Key Facts
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1986
Designed
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140 ac.
Project Size
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Fields Point Corp.
Client
Program
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500
Units
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165,509 sq.ft.
Retail Space
About Mashpee Commons
Mashpee Commons was the first retrofit of a strip retail center into a traditional town center that for over thirty years has provided the surrounding 23 square-mile suburban community of Mashpee, MA, its walkable urban node. With the redevelopment of a failed 1960s shopping plaza already underway, DPZ was invited in 1988 by visionary developer Cornish Associates to help master plan the commercial center and the surrounding neighborhoods.
The housing in Mashpee Commons has been slow to materialize due to regulatory hurdles, but is now on track to provide a diversity of affordable attached and multi-family options. Helping to guide the transformation into an authentic New England village, has been the skillful contributions of designers like Randall Imai, of Imai Keller Moore Architects, and Bill Dennis.
In May 2002, DPZ held an update charrette to finalize the structure of the project as a finished town. Other design workshops have followed at regular intervals, including one in the Spring of 2018.
Development Approach
- Local & regional blended: notable mix of national retailers and local “mom-and-pop” merchants.
- Entertainment & services: cinema, restaurants, banks, apparel, supermarket and drug stores coexist.
- Aging in place: housing options for starters, move-ups, luxury & seniors.
Defining Design Details
- Tradition revered & updated: simple volumes, vertically proportioned openings, limited materials = practical & attractive architectural vernacular
- Blended differences: Affordable and market-rate share the same Cape Cod architectural syntax.
- Retail + placemaking innovation: 1 and 2-story liners provide 20 ft. deep incubator shops, screen parking lots, & keep street frontage continuous.
Applied Initiatives
Project Website
http://www.mashpeecommons.comMedia
The first suburban retrofit gets a neighborhood
From: CNU Public SquareBy: Robert Steuteville
Saving the Suburbs Part-2
From: The New York TimesBy: Allison Arieff
Books & Publications
Solving Sprawl: Models Of Smart Growth In Communities Across America
By: F. Kaid Benfield, Jutka Terris, Nancy VorsangerPublished By: Island Press
Planning Ideas That Matter: Livability, Territoriality, Governance, and Reflective Practice
By: Bishwapriya Sanyal, Lawrence J. Vale, Christina D. RosanPublished By: MIT Press
Pathologies of Modern Space: Empty Space, Urban Anxiety, and the Recovery of the Public Self
By: Katheryn MilunPublished By: Routledge