Pattern District
Northland, a mixed-use and residential real estate development company based in Newton, Massachusetts, has engaged our team along with many of our colleagues, to guide the vision of their flagship development. The Saco-Pettee textile mill which opened in the 1800’s and was instrumental in the growth of Newton through its closure in the early 2000’s, is now poised for reuse and redevelopment. The historic mill building will be converted to an office building and the remainder of the site will become a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood.
Approach/
Our multi-faceted team collaborated with base building architects Stantec and Cube3, as well as landscape architects SOM to craft an integrated brand and public space vision for the ground plane. Key early efforts hinged on creating points of distinction and identifying appropriate programming for the various open spaces within the project, which had theretofore been mostly undifferentiated. Understanding adjacent uses helps use to modulate activity across the project, and create public spaces that complement, rather than compete, with one another.
Streetsense worked with the base building architects and several of our colleagues from our Interior Architecture studio to craft storefront design concepts for each building—including ground-floor retail as well as a small retail kiosk at the project’s “Main and Main” intersection.
Results/
Streetsense have been instrumental in developing a strategy for guiding visitors into and through the development, to an easy-to- find parking space, then back to the cars and on their way. Over the course of the past year our client has so valued the holistic expertise our team has brought to their signature project that our efforts have grown to include interior amenity programming, additional site and kiosk programming, and creation of an interactive and interpretive trail encompassing both environmental graphic design and the accompanying historic narrative.
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