Boston’s Changing Coastline: How Developers Are Planning for Climate Resiliency

The planet is getting warmer, and after a brief global reduction in emissions due to the chilling effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, an even greater amount of CO2 is expected to enter the atmosphere as cities, states, and countries reopen for business. The largest United States capital directly situated on open oceanfront, Boston is disproportionately susceptible to warming waters and rising tides. With the threat of climate change ever-present along Boston’s waterfront, developers, architects, and city officials are rethinking how they develop their properties and what the city will look like in the future.

The City has launched toolkits designed to shape future development, such as the Boston Climate Resiliency Master Plan, which outlines requirements for developers to curb emissions and create climate-resilient architecture. In 2019, Boston updated its Carbon Action Plan with then-Mayor Marty Walsh signing an executive order requiring all new public buildings to be built to a “Zero Net Carbon” standard, and in March, Walsh announced that the city will be awarding $34 million to support 14 affordable-housing projects, requiring them to meet the city’s Zero Emissions Building standards.

“For these buildings, we’re really looking at how we build the most efficient, low-carbon, low-energy, well-designed building and then power it with renewable sources,” said Alison Brizius, Boston’s Director of Environmental Planning. “When we’re talking about net zero, that’s what we’re talking about here.”

Architects are taking an increasingly important role in shaping development in Boston. “Architects have the opportunity and responsibility to be good stewards of the environment, with an equitable approach to climate resilience always at the forefront of our designs.” said Marc Margulies, Principal and Senior Partner at Margulies Perruzzi. In 2015, an interdisciplinary team of Arcadis, Sasaki, HR&A Advisors, and the University of Massachusetts Boston launched the Climate Ready Boston study, examining how architects can shape future development. “Climate Ready Boston is an initiative to plan for how the city will continue to thrive while adapting to long-term climate change,” said the study. “Climate risks are not new for Boston, but they will continue to increase as the global climate changes.”

“East Boston has the most land area of all Boston neighborhoods exposed to coastal storms in the coming decades. The East Boston Greenway, Maverick Square, and the Sumner and Callahan Tunnels will be exposed the most,” the report said.

“As sea level continues to rise due to climate change, new buildings and communities are being forced to adapt,” said The Architectural Team. Researchers at Clippership Wharf in East Boston are working on nature-based solutions, integrating seagrass growth along a “living shoreline” to protect the waterfront. Other features at Clippership include inlets that absorb tidal forces, reducing the surging effect during storms. 

“We raised the occupiable areas of the site much higher than required, creating a 14-foot buffer from the current mean high tide to the ground floor level of apartments and amenities,” said Nicholas Iselin, general manager for Lendlease Development. “When we proposed elements such as these during the permitting process three years ago, there was considerable push back on the notion that we would raise our site so far (6 to 8 feet to our plaza level) above the surrounding network of roadways and sidewalks. Many of the features we fought hard to protect during the entitlement phase of our project would be asked for, if not required of us, today.”

In 2015, ULI Boston/New England hosted charrettes that examined city infrastructure use, issuing a report that radically redesigned Back Bay’s streetscape by incorporating canals. "Much of this new land lies less than four feet above today's high tide," the report says. “Installing canals on alternating east-west alleys and north-south streets, and the eventual conversion of Storrow Drive, which parallels the Charles River along the outer edge of the Back Bay, into a canal. The canals would help manage overflow if the nearby Charles River Dam is one day overtopped.” “We would be standing in marshland, tidal marsh, where it was mucky and muddy. Over the years we’ve filled in much of Boston - about 30 percent of it is on fill, which by its nature is low-lying, and if we have sea level rise, this area we’re standing in would be flooded” said Dennis Carlberg, Associate VP for University Sustainability Boston University Boston and a fellow at the Urban Land Institute. 

