The proposed program is a defined space that embraces its juxtaposition between land and water. It mediates the two complex networks, each subject to their own temporal, fluctuating tendencies. A new ferry terminal will be replacing the current operation out of Rowes Wharf, and the scope of the project includes the redevelopment of the Old Northern Ave pedestrian bridge. Currently, the Rowes Wharf terminal primarily focuses service towards commuters moving between Black Falcon Pier, Charlestown, and North Station, as well as travelers making trips to and from Logan Airport or the Boston Harbor Islands. The proposed terminal is expanding as the point of arrival of Boston’s cruise ships, making it one of the city’s premier tourist reception areas.
The ferry terminal has the unique challenge of detangling the dense, systematic networks of both land and sea, and materializing a transition space that fluidly connects the two. Figures 1 and 2 provide visualizations that begin to show layering of existing networks. The terminal is a gateway to the city and the harbor, celebrating Boston as a port city. The terminal is the first impression visitors or commuters experience as they arrive and the last they see as they depart.
The fifty year period between roughly between the 1950 – 2000, the presence of the raised Central Artery, I-93, caused a sever disconnect between the city and its waterfront. Lowering the artery has improved visual connections to the waterfront, yet there is still a drastic break negatively impacting the development of South Boston. The ferry terminal, with its implied connectivity and tourist stimulation, will become the iconic representation of Boston’s reconnection with its waterfront and with South Boston.
The project lies between an Empowerment Zone in South Boston, an area of projected population growth and development, and the densely developed financial center of Boston. As demand to be in and move through this area increases, the terminal must be organized in a way that will adapt to future expansions in passenger loads. With the projected upward turn of the economy, it must also adapt to a rise in tourism.
The redevelopment of the Old Northern Ave pedestrian bridge will expand upon merely bridging across the channel. It will maximize its potential for becoming a destination that offers waterfront views to the public. Conceptualized as a bridging plaza, the platform will broaden into a community farmers market. The revitalized pedestrian path becomes a dynamic space where elements of time and motion define its character. People simultaneously move from one point to another, pause for retail exchange, and stop to have conversations, eat, and enjoy the view.
Site Design
- Bridge is currently 70’ wide by 500’ long. As most of the bridge has fallen under disrepair, a new platform will be designed to respond. diagrammatically to contextual information including, wind pressure, solar orientation, and intensity of water currents.
- Path development will provide integral connectivity to existing networks of motion, becoming the structural logic of connectivity that ties the project to an urban scale.
- Creates the missing path that channels people between residential areas of South Boston and zones of commerce in Boston, syncing with existing path networks.
- Physical link that ties into other types public transportation including commuter rail, t-stops, and bus routes.
- Paths have point attractors, stimulating agent aggregation with retail opportunities.
- Diagram of spaces do not overlap, local adjacencies and small scale connections between each elemental programmatic space inform the organization of the whole project. Left over spaces become opportunities to escape the programmed space.
- Flexible indoor/ outdoor marketplace will accommodate vendors. Densities and proxemic relations between individual vending units are established by movement patterns of human agents. Units range between 50sf and 600sf, accommodating fresh produce stands, coffee vendors, and small cafes. It will also house the ferry’s operation offices and ticket vending.
- Channeling spaces for mobile human agents effect the speed at which they move. Spaces taper and become indirect to slow down flocks, fostering community interaction. Spaces become more broad and less enclosed to increase speed. Program of spaces and channeling effects directly inform one another as follows:
- Bike path- Agents move at fast pace, spread far apart, and do not stop. Spaces broad are open.
- Boat loading area (40,000sf)- Agents move quickly on and off boat, and move while maintaining fairly close proxemics to one another. Spaces are open yet narrow.
- Food vending spaces- Dimensions and densities fluctuate. Sit-down cafes provide slow spaces, narrow and enclosed to encourage agents to come to a stop. Stands orient towards broad, open paths to allow agents to continue moving.
- Check in (500sf) Narrows, slows down agents yet encourages them to move on to the next space.
- Terminal lobby (1000sf) Narrow, enclosed, dead-end spaces make agents stop and wait for their boat to arrive
- Visitors deck (500sf) A linear walkway along perimeter of lower level where people can view incoming/ outgoing ships
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