Introduction

Below, Above, and Beyond: Revealing the abandoned underground subway infrastructures

Below, Above, and Beyond: Revealing the abandoned underground subway infrastructures as urban form and experience

This report presents the process and results of two consecutive design studios offered by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) in spring 2021 and 2022 on Boston's abandoned subway infrastructure and the strategies for their adaptive reuse.

Boston's subway system is the oldest in the United States and the second oldest in the world, and it has evolved throughout the city's history. During the studios , 18 interdisciplinary students explored the possible reuse of abandoned subway infrastructures owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). 61 disused spaces were found both underground and aboveground, comprising tunnels, platforms, tracks, portals, and turnaround loops. The objectives of the studios were1 to determine whether these spaces can be reconnected to form a public space network providing an urban form and experience and2 to propose specific reuse schemes for the Brattle Tunnel underneath Harvard Square. Students' endeavors over the course of two semesters revealed that the disused spaces can have afterlives as networks of burial grounds, urban habitats, stormwater management facilities, urban farms, and homeless facilities, with each scheme successfully integrated within the 450 ft. long, 45 ft. wide, and 15 ft. high Brattle Tunnel. Various types of representation were employed to deliver the sensory effects and delightful experience that the tunnel can offer, such as a 7 ft. long physical model and 6 ft. long section drawings as well as movies and normative landscape architectural media. Due to their prime urban locations and the consistent thermal comfort of being underground, these disused/obsolete spaces hold enormous potential in the era of climate change Despite the interest of some stakeholders, such as the Harvard

Studio Instructor

Jungyoon Kim Assistant Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, GSD

Square Business Association, in the rebirth of these spaces, their invisibility, and limited accessibility impede extended discussions with design experts and the public. I believe that sharing the pedagogy and the works of the studios will yield a discussion with a broader audience through effective media, which will increase the public's awareness of the importance of the adaptive reuse of abandoned infrastructure. This report provides the necessary basis to take the first step toward a consensus

On behalf of the studios, I thank the Dean of the GSD Prof. Sarah Whiting, former Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture Prof. Anita Berrizbeitia, and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture Prof. Gary Hilderbrand for their care and support. I also thank the Studio Consultant Ms. Rachel Goldsmith for her generous support, especially in facilitating priceless visits to the tunnels, which allowed all the studio members to appreciate the unique ambiance of the disused infrastructure.

The studios invite all the readers on a journey to the underground, which will be unfolded in various other forms in the near future.

1 STU1604 "Below and Beyond: Imagining the future of underground infrastructure at Harvard Square" in spring 2021, jointly offered by the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Department of Urban Planning and Design, and STU 1407 "Below, Above and Beyond: Revealing the abandoned underground subway infrastructure as urban form and experience" in spring 2022, offered by the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Preface

2 Introduction 9 Studio Overview

Part I

13 Site Analysis

Part II by Themes

39 Subsoil Edda Steingrimsdottir Tara Oluwafemi Tong Lin Jessy Qiu

77 Cultural Venue Eunsoo Choi Chelsea Kashan Zihui Zhang Melody Zhao Yuki Takata

117 Wild Life Cameron Melo Christian Umana Zilan Wang Ziting Wang

143 Hydrology Lauren Duda Annie Hayner Isaiah Krieger Minyoung Hong Esther Kim

187 Contributors