Transforming deteriorated public housing into an inviting neighborhood for the Roslindale community
Building community is what we did when our team created the Washington Beech Development, transforming a property filled with deteriorated public housing into an inviting neighborhood. The transformation took more than simply demolishing existing structures. It took creating a complex of 206 units within both a mid-rise building and low-rise townhomes.
A community center is located on the ground floor of the mid-rise building. The building has a rear courtyard connected to the street and the surrounding community via a glass atrium, which allows the new neighborhood to fluidly merge with the surrounding community. A half-acre public park sits in the middle of the new neighborhood, providing both active and passive recreation.
Not only does our design achieve its goal of feeling like a neighborhood while being knit back into the larger community, but it also has achieved LEED Gold Certification. To assist in achieving LEED, pavement was kept to a minimum with careful circulation planning, shade trees were placed strategically near the light-colored pavement to limit the effect of reflected heat, and native plantings were incorporated with a drip irrigation system.
Joe Geller, Senior Vice President
I am passionate about community engagement as a driver of strategic planning related to site design and the public realm.
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