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HEALEY + MYSTIC mASTER pLAN
SOMERVILLE, MA
2016

For decades, residents of the Mystic Neighborhood have suffered from physical and social divisions that have isolated them from the rest of the City. The Healey+Mystic designs an accessible route and major new recreation resources along a 3-acre bluff that separates the Healey schoolyard from the Mystic Neighborhood, with as much as 35 feet of grade change. These shared resources will act as social connectors, bringing disparate communities together around activities, like soccer, that flourish in spite of language and economic barriers.

healeymystic.org

Boston Society of Landscape Architects,  Analysis & Planning Merit Award, 2020

EDGE AS CENTER COMPETITION
SOMERVILLE, MA
2009

The GV team received honorable mention in this urban design competition sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects and the City of Somerville. The project focuses on Somerville’s Brickbottom, a neighborhood isolated between commuter rail tracks and an elevated portion of Boston’s McGrath Highway. The design approaches the site from the edges. It redefines two major infrastructural barriers that have historically isolated the neighborhood. The elevated Mcgrath Highway becomes a tree–lined boulevard and the fenced-in commuter rail corridor becomes a multimodal transit spine.

collaborators: Antonio Medeiros and Tanya Chiranakhon

CHUCKIE HARRIS PARK
SOMERVILLE, MA
2013

GV made water treatment a design priority, increasing permeability sixfold and re-using nearly all the park’s storm water. Rain flows through specialized soils to a 200 foot long string of garden cells that redistribute, absorb and filter storm water. Runoff from the spray fountain enters a separate system that irrigates the street trees.

Boston Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award

civil engineer: DCI
photograph: Dana Mueller
“New Chuckie Harris Park Re-uses Somervilles Storm Water” -Somerville News
construction sequence: (gif)

CHUCKIE HARRIS PARK
SOMERVILLE, MA
2013

GV led an extensive community process for Chuckie Harris Park, engaging the community in four languages, through public workshops and outreach through schools, libraries and social media. Since opening in July 2013, the park has hosted a music festival, a block party, a summer movie series, and countless informal gatherings. This photo shows an October performance of the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands.

Boston Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award

photograph: Dana Mueller
animation (concept) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2WhuzT1AJc