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Boston Living with Water Competition finalists to be announced

May 22, 2015

Getting by with a little help from our friends

The Boston Living With Water (BLWW) Design Competition invited leading planners, designers, and thinkers to help the City of Boston and its businesses and residents develop strategies to address sea level rise by enhancing our relationship with the waterfront, rather than fortifying us against the sea. Fifty teams composed of almost 350 individuals from eight different countries submitted concepts addressing three specific sites in Boston that posed challenges at different scales (a building, a neighborhood, and infrastructure).

The sites were the Prince Building in the North End, Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, and the 100-acre neighborhood of Fort Point. Water levels in Boston Harbor are expected to increase five feet by the end of the century, putting these locations in particular jeopardy.

Nine semi-finalists—including teams from Venice and Beijing—were selected on February 25 by an international jury of design, planning and engineering experts. The entries varied widely, but each team that advanced to this stage proposed design solutions that are achievable, replicable, and beautiful. Boston will benefit from the vision and expertise represented within the overall body of work.

What’s next?

This collaborative thinking to conceive solutions to large-scale urban infrastructure challenges is critical to the process of enhancing the urban realm. Architects and their allies understand the role that collaboration plays throughout the planning, designing, and building processes. Communities must be engaged, funding secured, research completed, schedules developed, milestones established, permits attained—all before any truly transformative work begins. It takes highly functioning teams made up of many constituents to accomplish this visioning and planning process, regardless of whether a project is a retrofit of a triple decker in East Boston or the elevation of a central artery to allow drivers safe passage through a frequent flood zone.

The wealth of ideas generated by this competition, and the discussions that Boston’s planners have been able to engage in with the semi-finalists will inform future approaches to climate change with useful, tangible ideas.

Join Mayor Walsh at the Final Awards Ceremony, where a panel of jurors will discuss the selection of winners and lessons learned from the competition.
When: Monday, June 8th
  6:00 to 8:00 PM
Where: BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
Space is limited, so please only RSVP if you plan attend. 
 
In anticipation of the event, we will be providing weekly news updates that continue this critical conversation. What are the challenges we’re facing? How does the impact of fresh-water flooding differ from salt-water flooding on the build environment? Stay tuned. 



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