Chelsea Capitol Plaza

After nine years, the Chelsea Capitol residential building’s public plaza had deteriorated. As part of a comprehensive building renovation, the ground level lobby and main entrance design were reoriented to connect with its “rear yard” amenity space. Building infrastructure improvements required the plaza’s complete reconstruction. Improvements in public safety qualities were paramount. “Defensible space” strategies were employed to ensure uninterrupted visibility from the building’s interior and from within the plaza’s open space. The redesign presented an opportunity to reimagine the conventional paved urban plaza prototype. Alternatively, an approach which uses a contiguous landscape as the plaza’s primary spatially organizing mechanism was pursued. The site’s shady environment inspired the concept of inserting an indigenous woodland landscape. Working with regional plant communities as a spatial framework, the plaza’s primary function as a neighborhood public gathering space, activity and meeting places were created by craving-out and shaping them from within the plaza’s landscape context. A sequence of resting and communal “garden-pods” were positioned along the plaza’s main through-block meandering path. Multi-sensual experiences gained by moving through a woodland garden are intended to slow foot traffic and inspire calming pauses to observe the variety of the plantings’ seasonal attributes. The biomass of the plaza’s tree canopies softens the surrounding buildings’ presence while improving human comfort with their cooling and shading effects. Perimeter custom designed fences, accented with espaliered vine-covered mesh panels, provide architectural spatial unity, and mask the unsightly mix of abutting buildings. The blending of the ground plane and vertical companion plant communities generate a memorable plaza identity as a nature-filled destination and safe community haven for building tenants, visitors, and neighborhood residents.