At the Water's Edge: A Cultural Institute of the Charles River

Abstract

Rivers have provided reason for development throughout history. As a result, many of today's major cities sit at the rivers edge. For those cities that span both sides of a river, treatment of the water's edge is very important to the perception of the river in the city. This type of urban river can act as a unifier or a divider of its city.

This thesis looks at urban rivers, and utlilizing them as unifying spaces. In order to deal with the river as a space, people must be able to partake in that space. As such, they must be able to inhabit the land at the water's edge. The thesis uses a site on the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts, where the movement systems along the water's edge start to break down, and thus so does the perception of the river as a space. The master-plan, the site and the buidling, a cultural institute about the Charles River, are used to bring people to the rivers edge and into the space of the river.