Reimagining a Decaying Industrial Site: Nashua Master Plan Design Competitionby Stanley Collyer
Winning entry by Carl Pucci & Efrain Carbaca Nashua, New Hampshire is no different than many of its neighbors in New England: with the closing of its mills, it is the site of a post industrial district needing rejuvenation and new ideas. With this in mind, the City decided to stage a one-stage design competition to find some creative solutions to this problem.
Originally an anchor at one end of town, the mill district was only a destination for employees, lacking main through streets of any consequence. Its importance lies in the existence of several old company buildings, some of which are already leasing space to high-tech companies. And, with its proximity to Boston, it could serve as a logical destination for start-ups, unwilling to pay the high rents of the Boston metropolitan area. Already there are signs that the area is ripe for development, just lacking suitable access. One of the principal pieces of the puzzle, Clocktower Place apartments already has a waiting list; so with proper infrastructure, this could well turn into a major residential and commercial area.
The impetus for the competition has been a federal highway grant to build a bridge across the Nashua River, a tributary of the Merrimack, which roughly bisects the city. The bridge, intended to ease access to Nashua’s commercial district from the north, also has resulted in the new road—Broad Street Parkway—through the mill district. As a result, one can assume that this urban renewal plan itself is at least being partially financed by federal road money. In essense, while the parkway will become a main travel artery in and out of the city, maintaining the integrity of the area as livable space, conducive to foot traffic, business development and quality of life, is the primary goal of the new plan.
The nine-person competition jury consisted of:
• Tim Nickerson, ASLA, Jury Chairperson
Environmental Pools, Inc. – Chelmsford, MA
• Lafe Covill, Associate AIA
PMR Architects, P.C. – Nashua, NH
• Bruce M, Hanson
Pine Street Eatery – Nashua, NH
• Kimberly McCarthy, LEED AP
Local Architectural Designer– Nashua, NH
• Tom Monahan
Thomas F. Monahan Real Estate Developers – Nashua, NH
• Tia Phillips
S-C Management, Clocktower Place – Nashua, NH
• Kim Shottes
The PLUS Company, Inc., Nashua, NH
• James Vayo, Associate AIA
Renaissance Downtowns of Nashua, LLC– Nashua, NH
• Albert Wilkinson
AW Emboss, LLC – Nashua, NH
The competition drew twenty entries internationally, with fifteen being deemed worthy of adjudication. Although this number may seem low for such an important project, the relatively low amount of award money probably had much to do with this level of participation ($5,000 for the winner). Still, the entries did bring some very interesting and doable solutions to the table. The premiated designs were:
Winner
•Carl Pucci & Efrain Carbaca
Bumpzoid
New York, New York
Runners-up
• Jennifer Garcia & Kenneth Garcia
Coral Gables, Florida
• Teja S. Sawant & Somkant R. Thakur
Chicago, Illinois USA
• Paul Privitera & Charlotte Firestone
teraform environments
Boston, Massachusetts
It is now up to the City of Nashua to implement some of the more viable elements of the plan. Although the competition brief stated that the City plans to sift through the premiated entries to possibly use some of the better ideas, having a unified plan would seem to be the natural route to take. It will be interesting to see how Nashua deals with this down the road. The results of the competition received very high marks from the jury members, and undoubtedly furnished them with some new, doable ideas for the Mill district..
Winning Design: Carl Pucci & Efrain Carbaca, Bumpzoid, New York, New York
 
The most important feature of this plan was situating the road next to the edge of the buildings, so as to make those structures a viable location for commercial and retail with parking in the rear. Although the route of the bridge over the river has already been established, it is notable that this team suggested repositioning the bridge very slightly, so the road could hook up with the downtown grid, rather than travel along the river on the other side from the site. Another feature was the creation of green spaces—primarily “Boiler Green”—to soften the impact of the former industrial site. The overall impression of this winning proposal was that it does not only contain some creative design elements, but that the composition as a whole is quite affordable in its current form. Here it was the positioning of the main features as a compositional whole that set it off from the other entries. -SC
Runner-Up: Jennifer Garcia & Kenneth Garcia
 
