Pat Dawson

Richardson Plaza

A modular public-realm intervention softened Richardson Plaza with seating, planting, and infrastructure designed to establish trees for Northeastern's arboretum.

Movable planters, new seating, and coordinated site elements turned a hard urban campus space into a more hospitable public room and a working nursery for the arboretum.

PlaceFabrication

Campus public realm · Northeastern University, Boston · 2021

Role

Architectural designerProduction drawings and owner/engineer coordination

Outcome

A built campus plaza at Northeastern University, opened in 2021 with new seating, movable planters, and a nursery landscape supporting the arboretum.

Repeated components carried the coordinated drawing set into daily campus use.
Repeated components carried the coordinated drawing set into daily campus use.

A softer public realm

A plaza built for gathering and growth.

Richardson Plaza began as a hard, exposed campus space. The project introduced a modular family of seating, wave-form benches, movable planters, bollard caps, and tree elements to create places to pause while supporting young trees for Northeastern's arboretum. Existing-condition, demolition, electrical, and production drawings coordinated the kit with the infrastructure already on site. The result was a more hospitable public room that could support everyday campus use while functioning as a nursery for the arboretum.

A modular seating study translated scattered occupation into a repeatable kit of parts.
A modular seating study translated scattered occupation into a repeatable kit of parts.
The completed stair seating gathered around the plaza's existing clock structure.
The completed stair seating gathered around the plaza's existing clock structure.

At a glance

Built campus public realmArboretum nursery landscape2021 opening

In the record

Existing-condition and demolition documentationModular seating and planter kitCoordinated planting and electrical drawingsCampus circulation and utility coordinationPlanter and tree-establishment detailsConstruction and as-built photography

The built public realm joined movable planters, new seating, and inherited campus infrastructure.
The built public realm joined movable planters, new seating, and inherited campus infrastructure.
01

Read the hardscape

Existing-condition and demolition documentation established the plaza's exposed surfaces, circulation, and infrastructure before new work was placed.

02

Make room for occupation

A modular family of seating and site elements created places to pause, gather, and use the plaza throughout the day.

03

Establish the nursery

Movable planters and coordinated tree elements gave young arboretum specimens a place to establish within the active campus public realm.