's famed Harborwalk. The site was previously occupied by Jimmy's Harborside, a restaurant that was an icon since it first opened as the Liberty Cafeteria in 1924 but blocked public access and views to the water. Liberty Wharf replaces Jimmy's with a new destination that has an iconic identity in its own right and achieves multiple important goals for the city.
The SADI jury was impressed by the cohesiveness of the project, which spans four levels: "The team of architects at Elkus Manfredi succeeded in its design mission of creating a 'people place' that connects the city and waterfront, reestablishes access to the water, and accomplishes all this on a site with great historic importance to Boston."
"Commercial buildings are an important part of city-building and can be timeless contributors to their cities," says the project's principal, David Manfredi FAIA, LEED AP. "Liberty Wharf represents this new breed of commercial building that has a strong civic presence and purpose. It's a place to go that appeals to all generations like Jimmy's did, and we very much wanted to respect that. At the same time, we wanted to provide meaningful, unrestricted public access to the working harbor, which is such an important aspect of Boston's character. While it needed to be a commercial success, we hope that Liberty Wharf will also be an important public destination on Boston Harbor for generations to come."
Liberty Wharf is owned by Cresset Harborside LLC on a site owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority.