Stoss

Stoss is a pioneering design firm focused on creating resilient social spaces that foster vitality, equality and community within the public realm. Founded in Boston in 2001, Stoss is a Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award winner for urban planning and landscape projects that integrate urbanism, landscape, infrastructure, and sustainability. Collaborating with cities, public agencies, institutions, and private interests on multi-faceted and varied projects, the Stoss team is involved in conceiving, designing and managing construction for; parks and open spaces; urban and campus design; ecological and resiliency planning; municipal and regional strategies; multi-scale landscape infrastructures; development and remediation projects; furnishings and exhibitions.

At Stoss, we specialize in urban and landscape revitalization that acts as a catalyst for change—environmentally, culturally and economically.

CityDeck

The CityDeck is the heart of a multi-phase redevelopment project along Green Bay’s Fox Riverfront, a small city in the Upper MidWest of the United States. The CityDeck and Downtown redevelopment started from a desire to create a better place, a richer community for families and kids at the heart of the old city. This newly revitalised riverfront is a place for families to mix with workers and residents, or kick back to enjoy a performance or view the sunset and has quickly become the city’s community front porch.The ¼ mile long, 2.5 acre linear park runs along the edge of the Fox River and connects a regional network of bike and pedestrian trails with downtown Green Bay. The deck creates both a flexible space for civic gatherings and has framed opportunities for new mixed-use development, infusing downtown with new life, 24/7.

Harvard Plaza

The Plaza at Harvard University is a gathering space at the heart of the university, designed to serve students, faculty, staff, visitors, and the local community. Sitting atop the Cambridge Street Underpass, the 1.2 acre site connects the historic Harvard Yard with the University Science Center and North Campus and exemplifies a new kind of public infrastructure—one that acts as a model of contemporary sustainable design in service of rich and exciting social spaces.

Replacing an underutilized field, the new space offers a high-performance surface, designed to accommodate structure, utilities, water, and heat management in an articulated ground plane that responds to storm water drainage and local circulation flows. The plaza is a hub of campus life, drawing students to large and small events of all kinds, including a farmers’ market, food trucks, impromptu performances and alumni gatherings. Seventeen custom benches in seven distinct designs encourage casual gathering for students and the local community, and groves of sumac and gingko inventively integrate sustainable stormwater management and provide a quiet refuge.

Chouteau Greenway

The Chouteau Greenway project launched as the The Chouteau Greenway Design Competition with the impetus to connect St. Louis’s Forest Park with the Gateway Arch, with spurs north and south to connect the city’s vibrant neighborhoods, parks, business and arts districts, employment centers, transit and dozens of cultural and educational institutions.

Stoss, leading a team of 12 firms in an internationally focused competition, was chosen from a group of 19 entrants as the finalist, winning the competition to design the new greenway. The competition was conducted by Great Rivers Greenway and joined by partners in a unique public-private partnership that aims to transform St. Louis. The project is an ambitious 10 year project that reimagines St. Louis as a place connected by opportunity, access, and a diversity of shared experiences. Called ‘The Loop + The Stitch’, the Stoss entry embodied the team’s intention to promote connection, prosperity, inclusion, reconciliation, innovation, and joy. The ‘Loop’ links the civic icons and histories of the central city through 19 city neighbourhoods. Together, the greenway routes build on a set of “social common denominators” (food, water, public space, stories, currency, etc.) that are shared by all despite socio-cultural and socio-economic differences. In all these ways, the Chouteau Greenway project aspires to create new opportunity through economic development, job creation—connecting assets, opportunities, neighbourhoods, and people across its rich and diverse fabric.

Moakley Park

Moakley Park, a 60-acre community park in South Boston, floods regularly—even minimal rain events cause the playing fields to become unusable and unsafe. Coupled with the fact that this, Boston’s largest waterfront park, sits at a critical breach point for South Boston and with a projected 21-36” in sea level rise, the park becomes a major flood pathway inundating adjacent neighbourhoods including two low income housing developments. With this reality in mind, City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department and the Environment Department commissioned a vision plan for the park that would not only address critical climate resiliency issues, but would turn Moakley Park into an exemplary 21st century open space with a focus on equity, diversity, community and of course enviable recreational amenities.