Machado and Silvetti’s design for the Dewey Square & MBTA Head Houses, situated in Boston’s Financial District, is a comprehensive plan and urban design for the Dewey Square area. It encompasses a privately financed overhaul of the surface restoration atop the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. The design broadens the previous plan’s scope to incorporate the substantial privately owned plazas adjacent to the square, reimagining the entire region as a singular urban space with a distinct contemporary character.
The square’s pavement acts as a seamless layer of stone and concrete, upon which a variety of distinct objects are arranged. The patterns in the pavement mirror the plaza’s grand scale, with a large-scale order of stripes that modify in width to fit the various objects. Smaller objects manifest as buildings, pavilions, formalized crosswalks, and infrastructural enhancements that offer public services and conveniences. These encompass retail spaces, a café, a newsstand/information broadcasting booth, a large public television screen, street furniture, gardens, fountains, and a range of smaller plazas.
The office’s design and implementation of glass-louvered head houses that lead to the underground subway give the precinct with a unique identity and function as luminous landmarks at night. These structures were inspired by the glass lobbies of the nearby office buildings.
