Roxbury Tenants of Harvard Restoration Housing

In Boston’s Mission Hill Neighborhood, the renovation of the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard affordable multi-family housing project created new, low-maintenance openspace for the community. The project consists of 81 units in 17 buildings along Francis and Fenwood streets near Longwood. Offshoots created a landscape ‘Kit of Parts’, to create repetition within the development for ease of maintenance, while creating individual character in the landscape at each historic house. The landscape design consisted of repeated landscape elements organized around CPTED principals (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) to help improve safety in the neighborhood.  These include new individual patios and landscaping for private units, and new public community spaces with outdoor kitchens, picnic tables, play areas, and passive open space.  Landscape materials selected for the project were locally sourced and manufactured, with sustainability as a design goal wherever possible.  In addition to the landscape architectural design of this project, Offshoots also installed the horticultural components of the project including all soils, amendments, rain gardens and plantings.