News

Benedito and OFICINAA win Riverwalk Park Design Competition with The River(s) Esplanade

Assistant professor of landscape architecture Silvia Benedito (MAUD ’04) and her OFICINAA co-partner Alexander Häusler (MArch ’04) recently won the Riverwalk Park Design Competition, held by the MacDowell Colony and the Town of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Their proposal, titled “The River(s) Esplanade,” was developed in collaboration with artist Ellen Driscoll. Their proposed plan is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017.

The MacDowell Colony and the Town of Peterborough opened the Riverwalk Park Design Competition in Fall 2015, intending to develop design schemes for an area at the intersection of the Contoocook and Nubanusit Rivers in the town. Eight nationally recognized MacDowell Colony fellows were offered an opportunity to submit conceptual designs, with the primary objective being to maximize opportunities for community exchange in this new public space located at the center of Peterborough’s shopping and cultural district.

OFICINAA’s winning proposal aims to increase the riverine environment and its valley profile—presently eroded and with depleted woodland—while reducing the traffic noise from the surrounding traffic infrastructure. It proposes a series of microclimatic tunings at river edges in order to increase opportunities for use and social interaction for an extended seasonal cycle, incorporating elements including mound seatings, a sun-deck bridge, benches, and fire pits. An underlying reforestation project anchors a large-scale ecological restoration on the site.

To learn more about the project, please visit OFICINAA’s submission via the Town of Peterborough’s website.