ISSUE 1: 2023
now+next The decade-long redevelopment of Old Colony, originally built in 1940, involves one of the country’s oldest federal public housing developments. It was the single largest property in the Boston Housing Authority’s portfolio and the most distressed – with aging infrastructure and high energy consumption. The sustainable multibuilding campus design is the result of broad stakeholder participation, which reimagined the historic public housing community and created a strategic vision to knit Old Colony back into the fabric of the South Boston neighborhood. The master plan by NBBJ involved the demolition of thirtytwo dilapidated buildings and the design and construction of numerous new buildings to create an entirely affordable housing community. The original superblocks have been demolished and replaced with new neighborhoodscaled blocks to incorporate pedestrian-friendly streets and open spaces with view corridors to the adjacent park and waterfront. The firm designed a mix of mid-rise and townhome buildings with diverse architecture and heights, responsive to the surrounding context.