High-Profile: Cover Story
26
July 2019
Aerial view of the proposed Blue Necklace / LAB LSA, Nick Perez
THE BLUE NECKLACE By Mark Reed and Stephanie Goldberg, LAB LSA
THE BLUE NECKLACE IS A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN EXPLORATION TO PRESERVE BOSTON’S EXISTING SEAFRONT FROM RISING SEA LEVELS WHILE PROMOTING URBAN GROWTH We now know that Boston will experience an existential threat from sea level rise within the century, or more catastrophically, in the nearer term. The question for future generations will be, “What did the 2020 Bostonians do about it?” The Blue Necklace is a project that attempts to answer that question, pulling together a multi-disciplinary team to develop a response. Boston’s current strategy of creating flood-able infrastructure, locally resilient buildings, and strengthening the existing water edge meets today’s challenges from storm surge and king tides. In contrast, the Blue Necklace addresses the anticipated permanent and significant sea level rise, extending new land within the harbor to protect the city, while creating opportunities for open space and development. With this project, we are researching a comprehensive plan to ensure the protection of East Boston, Charlestown, the North End, Downtown and the Seaport. The guiding principles are to prevent the inundation of existing neighborhoods, retain current waterfront property, create new opportunities for
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recreational engagement with the water, maintain critical sea access for the Coast Guard and shipping ports, and fund the project in a socially equitable way through a progressive tax on the development
of the new made land. The Blue Necklace recalls one of Boston’s most visionary urban designs from the 19th century, Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, championed by Charles Eliot.
As Nancy Seasholes has compiled in the book, “Gaining Ground”, and Alex Krieger has demonstrated in “Mapping Boston”, Boston’s history of urban growth has been hydrophilic, continually making
View from East Boston on new protective land / LAB LSA, Nick Perez