DESIGN
JUSTICE

CASE STUDIES
Education
Professional Practice
Policy
Community Design
Public Process
A MASS/CASS Lens

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Mass Design Group Proposed Mass & Cass Master Plan

Year: 2019
‍Status: In Progress
‍Scale: Urban planning
‍Program: Research into public health solutions for people without homes
‍Services: Research, Urban Design
Clients:
The Mayor’s Working Group on Homelessness and Addiction at the Intersection of Massachusetts Ave & Melnea Cass Blvd
The Boston Architectural College
Rhode Island School of Design

Homelessness and opioid addiction are national challenges faced by many cities in the US. In Massachusetts, the state with the 7th highest rate of homelessness in the nation, deaths from opioid overdose tripled between 2013 and 2017.

October 13, 2017
Case Study
Case Study

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Vision Chelsea Creek

Year: 2020
‍Program: Visioning, planning and engagement process
Scale:
Design Team:
Scape
Utile
BSA
BSLA‍
Clients:
The Harborkeepers

Vision Chelsea Creek was a six month-long visioning, planning and engagement process to re-imagine the abandoned railway site along the industrial shoreline of lower Chelsea Creek.

The resulting vision is inclusive of various community needs and priorities while building on waterfront and open space advocacy, industry and maritime uses, and the needs of municipal stakeholders.

October 13, 2020
Case Study

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Mapping Police Geographies

Year: 2020
‍Program: Research into the geographies of policing and the criminalization of homelessness and addiction in Boston, MA.
Design Team:
Fallow
Audience:
ACLU Massachusetts
Mass & Cass Task Force
Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
‍
The BPD's "Operation Clean Sweep" during August 2019 coordinated multiple city agencies. The ACLU sued the city of Boston for the release of planning correspondence in order to investigate the violation of personal civic rights for people seeking services near Boston Medical Center.

October 13, 2017
research
policy
public

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Contested Territories 2

Year: 2020
‍Program: Research into the geographies of social services in Boston, MA.
Student Design Team:
‍Yasmine Badawi & Allen Trujillo
Youssef, Nina, Tobi, Jose, Nora & Fanan
Partners:
The Mayor’s Office of Recovery Services
The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
The Boston Society for Architecture
The Boston Architectural College

In Spring of 2020, design students at the Boston Architectural College (BAC) engaged the City of Boston’s Office of Recovery Services (ORS) and the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) to explore the production of several resources (a guide, map, database) that might assist service providers and individuals seeking services as they navigate the complex ecosystem of public health and social services in and around Mass Ave and Melnea Cass.

October 13, 2017
RESEARCH

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OU Presentation: Contested Territories

Year: 2020
‍Program: Presentation of interdisciplinary research and pedagogies into the contested territories surrounding Boston Medical Center.
Presenters:
‍Ben Peterson & Kyle Warren
Conference:
Schools of Thought, The University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture

Students carefully examined and contextualized a series of events in Boston, from the closure of the Long Island Shelter to the current and on-going “Operation Clean Sweep.”

October 13, 2017
Case Study

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ARCHITECTURE LOBBY Cooperative Network

Year: 2019
‍Status: In Progress
‍Size: 20 chapters
‍Program: A template for a cooperative network of small architecture practices
‍Members: The Lobby is organized as a decentralized network of Chapters across the United States and beyond.

The Architecture Lobby Cooperative Network researches and advocates for worker-ownership structures in architectural practice to increase equity, diversity, and resilience within the profession.

The network provides members with the essential tools to run a practice. Within the network, firms share resources: leveraging the economies of scale to jointly hire consultants, exchange knowledge and workers, share space, software, equipment, etc.

October 13, 2017
PRACTICE

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The Avis & Elsmere Project: A Community-Engaged Design Tool

October 13, 2017
Case Study

Year: 2019
‍Status: In Progress
‍Size: 900,000 sq. ft.
‍Program: Tool for community-engaged design and story-telling device.
‍Designers:
DCDC
Et al. Collaborative
Partners:
Inside Southwest Detroit
University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

This webpage is intended to be a field guide, outlining the foundational aspects of community-engaged design, it is also meant to offer a narrative perspective of the Avis and Elsmere development and to feature the perspectives of key community stakeholders who were a part of the design process.

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Breaktime Cafe Gateway

Year: 2019
‍Program: Trauma-informed design
‍Student Design Team: Heyam, Mariyam, Minerva, Bart, Begi, Jonathon
Clients:
Breaktime Cafe | breaktime.org
Tony Shu and Connor Schoen

Breaktime operates Boston’s first transitional employment program specifically tailored to young adults experiencing homelessness.

October 13, 2017
Case Study

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MAKE/SHIFT

Year: 2020
‍Program: An inventory of adaptable spaces and sites, Make/Shift exemplifies how architects can aid with civic mobilization during crises
Design Team:
Jeff Galvin, Danielle Santos, Ben Peterson, Dan Arons, Mark Reed, Susan Blomquist, Nate Peters, John Swift, Kristi Dowd
Collaborators:
Boston Society for Architecture
Autodesk
Perkins Eastman
Lab Architect Group
Lavallee Brensinger Architects
Payette
Buro Happold
Stantec

Homelessness and opioid addiction are national challenges faced by many cities in the US. In Massachusetts, the state with the 7th highest rate of homelessness in the nation, deaths from opioid overdose tripled between 2013 and 2017.

October 13, 2017
Case Study

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TEMPLATE

Year: 2020
‍Program: Research into the geographies of social services in Boston, MA.
Student Design Team:
‍Yasmine Badawi & Allen Trujillo
Youssef, Nina, Tobi, Jose, Nora & Fanan
Clients:
The Mayor’s Office of Recovery Services
The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
The Boston Society for Architecture
The Boston Architectural College

Homelessness and opioid addiction are national challenges faced by many cities in the US. In Massachusetts, the state with the 7th highest rate of homelessness in the nation, deaths from opioid overdose tripled between 2013 and 2017.

October 13, 2017
Case Study