Massart Design and Media Center, Massart Art Museum

Boston, MA

The new buildings and vibrant entry plaza of the Design Media Center and the MAAM, create a prominent entry for this art and design college along a significant urban avenue lined with art institutions. The landscape concept is both rational and exuberant; the overall organization is inspired by the “digital” artistic media of the DMC, transforming the geometries of two adjacent buildings into a pixelated entry garden to move through and to sit within.

Sculptural pedestals provide opportunities for the temporary exhibition of student work while rectilinear “pixels” of Corten steel tree planters and wooden seating benches punctuate the landscape. As counterpoint to the rational is a painterly planting strategy of flowering yellow and purple perennials.
The colored ribbons of flowers flow across the pixels, connecting them in a seasonally shifting artwork. The plant palette was selected for full year interest with its intended peak blossoms for the weeks around commencement.

LOCATION
Boston, MA

CLIENT
MassArt / DCAMM

ARCHITECT
Ennead Architects, LLP

FACILITY
Center For Digital+Media

STATUS
Completed 2015

SCOPE
Landscape Architecture