East Boston Waterfront Market

East Boston Waterfront Market—a water transit hub, shipping center, and public market and recreation area on the Central Square waterfront—harnesses the rising sea levels to connect East Bostonians to vital resources while raising awareness about the precarity and origin of the food they consume.

East Boston has many bodegas and international restaurants, but sourcing fresh produce is difficult; many areas of East Boston qualify as food deserts, defined as areas where more than 33% of the census tract population lives more than a mile away from a grocery store. This intervention, adjacent to East Boston’s only supermarket, allows East Boston to become a node in a water-enabled food network. New water taxi routes and a fulfillment center will render East Boston accessible to inventory deliveries, potential shoppers, and a wide pool of employees. Rising sea levels pose a great risk to East Boston over the next half-century, likely cutting off essential transportation routes to and from the mainland. Meant to adapt to the rising sea levels predicted by Climate Ready Boston, the shipping center and taxi stop float next to a static market, greenhouse and recreation space built above the 100-year flood plane. In times of extreme flooding, the floating volume may disconnect and become a barge, capable of preserving and distributing food to nearby communities.