Longwood Placemaking

August 2024
Longwood Medical Area, Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA

We worked with Longwood Collective (LC) to transform a wide sidewalk nearby the Boston Children’s Hospital on Blackfan Circle from an empty walkway into a vibrant space for gathering and play. The sidewalk space featured a 40ft pergola structure with benches underneath and several cafe chair sets along the wall by the entrance to the parking center. LC highlighted this as an area with potential to be a lively and engaging space. The space was full of people but lacked personality and space for visitors to connect.

Longwood Collective asked us to test out new placemaking elements and provide feedback on their existing interventions. Together with the LC team and leadership at Boston Children’s Hospital we created a list of design drivers that helped us identify the elements that we wanted to install.

A boy and and a man jump and play on a colorful ground mural on a sidewalk next to tables and planters

A man walks underneath bright yellow shade sails while picking up his backpack

Two women sit next to each other on a concrete bench smiling with their lunches

Our goals were to design a space that was welcoming and accessible to diverse groups of visitors, enhanced the pedestrian experience, added activities that encourage people to move through the space playfully, and connected visitors to Longwood Collective sites and LMA landmarks.

We installed three elements: a playful ground mural, bright yellow sun shades, and compact lunch tables for visitors to enjoy. We wanted to encourage visitors to use the area to eat lunch, play, and see new parts of the LMA they may not have visited before.

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