A City Built on Front-Porch Culture
Whether you are strolling under the mature tree canopy of Exhibition Park or exploring the historic, industrial grit of The Ward, you can feel a distinct sense of togetherness. It is a city that naturally encourages you to slow down and engage. This is a place where front-porch culture is still very much alive, where Saturday mornings are meant for running into familiar faces at the downtown Farmers’ Market, and where local business owners actually know your name.
Architecture That Encourages Engagement
Locating the bores so they didn’t interfere with the building footprint was another challenge. The team successfully located 27 of the bores outside the footprint, with the remaining four bores falling underneath the building. Locating most of the bores outside of the building footprint kept the project on schedule, and limiting the number of bores beneath the foundation mat slab meant less impact to the deep foundation excavation activities.
The nearest neighboring building was just 15 feet away from the bore drilling. To mitigate disruption to abutting neighbors, our team distributed a two-week look ahead schedule and logistics plan every week to the neighboring buildings. Suffolk also posted regular updates on the project website to keep neighbors informed about upcoming drilling activities and held multiple Town Hall meetings with students and faculty who live and work near the site. These Town Hall meetings gave abutters the opportunity to become familiar with the project, meet the team and ask questions.
As the city continues to grow, preserving this sense of intimacy is more important than ever. We must actively choose to support the "third places"—the independent cafes, the local art studios.
Designing Spaces for the Community
