A Neighborhood
Plan for Union Square
Client Challenge | The Green Line Extension was coming to Union Square, Somerville’s oldest commercial district, bringing back rail service the neighborhood had lost with the streetcars. The City’s comprehensive plan designated 42 acres of the neighborhood’s 429 acres for transformation, enough to carry nearly 40 percent of Somerville’s housing goal and half its job growth, and the City chose a master developer for seven parcels around the future station. Everyone kept asking how Union Square could take on that much growth and still feel like Union Square.
Team Approach | The City commissioned Principle as its primary consultant to lead the urban design and write the plan. Over a year and a half, we ran the process in public: a crowdsourcing event, visioning sessions held in five languages, a three-day charrette where hundreds of residents and business owners watched the plan being drawn, spring open houses, and a 60-day public review of the draft. That review changed the plan: it rebalanced housing and commercial space and added open space in Boynton Yards. The result weighs the master developer’s investment against residents' priorities on displacement, housing, historic character, and getting around.
Project Impact | The plan sets out 2,349 new homes, 470 of them affordable, about 4.9 million square feet of commercial and research space, and 12.3 acres of new squares, parks and shared streets, and it redraws McGrath Highway as an urban boulevard. The City adopted the plan in 2016 and a form-based code to carry it out in 2017. The City approved the master developer’s plan that December, and the Green Line’s Union Square station opened in March 2022.
Location
Union Square, Somerville, MA
Client
City of Somerville
Year
2012-2016
Team
Principle Utile David Carrico Nelson Nygaard
TischlerBise RCLCO Zimmerman/Volk LDS Consulting
Disciplines
Urban Design
Planning
Awards
•2015 Comprehensive Planning Award by the American Planning Association Massachusetts Chapter (APA-MA)
•2016 Urbanism Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism New England
More Info
Somerville By Design Website
Complete streets that prioritize public life and pedestrian safety are a major component of the Union Square Neighborhood Plan. Wide sidewalks promote cafe seating, public resting places, and street seats, while a new public park prioritizes space for community gardens, bandstand, and open play-spaces. Cycle tracks, public plazas, and shared spaces — like the one pictured below — provide equal access for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars throughout.
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