Yale School of Architecture

Professors - Ed Mitchell and Aniket Shahane

Partner - Daniel Luster

Cambridge Commons studies the redevelopment of Central Square in Cambridge, Massachussetts.    Central Square is the new center of Cambridge and as such needs a large green space for the public to gather in, much as they do in Boston Commons and Harvard Square.  This new green space reinterperets the public commons as a place for nature to come together with city life seamlessly and for a multitude of programs to happen in the same space.  It aims to weave together city streets with commercial building space all while existing in a natural setting.  The main axis of Massachussetts Ave is split into two one way streets with the park inserted into the middle of it.  Then the park is shaped to better connect the local NS streets being pulled apart as well as being pulled up for certain streets to go underneath it.  Commercial built space is then inserted underneath the park and the distinction between built and natural starts to blur.  In the end, apartment blocks are put above the park to shape larger civic spaces as well as to provide more density to enliven the new Cambridge Commons.