Josh Burgel, Jonathan Santos, Marrikka Trotter
Submission 0161
Our design intent is to tie the Boston Center for the Arts into the fabric
of the surrounding city, and extend its program into the outdoor landscape.
Since the BCA is situated at the gateway to the South End, and itself acts
as an entry to the larger South End arts community, we aim to delineate this
plaza as an attenuated threshold: a special moment of pause, interaction,
experience, and access in a busy and dynamic urban setting.
We propose to use underlying patterns of form, entry, and material on both
sides of Tremont Street to create a larger, cohesive landscape. An extended
sidewalk opposite the BCA plaza slows the pace of traffic, and a tipped landform
leads to an exterior court for performances and installations while serving
as an acoustic buffer and sloped seating. The copper façade on the
opposite side of the street inspires a strip of patina-colored paving and
a grove of silver-green trees. The crisscrossing landscape slopes up to a
restaurant terrace and an accessible entrance to the Mills Gallery, and down
again, bisected by a humped path, to lead pedestrians to the theater and the
Cyclorama. A raised slice of the plaza becomes a path through the lobby of
the Artists’ Studios to the rear Artists’ Courtyard, and forms
a physical tie to the Boston Ballet’s mezzanine level. A fringe of trees
echoed across the street announces the BCA plaza and creates an extended interior
under its canopy, while large-scale granite paving slabs repeat the material
pattern found in the surrounding blocks.
