Emerald Necklace Conservancy earns Holcim Foundation award

Boston, MA According to The Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the internationally renowned, Somerville-based architecture firm Landing Studio, who is developing the revitalization plan for Charlesgate Park in Boston together with the Conservancy and Charlesgate Alliance, was recognized with a Bronze Medal for North America by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction for this transformational project.

Once completed, the Charlesgate Park Revitalization will bring major improvement for urban recreation, public health, and regional people-powered transit. This restored greenspace link will reconnect three key Boston park systems (the Emerald Necklace, Commonwealth Ave. Mall and Charles River Esplanade); restore to the surface the last 250 feet of the Muddy River at its confluence with the Charles River; and provide direct walking and cycling connections between locations as distant as Boston’s North Station, Charlestown, Dorchester, Cambridge and Watertown, creating an essential regional link for bicyclists and pedestrians. The park’s redesign, developed with significant community input, also includes a universally accessible children’s play area, one of the largest dog parks in the city, new pathways and major green infrastructure improvements.

The Holcim Awards jury North America “was fascinated by the project’s vision of a ‘re-discovered’ symbiotic urban green infrastructure able to provide a multitude of social and environmental benefits to the city. The project is the result of a participatory design process that involved different stakeholders to find shared interests and offered an opportunity for a shared investment. This approach is a decisive strength of the proposal that enhances the project’s economic viability since the requirements of multiple funding agencies and local communities are astutely considered. The jury acknowledged the impressive scientific work underpinning the proposal that makes the project highly realizable and its methodology replicable.”

“From nearly 5,000 entries across the world, we are thrilled that the Charlesgate Park project was recognized with this important award, as a testament to the shared vision put forward by all of the public and private partners that have contributed to this process. The project will be transformative for the city by finally reconnecting Boston’s park networks after being broken apart by highway-era projects for nearly seventy years,” said Dan Adams and Marie Law Adams, founding principals of Landing Studio.

The Holcim Foundation was created in 2003 to promote thought leadership on a greener, smarter, circular and more inclusive built environment.

Its international Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction is the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design and showcases the important role that architecture, engineering, urban planning and the building industry have in achieving a more sustainable future. Named the “Emerald Gateway” for the competition by the Holcim Foundation, the awarded project is detailed on the Foundation’s website.

“The Charlesgate section of the Emerald Necklace is so compromised today that most visitors who walk through it don’t recognize it as parkland. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore this area to its original intent—a verdant, connected and highly visited park,” said Karen Mauney-Brodek, president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. “With so much current emphasis on the vital role of green infrastructure and sustainability in our cities, the timing is perfect to restore 13 acres of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parkland in the heart of a major metropolitan area. This recognition speaks volumes of Dan and Marie’s talent and foresight in planning for a climate-ready Boston.”