Neighborhood and Design Celebration
May 9 - 11, 2008
Events
are taking place at six "Common Points"
 RAIN UPDATES
the forecast is predicting showers. Check events pages for rain dates or cancellations.
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Where Do You Live? This weekend-long series of more than 40 open buildings, tours, and design displays brings together residents, designers, public officials, and community groups to learn about, imagine, and celebrate Boston's architecture and communities. All events are free and open to the public.
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Common Points
Each Common Point has various events. Click on the Common Point title links to view events happening at that location. Check back soon for updates!
Fort Point Channel go to Events Page
- The future of our city? The land in and around the community of Fort Point Channel presents a distinct opportunity in Boston: few other large cities have such expanses of land available for development, so close to their centers. However, developments along Fort Point Channel, on Fan Pier, and on the South Boston Waterfront, also contend with historic elements of the neighborhood. Fort Point Channel's warehouses housed artists' live/work spaces starting in 1976; its Open Studios were the first in the city, and among the first in the nation. Meanwhile, cultural buildings such as the ICA and Children's Museum, high-end residences of Fan Pier and FP3, and the new city hall proposed by the mayor bring more residents to the water, but are typical of 21st century developments eliminating elements of the working waterfront that formed a cornerstone of Boston's growth. As the city and developers move ahead with bold plans to build, and re-build, Fort Point Channel and the South Boston Waterfront, Bostonians should pay close attention to efforts to sustain the current artists community and to introduce the economic and physical diversity necessary to a vibrant neighborhood.
Dudley Square go to Events Page
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Dudley
Square is the meeting point for
several culturally rich and diverse neighborhoods. Community engagement
has led each through tough economic and social challenges while
allowing them to maintain a unique identity. Dudley’s story,
however, is less grounded in the past and more about the vibrant
neighborhood where community members and organizations such as Nuestra
Comunidad, Madison Park CDC, DSNI, Dudley Main Streets, and ACT Roxbury
play active roles in shaping the built environment through restoration,
redevelopment, and cultural projects.
Maverick Square go to Events Page
Maverick
Square is playing a key role in
the evolving identity of East Boston. The T station, a major
transportation hub for the community, is undergoing a massive
renovation. Maverick Square is also the center of a housing boom
bringing nationally-recognized affordable housing developments and new
market-rate condos. This is not the first time East Boston has faced
major change, however. The neighborhood was originally a collection of
five islands with what is now Maverick Square sitting on Noddles
Island. The last major landfill created Logan Airport, as we know it
today, almost fifty years ago. Since its creation East Boston has been
a gateway for families from all over the world looking to start a new
life in the United States, and continues to develop and refine its
resources so as to keep pace with its
changing neighborhoods and vibrant population.
Ashmont Station and Peabody Square go to Events Page
Ashmont
Station and Peabody Square are
the transport and commercial centers of Dorchester's St. Mark's Area.
The neighborhood's residents are actively involved in preserving and
enhancing both private and community spaces. The Square's most notable
architecture includes the All Saints' Episcopal Church, constructed in
1892, and the Peabody Square Clock, an official Boston Landmark
recently restored and landscaped through collaborative efforts of
individuals, community groups, and the City of Boston. Yet despite its
very visible history the area is also going through major changes,
through the redesign of Ashmont Station and Peabody Square and the
addition of the six-story commercial and residential Carruth Building.
Join us as we explore the public art, transit, and mixed-use projects
underway in Peabody Square and take a tour of the historic housese and
green spaces in the adjacent Ashmont Hill neighborhood.
Fenway go to Events Page
What's happening OUTSIDE of the
park?
Fenway
is home to a unique and vibrant variety of uses. Filled in soon after
the Back Bay in the mid to late 1800s, the area soon developed a mix of
cultural, educational, residential and institutional components sharing
close quarters. Fenway today is home to Fenway Park and the Red Sox,
the music and nightclubs of Lansdowne Street, the residential areas
south of lower Boylston Street, the cultural and artistic treasures of
the Museum of Fine Arts and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the
passive and active green areas of the Olmsted-designed Fens parks, the
renown hospitals and research institutes of the Longwood Medical Area,
and educational institutions such as Northeastern University. The
Fenway retains a vital mix of activity, but its future, like that of
the city, depends on balancing the interests of local residents and
large institutions.
Jackson Square go to Events Page
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How
do we make it a new
place?
An historic effort is underway to add urban activity to Jackson Square
and to join two Boston neighborhoods. Blocks surrounding the
Boston & Providence Railroad were once filled with housing, and
with breweries taking advantage of now-buried Stony Brook.
However, plans in the 1950s for an extension of I-95 razed eight acres
of buildings around Jackson Square. Grassroots activism from
communities on both sides of Jackson Square defeated plans for the
Expressway; in its place the city built Southwest Corridor Park and the
T's orange line. However, the damage had been done
–
Roxbury and J.P. were divided by the train tracks, empty lots,
dilapidated industrial buildings, and 6-lane Columbus Avenue.
In
2004, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) requested proposals to
re-create Jackson Square. Non-profit and private entities
from
neighborhoods on both sides, including Urban Edge, the Jamaica Plain
Neighborhood Development Corporation, the Hyde Square Task Force, and
Mitchell Properties, teamed up to form Partners for Jackson.
The
partnership will soon begin construction on mixed-use buildings and
landscaping that will knit together the city's fabric, putting the
square back into Jackson Square.