Gen Next

Much of Boston, including virtually the entire Seaport District, is built on low lying, filled land; land that was never more than a couple of feet above the reach of high tides. The Museum’s home on Fort Point Channel in the Seaport District is one of the lowest lying areas in South Boston, providing a “flood corridor” that leads into the heart of South Boston from Boston Harbor. As such, The Museum site is one of the highest priority areas requiring resilience solutions.

Resource, Threat, and Opportunity

While climate change and sea level rise are a decided threat, addressing this challenge presents a distinct creative opportunity. One of Boston’s greatest assets is the natural environment that includes the ocean, the Charles River, and a network of parks and open spaces. The challenge provides an opportunity for the Museum to explore resiliency at multiple scales, both as a learning concept and as a physical environment.

• 40,200 people(in 5,140 buildings) exposed to flooding in Seaport and South Boston by 2070 if no action is taken.
• 40 Inchesof projected sea level rise by 2070.
• 355 FeetProtection along the Fort Point Channel offered by the Museum.
• $8.1 Billionexpected in direct physical damages and relocation associated with flooding in Seaport by 2070.
• +4 Feetrecommended increase in flood barrier elevation.

Protecting the Museum and Activating its Waterfront

In 2019, with generous support from funders, the Museum selected international design firm Sasaki Associates, to lead the development of a design masterplan to address critical flood mitigation challenges while also reimagining the Harborwalk in front of the Museum as an engaging play and learning landscape. Sasaki brought together a multidisciplinary team of civil, structural, geotechnical, and coastal engineers, as well as landscape architects, and regulatory and permitting experts. Since then, a draft masterplan has been created as well as an assessment of the Museum building’s vulnerability to a major flooding event. This includes an analysis of the building’s assets and critical systems that require protection. Key protection strategies have been studied to protect the Museum and ensure its viability going forward. This work puts the Museum in the vanguard of solutions to create a resilient Boston waterfront.

Given the magnitude of the project, the private/public partnership we have begun will need to continue. As the only non-profit landholder on Fort Point Channel, the Boston Children’s Museum is in a unique position to bring together businesses, government and philanthropists to fund this transformative project on one of the most dynamic stretches of Boston’s waterfront.