Context / History: Five miles north of Boston is a well-known coastal landmark, Revere Beach. To Bostonians, it conjures images of a “North Shore” beach community and its varied inland landscape characterized by sand, salt marshes, gently rolling drumlins, and grasslands. The land, once rich in fish and game, and inhabited by the Pawtucket Indians, underwent radical transformations. During the 1930’s the 1940s Revere Beach witnessed the construction of major recreational attractions, and an amusement park. The post-war period witnessed a continued and gradual decline, until recent efforts to re-vitalize it. It is a place on the edge (of the … Continued

The success of Seattle’s economic boom has placed added pressures on Seattle’s downtown and waterfront. The once vacant parking lots, and open spaces are increasingly being (re)-developed, while older structures are being rehabilitated. The debate associated with the re-design of Highway 99 (which separates the downtown from the waterfront and its piers), presented an opportunity to propose new ways in which the waterfront and city center (centered around Pike’s Place) could be re-developed so as to build upon the very special qualities of this city, its history and its spectacular landscape features. What is unique to the area around Pike’s … Continued

With 16,000 residents, Akureyri is Iceland’s second largest urban center. Our proposal responds to a call from the city for plans to revitalize the town’s urban center. In turn, we suggest an open design process, one in which analytic tools and design simulations are applied successively to illustrate Akureyri’s prospective transformation. Our first strategy recognizes the need to increase the economic vitality of the town center. We suggest the creation of a Research Institute for Global Warming that will capitalize on the city’s close proximity in monitoring the polar icecaps. We propose to attract tourists to the city’s pristine setting … Continued

Located at the border crossing of Hong Kong and the booming metropolis of Shenzhen, this design illustrates how an area undergoing uncontrolled hyper-development (often resulting in chaotic and poorly designed environments) can be transformed over time into more livable and sustainable places. Furthermore, rapid development patterns of this type often create communities which lack a distinctive character. This design shows how through intensive mapping and research, the underlying qualities of a place can be revealed, serving as the basis for subsequent transformations. Primary design intentions included creating “greener” cityscapes along the major pedestrian arteries linking the main train station, customs … Continued

This sustainable project demonstrates how the re-use of industrial artifacts can help reinvigorate “left over” urban spaces. The Rolling Bridge Initiative (RBI) is a non-profit organization that seeks to save and reuse the “Rolling Bridge,” a forgotten railway drawbridge spanning Boston’s Fort Point Channel Basin, slated for removal as part of the project to depress the Central Artery. PLA collaborated with Mike Tyrell of RBI to reactivate the underused industrial landscape surrounding the Rolling Bridge as a timepiece, a trace of past urban connections and potential future links. When the bridge was in use, the three parallel sections of the … Continued