Located in Boston’s growing Seaport District, the Lawn on D is a 2.5 acre park at the midway point on D Street between the historic Boston Harbor and the thriving South Boston neighborhood. Part beacon (announcing a new urban district associated with Boston’s Convention and Exhibition Center), part park (creating a place for conventioneers, residents and visitors alike to mix) and part canvas (welcoming creative programming and art unlike anywhere else in the city), the Lawn on D made a splash nationally in 2014 as Boston’s hot new experimental playground. In the years since its launch, the Lawn’s unconventional and unexpected arc included time as a temporary landscape to a social-media phenomenon to now a self-sustaining place.
Sasaki led a master planning effort on behalf of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority to anticipate the expansion of the Convention and Exhibition Center. The team – which included Utile and HR&A Advisors – developed the idea for the Lawn in response to a complex orchestration of development phasing.
Working with impresario Chris Wangro and a host of technical consultants, Gina Ford led the design of the Lawn of D as a principal and landscape architect with Sasaki. Its flexible physical framework (a lawn and plaza “stage” set within a planted frame), speed of implementation (designed, constructed and opened in eight months), strong visual identity (including colorful brand elements, paving and furnishings) and an enticing array of cultural programming (think: light-up swings by Howeler and Yoon Architects) have been recognized with awards from Fast Company, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects and many others.
Select Awards
ASLA National, Honor Award for General Design, 2015
AIA National, Small Project Award, 2015
Fast Company Innovation Award, Finalist, 2015.
BSLA, Honor Award for General Design, 2015
International Downtown Association, Downtown Merit Award for Public Space, 2015
