Information

GLX Gilman Square Station

Somerville, MA



Gilman Square in Somerville, MA is a city-owned site. It is directly adjacent to the Green Line Extension (GLX) stop which connects Somerville to downtown Boston. It sits at the bottom of a steep slope, behind (and several stories below) City hall and the newly constructed Somerville High School.

It is complex, rich, and sharply pulls into focus the fiercely overlapping structural issues that the city faces. Transit-induced gentrification, astronomical housing costs, rabid capital-driven development, potential displacement, and the total reconfiguration of a neighborhood are all at stake. Somerville is a working-class city that has rapidly gentrified and continues to do so. With a population of 81,000, the city has borne witness to explosive economic growth with the creation of new jobs and industries. Biotech and robotics startups, hackerspaces, and data science jobs have flocked to the city. What used to be a warehouse is now a 3D printer startup; the old post office now houses a robotics company. 

The projects proposes two buildings: The Youth Think Tank, located directly across from the Piano Building and the Community Forum, hugging the side of School St. On the site, they are slightly displaced relative to each other, carving out three distinct pockets of public space that open to Medford St. These spaces connect users to a green space and the station access point. This guiding design gesture of expanding thresholds frame the project’s investigation of community power and belonging amongst stakeholders and youth. 





The Youth Think Tank is a place for teens operated by teens. It affords youth opportunities of entrepreneurship, enrichment, political engagement, and play. The program aims to recognize and give agency to youth through a Student HQ where city officials and representatives can meet with teens in a transparent way. The Cafe is student-run and employed; and the Retail space encourages ideation and independence. The program organizes around a central core that prioritizes transparency and accessibility.


The Community Forum is the interface through which the community collides. As you can see from the plan drawings, thresholds are determined by split leveling and the use of rotating screens. The community forum offers adaptable rooms and spaces available to community organizations and individuals to reserve. Program capacity ranges from political campaigning, town halls, AA meetings, live music, afterschool programs, and birthday parties. 

In section, a mezzanine runs along program edges as a way to invite participation and The Community Forum helps strengthen Gilman Square’s identity as a vibrant place where community members are active agents of change.


The Community Forum and Youth Think Tank rely on each other for success and an exchange of power but also gives teens the agency to find their own voice in their own space.




Lily Gucfa