338 East Eagle Street is a site in East Boston where Eversource is trying to build an electrical substation. Inherent in this research project, was the fundamental question of, to build or not to build? Spending a year studying how a public parcel went private, made clear that proposing an alternative without proper community input simply continues systemic injustices of the built environment.
Architecture can act as a public resource. This belief led to the creation of a custom-coded digital space. This space, The East Eagle Street Site, would be an educational place to gain expertise about this specific substation, learn about those responsible, in order to make the best informed next action for themselves. This was an attempt to propose an “architecture” that didn’t consumer physical resources from the ground where it dwells on.
The Chelsea Creek substation is emblematic of dangerous environmental injustices that marginalized communities have had to bear the burden of. East Boston is a neighborhood that is rich in its large latinx demographic and abundance of multigenerational families. It also feels the weight of a world’s worth of infrastructure, from the airport, to an active industrial waterfront, to jet fuel storage, and constant pollution from the runway and highway that dominate the landscape. Why put the power station in a flood plane, next to precious and well-used park, next to gallons of gasoline?
