Special to the Times
Boston Harbor Now released Visualizing Harborwalk 2.0, a toolkit for designing a more resilient and equitable waterfront for Greater Boston. Intended for municipal planners, developers, and resident activists, the guide includes core principles and visual examples that will serve as a compass for Boston Harbor Now advocacy around future waterfront development along the Harborwalk.
“With this toolkit, we aim to provide both inspiration and interventions for waterfront development in an era of inequitable access, climate change, and flooding,” said Kathy Abbott, president and CEO of Boston Harbor Now. “As we regularly weigh in on development projects, the toolkit will provide predictability around the issues we’re likely to prioritize – and, as needed, call out – to ensure every new project improves the coastline.” The toolkit begins with a set of goals around waterfront resilience, equity, and access that Boston Harbor Now urges planners and developers to use as a baseline in designing projects, followed by detailed lists of principles that can serve as checklists for urban realm decision-making.
These include:
• Implementing a variety of climate adaptation strategies to protect and serve Boston at a district scale.
• Offering entertainment and food at a range of price points; and
• Ensuring the waterfront is visible from inland areas with a design that communicates it is available and open to visitors.
“No single project can fulfill every principle to the fullest, but collectively, we need to ensure we’re working together to bring Harborwalk 2.0 to life,” said Kelly Sherman, Boston Harbor Now’s manager of waterfront design. “Planners and developers face many competing challenges in design, and this toolkit offers potential solutions so that every project is contributing to a more welcoming and resilient waterfront.” The toolkit lays out design scenarios for transforming the waterfront in three common conditions: wharf, seawall, and park. Using the latest data around both flood and heat vulnerability, the toolkit offers visual examples of how, in each scenario, planners and developers can create an equitable and accessible Harborwalk that is responsive to changing climate conditions. The toolkit was designed by Boston Harbor Now fellow Rocio Alonso, in collaboration with the Boston Harbor Now planning and policy team.