Boston/Cambridge/Somerville

The Fan Pier is a 20-acre former industrial site prominently located on Boston Harbor adjacent to the Fort Point Channel and the new Federal Court House. The Hyatt Development Corporation and Spaulding and Slye Colliers undertook the creation of a Master Plan for its re-use for a full range of new urban functions. Ken Greenberg (then a Partner in Urban Strategies) led the master planning effort with a large multi-disciplinary team. To lay out the framework for the creation of a vital new pedestrian-oriented community on the site and ensure that the site would fit into its context, extensive studies were done of the design character of the historic Fort Point Channel District, the adjacent downtown core and the emerging street pattern in the city's former port lands. The resulting plan of nine small city blocks strategically extended the traditional grid of streets and walkways and proposes buildings containing a mix of housing, office, hotel, retail and civic and cultural uses that step down to the water, contributing to comfortable micro-climactic conditions. The generous band of multi-functional open spaces along the water's edge, including a new Institute for Contemporary Art, a Children's Museum Discovery Center and a Harbor Island Gateway and tidal park which is being developed in partnership with the New England Aquarium, will become a significant addition to Boston's network of well-used parks, promenades, squares and trails. The site has since changed hands but the plan is being followed. The first building to be constructed was the new Institute for Contemporary Art with several additional buildings in the design phase.