Runner-Up: Teja S. Sawant & Somkant R. Thakur
 
Runner-Up: Paul Privitera & Charlotte Firestone
 
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1st Place: Zaha Hadid Architects – night view from river – Render by Negativ
Arriving to board a ferry boat or cruise ship used to be a rather mundane experience. If you had luggage, you might be able to drop it off upon boarding, assuming that the boarding operation was sophisticated enough. In any case, the arrival experience was nothing to look forward to. I recall boarding the SS United States for a trip to Europe in the late 1950s. Arriving at the pier in New York, the only thought any traveler had was to board that ocean liner as soon as possible, find one’s cabin, and start exploring. If you were in New York City and arriving early, a nearby restaurant or cafe would be your best bet while passing time before boarding. Read more… Preparation and Organization of Design Competitions 
[phase 1] Benjamin Hossbach / Christian Lehmhaus / Christine Eichelmann
210 × 230 mm, 192 pp.
over 600 images
softcover
ISBN 978-3-86922-316-2 (English)
ISBN 978-3-86922-240-0 (German)
Dom Publishers
€48 in EU (For price abroad, see below)
Founded in 1998 in Berlin, Phase 1 has been a principal player in the organization and facilitation of design competitions, not only in Germany, but abroad as well. The accomplishments of the firm have been well documented in three volumes—The Architecture of Competitions—beginning in 2i006. Whereas these books mainly focused on the results of the competitions they have administered, the present work, Fundamentals of Competition Management, takes one from the very beginnings of the competition process to its conclusion. The authors envisioned the publication as “three three books in one: one „blue book“ with example projects, one „yellow book“ with statements and the „white book“ with the actual guideline to competition management.”
Although there have been a number of handbooks covering the administration of designcompetitions a study covering the entire process in such detail is a welcome addition to the the literature in this field. As a contribution to this important democratic process that has yielded exceptional design for decades, this volume is not only valid for Europe, but a current overview of the process for those globally who wish to raise the level of design by virtue of a design competition. -Ed Foreign institutions wishing to obtain a copy of the book will recieve a discount to cover the cost of foreign shipping.
To obtain a copy for that offer, go to: accounting@phase1.de 
Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Read More… 
2023 Teaching and Innovation Farm Lab Graduate Student Honor Award by USC (aerial view)
Architecture at Zero competitions, which focus on the theme, Design Competition for Decarbonization, Equity and Resilience in California, have been supported by numerous California utilities such as Southern California Edison, PG&E, SoCAl Gas, etc., who have recognized the need for better climate solutions in that state as well as globally. Until recently, most of these competitions were based on an ideas only format, with few expectations that any of the winning designs would actually be realized. The anticipated realization of the 2022 and 2023 competitions suggests that some clients are taking these ideas seriously enough to go ahead with realization. Read more… 
RUR model perspective – ©RUR
New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan (2011-2020)
Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC/ Jesse Reiser – U.S.A.
with
Fei & Cheng Associates/Philip T.C. Fei – R.O.C. (Tendener)
This was probably the last international open competition result that was built in Taiwan. A later competition for the Keelung Harbor Service Building Competition, won by Neil Denari of the U.S., the result of a shortlisting procedure, was not built. The fact that the project by RUR was eventually completed—the result of the RUR/Fei & Cheng’s winning entry there—certainly goes back to the collaborative role of those to firms in winning the 2008 Taipei Pop Music Center competition, a collaboration that should not be underestimated in setting the stage for this competition Read more… 
Winning entry ©Herzog de Meuron
In visiting any museum, one might wonder what important works of art are out of view in storage, possibly not considered high profile enough to see the light of day? In Korea, an answer to this question is in the making. It can come as no surprise that museums are running out of storage space. This is not just the case with long established “western” museums, but elsewhere throughout the world as well. In Seoul, South Korea, such an issue has been addressed by planning for a new kind of storage facility, the Seouipul Open Storage Museum. The new institution will house artworks and artifacts of three major museums in Seoul: the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History, and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.
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