The top of Mission Hill is underutilized; the tallest hill in Boston currently being used as parking lots looking over the entire Boston skyline. Stepping Stones is an intervention that will activate the top of the hill while providing ample public park space and community gathering space for the greater Mission Hill neighborhood.
Title
Stepping Stones
Year
2024 - Year III
Location
Project
Mission Hill, Boston, MA
Teddy Rogov
Urban Framework
Team
Context
In the past 25 years the Mission Hill and greater Longwood Medical area has been experiencing an intense revitalization with the immergence of Brigham Circle-a community hub that hosts a myriad of local shops and anchor stores that serves the larger community-and the restructuring of local colleges bringing a surge of college students to the area. College students-in desperate need for off-campus affordable housing-flock to the local Queen Ann style triple deckers to satisfy their needs for an escape from the rigid, dense, and contradictory rules of supervised on-campus housing. This surge has caused housing prices to inflate to astronomical prices driving out the local families that had originally occupied the hill before the surge.
Research
Investigation of the surrounding urban context revealed the patterns that have emerged since the revitalization. These patterns focus on the community nodes around the hill; from local stores to public parks these nodes are the intermediate steps people take to come up the hill-Stepping Stones. People tend to stop at these local nodes to get supplies before going home or sometimes these nodes are thresholds and circulation that turn into interstitial spaces where the act of going through it provides moments of transition and might lead to an incidental interaction with meeting a fellow classmate, professor, or compassionate stranger-making the community feel more alive and connected.
ELEMENTS
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ELEMENTS +
Promenade
A promenade, starting across from a community stairway which acts as a threshold, starts the main journey that the community takes to experience Stepping Stones. The promenade takes you to different scales of activity nodes. The three scales of nodes: community, friend, and, personal; descend on a scale of intimacy: causing changing degrees of separation from the community. The larger the scale of activity node the more people can experience the activity together. The promenade continues to the different districts and continues to connect to the existing McLaughlin Park.
Edges
Nodes
Activity nodes can be chosen from the list; which can be changed, added, or removed as long as the scale of intimacy is maintained. The nodes will be placed on a grid to provide regularity of spacing to ensure each node feels isolated and a step to something more. New bus stop nodes for the Mission Hill Link, a community-run bus, will be added to make the site more accessible to the larger community.
Each district is to be separated by an edge: a dense grove of apple trees-echoing the former apple farm that occupied the site. These edges act as thresholds providing a moment of transition between districts and for the districts to be isolated from each other while allowing for a porosity that signals to the community to keep exploring the site past their current location.
Districts
The proposed urban framework replicates the patterns on Mission Hill while densifying the site with activity. Dividing the site into different districts, each with their own function, allows for diverse activities that can serve various social groups that occupy the hill and surrounding area: providing a haven for those who live on the site and a destination for the people of greater Boston. By dedicating three districts for three distinct age groups of students, post-graduates, and families-stepping stones in respect to each other-the framework directly address the housing problems plaguing Mission Hill. Adding student housing will help alleviate the strained and dense triple deckers that currently house students, hopefully returning them back to the community of families wanting a piece of property. Post-graduate housing is needed for those students looking to stay in the expensive Boston area right out of school to grow as professionals and start families of their own. Family housing is for the people that want to avoid the expensive housing prices while still living in the same area to benefit from the advantages of urban life.
Active / Passive
The two main community districts comprise of the active and passive situated across from the community stairway which starts the promenade. At the start of the promenade the community is met with the active district, meant to be a third space, there is a large flexible pavilion space for community engagement. The rest of the district is littered with as many nodes as possible to concentrate and densify the most activity in one district. Next the active district is the passive district; the passive district is home to a koi pond and a view folley to peacefully overlook Boston’s skyline with a few friends or by yourself. The largest node in the passive district is the friend scale to maintain a calm and relaxing atmosphere to act as the counterpoint to the active.
Reservoir
A reservoir district revives the existing reservoir from 100 years ago. The district includes community gardens and a connection to the existing McLaughlin Park and local trails through the trees. The reservoir waters the community gardens and apple tree groves-edges-via an aqueduct bringing water that spans all districts. The districts can add water elements that can be hooked up to this existing network of aqueducts.