Boyne City Waterfront Masterplan

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Design philosophy

Our concept evolves from the nature of water. When we were looking at the figure-ground relationship of the project area, we favored the natural character of water. Water flows, connects and fills a space. By using the nature of water as a metaphor, we were trying to fill the urban area with a series of continuous well-defined space that will better connect people from the downtown Water St. A better-connected street system will also attract tourists using the trail. After further exploration of the concept, we think a better connection to the water is needed, so we introduced the "green" component--a series of green infrastructure which will both serve as a visual cue to lead people to and within the waterfront and also an ecological and sustainable component.

Our concept is “The Green Fabric—towards a sustainable connection”. Green not only means greenway connection, but it also means sustainability. By looking at the form of the street system surrounding the waterfront area, we see a roadway system that is woven both longitudinal and latitudinal similar to a piece of fabric. We think the two-way connections that can be seen in the architecture of a piece of fabric, can represent our design philosophy by weaving the city and the waterfront into a connected green and blue fabric. This will help residents and visitors experience this area in a connected way.
The design concept also weaves together hard and soft areas. The urban street system is ‘hard' and the green spaces and waterfront are ‘soft’. Currently, there are two distinct areas, the beautiful natural waterfront and the hard urban areas. Part of our design idea is to weave the two disconnected area together into one connected fabric.