The Plaza at Harvard University | Cambridge USA | Stoss


The Plaza occupies a difficult site in Cambridge, at the seam between Harvard’s historic Yard and its North Campus, and in a public right-of-way atop a roadway tunnel laden with city and University utilities. The site was a busy cross-roads for students and faculty moving between classes and residences, for city residents walking to nearby subway and bus stations, and for visitors touring the campus or visiting one of the University’s museums.
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The CityDeck | Green Bay USA | Stoss Landscape Urbanism

In the fall, the gingkos, Kentucky coffeetrees, and Liberty elms all turn bright yellow. ©Stoss Landscape Urbanism

The CityDeck is the heart of a multi-phase redevelopment project along Green Bay’s Fox River. The project aims to allow for significantly increased access to the river and to diversify social and ecological life along it.

EXISTING CONDITIONS + CHALLENGES
The site is a 2-acre strip of land, typically measuring 50 to 60 feet wide, that runs along the edge of the Fox River in downtown Green Bay. It is about one-quarter-mile in length and is situated between two bridges that cross the river. At the project’s beginning, adjacent parcels were empty, abandoned (a large yellow warehouse), or in use as parking lots. Nearby buildings turned their back on the riverfront. Unsurprisingly, there was little social or civic life here, and no reason to visit; the elevated walk along existing bulkhead walls prevented any direct access down to the river—as well as up to the city from boats.

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Erie Street Plaza | Milwaukee Wisconsin | Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Erie Street Plaza

The variegated surface extends into the steel marsh, which collects and cleans stormwater from the site. ©Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Erie Street Plaza is a small urban plaza in the Historic Third Ward district of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 13,000-square-foot plaza lies at the point where the Milwaukee River meets the Federal Channel as it empties into Lake Michigan. It is the final link in a series of public space activators along the Milwaukee Riverwalk, a three-mile pedestrian and bicycle corridor that connects downtown Milwaukee to the emerging and redeveloping Third Ward, Beerline Districts, and the lakefront beyond. At the beginning of the project’s design, the future of Erie Street Plaza – its users, its function, its programming, even its necessity – were undecided. The urban context was generally one of infrastructure and industry; the site lacked neighbors and potential users. The site itself was a surface parking lot, subject to harsh environmental conditions, including high winds off the lake. Who is it for? How will it be used? This uncertainty, this open-endedness, was at the core of its design.

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MRDC | Stoss Landscape Urbanism: STREAMLINES

Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition Finalist

STREAMLINES is about the sheer unfiltered experience of direct contact with the river and river life, in many ways, atmultiple moments. And it’s about weaving these experiencesback into the everyday city. STREAMLINES is also a project about working ecologies, ecological systems and dynamics putto work to clean, to re-constitute this working riverfront, andto guide a longer-term transformation of the city fabric.

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