“The water has to go somewhere, so bringing the water into the city in a planned way as opposed to an unplanned way is the strategy we were looking at, and there are sort of two things we need to be concerned about. One is the nearer term, the storm surge and the sea level rise, and one is the longer term, the twice daily high tide. A hundred and twenty years from now, 110 years from now, or a hundred years depending upon how much carbon we put in the atmosphere, we’re going to have a twice-daily high tide in the Back Bay, and the other part of that issue is we have a ten-foot tide swing, roughly, in Boston, so what do those canals look like at low tide?” said Carlberg.

For projects currently in the review process in Boston, developers are taking big, proactive steps to protect their investments and integrate the plans of the surrounding community. In the Seaport, The Davis Companies incorporated Boston’s Climate Resiliency Report Summary in their PNF for 88 Black Falcon Avenue, and in Fort Point, Related Beal is incorporating a seawall berm in their designs for 244 A Street. The berm utilizes greenery to absorb tidal forces along the Fort Point Channel while also serving as a community green space, urban park, and carbon sink. The addition of the berm will also lessen the urban heat island effect within the neighborhood. “With this grading and added elevation, potential impacts to groundwater from climate change are intended to be mitigated,” said Related Beal.

“We’re committed to creating a sustainable, mixed-use project on the Fort Point Channel that prioritizes climate resiliency as a foundational development principle,” said Stephen Faber, executive vice president of Related Beal. “The Channelside project will mitigate coastal flood risk due to sea-level rise by combining increased site elevation, floodproofing and a flood defense system along the Fort Point Channel that is part of the City’s Climate Ready Boston plan. Once completed, the flood defense system will eliminate coastal flood risk for a large portion of the Fort Point community. Furthermore, Channelside’s resiliency design is integrated into major public green spaces that establish strong visual connections and pedestrian access for the community to the water.”

Directly across Boston Harbor, The Chiofaro Company is utilizing the city’s toolkits when designing The Pinnacle at Central Wharf. “Pinnacle is a good lens to look through because we’re still in the early stage of permitting,” said Rob Caridad, Principal at the Chiofaro Company. “One thing we’re looking at doing is elevating the site as well as the harborwalk. Using the Municipal Harbor Plan, we plan to raise the site to 2070 sea-level-rise projections and will account for a 4-foot change in elevation to meet that. Right now the most susceptible area is Long Wharf in Downtown. Our elevation is a little higher but give it 50 years.”

In addition to elevating the site for flood protection, The Chiofaro Company is also implementing site drainage strategies as well as improving access to the waterfront and integrating within the larger downtown public space network. “Climate-ready Boston looks at the whole 40+ miles of waterfront and they’ve zoomed in on individual neighborhoods. We have taken our lead and participated in the process by incorporating these resiliency toolkits out of the downtown report,” Caridad said. “We want what we ultimately build to be compatible with what our neighbors are thinking, and compatible with the climate-ready plan. What is the role we can play? The benefit of the project is that it can be a catalyst, but it’s also important that it's integrated.”

Climate resiliency is also a key component of the massive 5.9 million SF Dorchester Bay City project, currently under review. “The site topography will be altered to provide new flood protection control measures along the waterfront edge,” states DREAM Collaborative LLC one of the project’s architects. “This new neighborhood will be brought to life with resilient landscapes and energy-efficient buildings that welcome its occupants and users into a diverse community. The project is following LEED for Neighborhood Development principles to ensure that sustainability is incorporated throughout the project and that a neighborhood of mixed uses and levels of affordability is achieved.” 

The pace at which developers and architects are incorporating climate resilience measures into their designs is increasing, and sentiment to embrace a wetter Boston is warming up. “The Netherlands has famously been protected by a complex system of dikes, locks, and canals since the Renaissance,” says Brent Ryan from MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism. “They have embraced softer engineering strategies that work with the natural flows of Dutch rivers.” As Carlberg put it, “in the face of sea-level rise, water knows no boundaries.” 

“There are billions of dollars of public and private assets at risk to sea-level rise,” said Caridad. “We’re looking at things like engaging the broader neighborhood, and how can we tie individual properties together in the decisions being made.”

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