Pioneering Transformation

in Charlestown

The largest structure in the Navy Yard, the Building 42 complex housed the Machine Shop, Foundry and Forge surrounding a central courtyard with Boiler House and chimney.

Courtesy of the National Park Service

The buildings comprising Parris Landing are no stranger to change. Designed by Joseph E. Billings and constructed in 1858, they featured his signature style of brick construction with monumental arches and granite blocks.

The complex housed shops for the building and repair of steam engines and embodied the Navy’s shift from sail power to steam propulsion. Machinists, boilermakers, and ironworkers built huge engines, boilers, and propellers for vessels like U.S.S. Hartford, the celebrated Union Navy steamer. A century later, technicians inspected castings and welds with the world’s largest X-ray machine.

The most dramatic change occurred after the Navy Yard closed in 1974. The massive industrial complex was converted into apartments—Constitution Quarters–whose residents launched a new waterfront neighborhood.  Architects Anderson Notter & Associates Inc., transformed the cavernous space into housing, while preserving the historic fabric of Billings’ landmark. Its defining feature is a spectacular skylit atrium, surrounded by six residential levels, inspired by the side galleries of the original shop space.

In 2004, Constitution Quarters was converted to condominiums and renamed Parris Landing, after Alexander Parris, prominent Navy Yard architect.

men inside machine shop

Reciprocating steam engines built for U.S.S. Pecos in 1921 dwarf Machine Shop workers.

Courtesy of the National Park Service

Karas interior

When the Navy transferred Building 42 to project developer, Immobiliare, New England, the machi-nery was removed, but industrial debris remained. The side galleries inspired and supported later residential floors.

Photograph by Phokion Karas

Rosenthal interior

Designers gave the former industrial space residential scale by breaking it into bays with cross bridges, glass-enclosed elevator towers, and colorful fabric mobiles.

©1981 Steve Rosenthal

Architects removed buildings to recreate the courtyard, repurposing a steel roof structure as a trellis. Small single-pane factory windows of the 1919 building were replaced with larger windows that echo the original proportions.

©1981 Steve Rosenthal

Sign Location

More …

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens’ rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston’s waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

  • Alexander, James G. Personal interview. 18 Dec. 2019.
  • Anderson Notter Finegold Inc. Award submission, 1982 Homes for Better Living Awards Program.
  • Bither, Barbara and Boston National Historic Park. Images of America: Charlestown Navy Yard. Arcardia Publishing, 1999.
  • Bearss, Edwin C. and Peter J. Snell. Boston Naval Shipyard National Historic Landmark Study. National Park Service, 1978.
  • Black, Frederick R. Charlestown Navy Yard 1890-1973. Cultural Resources Management Study No. 20, Boston Historic Park, 1988.
  • Carlson, Stephen P. Charlestown Navy Yard Historic Resource. National Park Service, 2010.
  • Charlestown Navy Yard: Boston National Historical Park, Massachusetts. Official National Park Handbook. National Park Service, 1995
  • “Grand Award Residential Renovation: Constitution Quarters, Charlestown Navy Yard, Anderson Notter Finegold Inc.” Builder, Oct. 1984.
  • Miller, Margo. “Building 42: Charlestown Navy Yard’s lease on residential life.” The Boston Globe, 3 Oct. 1986, pp. 23, 28.
  • “Navy Yard Project is poised.” The Boston Herald American, 23 Mar. 1979.
  • “A Navy Yard refloated.” Architectural Record, May 1984 pp. 82-87.
  • Nilsson, Edwin O. Rehabbing Historic Structures with Energy Conservation: Constitution Quarters, Charlestown Navy Yard. Nilsson + Siden Associates Inc., 1984.
  • Stevens, Christopher, et al. Cultural Landscape Report for Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston National Historical Park, Boston, Massachusetts. National Park Service, 2005.
  • Temin, Christine. “More art goes public.” The Boston Globe Calendar, 24 Nov 1981, pp. 13-14.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “Italian firm ready if it gets nod as Navy Yard developer.” The Boston Globe, 12 Dec. 1976, p. D1.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “Navy Yard’s new lease on life.” The Boston Globe, 27 Nov. 1977, p. C1.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “Party to celebrate Navy Yard’s recycling.” The Boston Globe, 28 Jan 1979, p. E2.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “Rehab pioneers at Navy Yard.” The Boston Globe, 29 Jun. 1980, pp. E1-E2.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “Navy Yard about ready for tenants.” The Boston Globe, 19 Apr. 1981, p. A55-A56.
  • Yudis, Anthony J. “It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Charlestown’s shipyard project.” The Boston Globe, 24 Jun. 1982, p. 2.

Acknowledgments

Immense gratitude to Jim Alexander and Erica Jackson of Finegold Alexander Architects for all the help they provided – sharing critical insights into the project’s history and design, allowing generous access to the firm’s project materials, and carefully reviewing the final result. Without them this sign would not have been possible.

Our thanks also to the Perkins School for the Blind and David W. Cook for their partnership in creating the audio files.