In 2022, PAYETTE selected three community partner organizations whose projects represented a range of scales and typologies, from streetscapes to graphic design. PAYETTE volunteers included 23 individuals drawn from multiple areas of our practice. They worked collaboratively with representatives from their partner organizations, arranging in-person site visits and virtual and hybrid working sessions, culminating in the Day of Service charrette. In February, we held a hybrid presentation in our office where each project team presented the results of their project to our wider office.
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.
Elevated Thought: Creative Center
The team provided Elevated Thought with schematic plans and renderings to envision a new anchor institution in a potential building site, imagining flexible spaces that create opportunities for kids to access creative learning opportunities. The scheme proposed renovating a disused library to include a café, meeting spaces, media production labs, art therapy spaces, as well as a gallery and offices.
Mass Audubon and blue hills trailside musuem: a new day at trailside
The Trailside Museum team evaluated the current conditions of the museum and outlined a multi-phase strategy to improve the entry experience, renovate the auditorium and exhibit halls and increase the visibility of the museum structure to visitors. The team also designed mobile storage and display units that can be easily moved around the museum grounds as needed.
North Adams Chamber of Commerce: Moving Main Street Forward: The Namazing Iniative
This team generated concepts for beautifying a stretch of historic Main Street, for use in facilitating dialogue and engagement in community meetings. They developed short, medium and long-term solutions that prioritize pedestrian and bicyclist movement, improve the quality and variety of outdoor spaces and add needed wayfinding to help direct visitors to the area.