Dudley Square Community Charrette and Design Competition

On May 10, architects, local residents and business owners, and city leadership gathered at Roxbury's historic Hibernian Hall to celebrate the results of the Dudley Square Community Charrette and Design Competition sponsored by Equity Office. The BSA hosted the competition in association with the City of Boston, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), Common Boston and the Roxbury Masterplan Oversight Committee as part of the public programming for the AIA 2008 National Convention.

The program focused on a Dudley Square parcel that will become available with the removal of the two vacant buildings and the relocation of the B-2 Police Station. Prizes were awarded in four categories that Boston Mayor Tom Menino described as "the components at the heart of the city's strategy for the revitalization of Dudley." The four winning submissions will be exhibited at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center during the AIA 2008 Convention, from May 15 through 17.

Best Design for Building
Greg Minott AIA, Troy Depeiza and Snehal Intwala won the $10,000 prize for Best Design for Building for their "Plaza at Dudley Square" proposal. "This project was the most compelling in the sense that we could actually imagine it being built," said Shen. "We all thought that, if you could do this, it would truly make the square a better place. It dealt with some very real issues (including parking) contributed to the overall plaza and evoked existing patterns."

Best Design for Urban Site
Tseng-Wei Chung and Hernan Schlosman won the $10,000 prize for Best Design for Urban Site for their "Dudley Square Constellations" proposal. The design seemed "to manage the scale and density in a way that really respects the character of the square," said Shen. "The jurors though that may be because it was fairly conventional in terms of extending the streets that already exist and making the most direct connection to the current site."

Best Community Building Initiative
Robert Genova AIA, Janelle Kelpe Assoc. AIA, Nicholas Kraman, Cynthia Bubb, Adam Ruedig, Craig Mutter AIA and Jamie Pirperis won the $5,000 prize for Best Community Building Initiative for their "Dudley Square Revitalization" proposal. "This plan was the one that created an idea of open space and how that it could be used as the center of community life," said Shen. "It also was the most specific about how the library could be transformed."

Best Green Design
Don Giard AICP, Stephen Moore and Andreas Savvides AIA won the $5,000 prize for Best Green Design for their "Roxbury Gardens" proposal. "This proposal looked beyond the square and talked about how the proposed uses and the new buildings could actually be connected to other aspects of the neighborhood," commented Shen. "It was the most successful in its broad perspective."

The process
Teams drafted preliminary designs and then participated in a design workshop in April at Roxbury's Hibernian Hall, where they received advice and critiques from community residents. "That why we developed the competition: to further engage city residents in civic planning to tap all the possibilities that this site offers," said Mayor Menino.

The teams revised their designs, which were then submitted to a jury consisting of Shen, who represented the BRA; Catherine Hardaway, executive director of Central Boston Elders Services; Kerrick Johnson, resident and director of Roxbury Builders Guild; Michael Miles, resident and member of the Roxbury Strategic Masterplan Oversight Committee; Greg Shay, regional president of Equity Office; Joyce Stanley, executive director of Dudley Square Main Streets; and Alfred Wojciechowski AIA, principal at CBT.

Juror member Greg Shay, regional president of competition sponsor Equity Office, praised all the competitors. "The energy, the effort, the passion that went on here was absolutely amazing," said Shay. "Whether or not any one of these ideas actually gets developed for Dudley Square is not necessarily the point when you look at a charrette. Every project here has great potential. At the end of the day, you hope that all gets brought together."

Mayor Menino commended all 14 design teams for their hard work. "These are great ideas and each may play a role in shaping the future of this neighborhood. We gained important feedback from residents. And it's that spirit of cooperation that will allow us to write the next chapter in Dudley's comeback story."

"This is why we design," said Carole Wedge AIA, LEED of Shepley Bulfinch, the chair of BSA Host Committee for the AIA Convention. "Because the success of this competition, like the success of design itself, is measured by the powerful partnership of community and designer. I hope the momentum that's been building throughout the Dudley Square competition process carries folks right into the Convention Expo, including the Boston Architectural College's "Two Percent – Women of Color" exhibit.

Background on the competition
In February 2007, MayorMenino hosted the kick-off for planning the convention, inviting 40 architects to join this brainstorming session. "The mayor asked architects to think about community and our neighborhoods, so we created this community charrette to get visionary ideas around Dudley Square," noted Kairos Shen, Boston's chief planner. Robert Brown AIA of CBT worked tirelessly to make this happen, reaching out to Greg Shay, regional president of Equity Office, sponsor of the charrette and design competition.

For more information, contact Susan Hartnett at 617-429-6564.

Competition Documents - March 25, 2008 Update
Questions and Answers (PDF - 1MB)
Submission Format (PDF - 1MB)

Competition Documents
Full call for entries (PDF - 5MB)
CAD map (DWG - 2MB)
CAD topographic map (DWG - 7MB)