Sasaki
Last week, the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, alongside representatives of the National Park Service (NPS) and the USS Constitution Museum, announced a three million dollar study in anticipation of a full-scale renovation project that will transform the visitor experience of the Navy Yard Historical Park. Sasaki worked with the U.S. Navy, NPS, and the museum to develop the master plan for the park, which is located in Charlestown, MA and draws some one million visitors a year.
“National parks are created to tell stories,” said Michael Creasey, general superintendent of the National Parks of Boston, as quoted in Boston Globe coverage of the event. “They’re created to preserve our heritage. That’s what this project is about.”
The scope of work includes studies to update the museum, arrival lawn and entryway for visitors, as well as the repurposing of a historic warehouse building to accommodate a new visitors center, the relocated USS Constitution Museum, adminstrative offices for the NPS, and Museum staff.
“Sasaki was honored to work with the USSCM, the Navy, and NPS for over a year in developing a vision plan for the yard,” says Zogran—principal-in-charge of the project. “It was very exciting to creatively reframe the visitor experience of the yard and the ship, and to conceive of the yard both as a community asset for Charlestown, and as a cultural engine for Boston.”
Updates will bring the Plaza into the modern century with improved infrastructure, sustainability, and public spaces — honoring the plaza's 50-year history while making it a more accessible place for all
In a time when we can assemble and analyze vast quantities of incidental data, it seems that "surplus" often supplants "necessity" as the "mother of invention."