public space center (competition)

Physical Realm. Participatory Realm. Beautiful Policy.

Adjacent to the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Kendall Square is a premier center of biotech and high-tech research. In order to improve the quality of the neighborhood’s public spaces–parks, streets, and ground floor uses–the City of Cambridge launched a national design competition to create a unique and forward-looking neighborhood.

The Public Space Center was a proposal that married the unique resources of MIT to the real-world neighborhood of Kendall Square, testing and evaluating innovation in public space. Our intent was to use the public realm as a mixing chamber for the community, evoking the exciting work that goes on inside the labs and studios. The Public Space Center would serve as the central brain of the district, with distributed “outposts” where a wide range of activities occur, energizing the neighborhood’s creative innovators and the broader community.

Team: Santos Prescott & Associates, Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA), Charles River Watershed Association, ARUP, Invisible Playground, Scott Burnham, & MIT Media Lab

Client: City of Cambridge, MA