blackstone visitors center
worcester, massachusetts
“The Blackstone Visitor Center embraces the city’s forward-thinking agenda, seeking to reclaim a rich legacy tarnished by years of economic and environmental free fall.”
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Type: New Construction
Size: 4.5 acre site with 11,000 SF building
Status: Completed, 2018
Program: Visitors Center, including exhibits and flexible community space
Photography: Chuck Choi -
2023 AIA Architecture Award
American Institute of Architects2020 American Architecture
Awards Chicago Athenaeum2019 Award for Design Excellence
Boston Society for Architecture (BSA)2019 Citation for Design Excellence
AIA New England Design Awards -
Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of a former wire rope mill in Worcester, MA, the Blackstone Visitor Center transforms a brownfield site into a sustainable center for community that celebrates the area’s treasured industrial heritage. The project was initiated as an adaptive reuse renovation of the former Washburn and Moen mill in Worcester’s Quinsigamond Village. However, shortly before construction was scheduled to begin, a fire swept through the original mill, burning it to the ground, and prompting a radical redesign for an entirely new building.
The building hosts a flexible learning space; an exhibit hall that celebrates local history; a large, grassy lawn with a support station for bicyclists; and a new pedestrian bridge that invites visitors to engage with the once badly polluted Blackstone Canal. Throughout, the building and site incorporate a wide range of materials recycled and reclaimed from other deconstructed mill buildings in the area, including the timber flooring and exterior bricks. The site is powered by renewable energy, utilizing a pellet boiler for heat and a PV array that doubles as the roof for a new events pavilion.
impact
The project originally began as a unique opportunity for adaptive reuse of a former mill building, and morphed into a lesson in resilience, flexibility, and perseverance. When our firm was re-engaged to design a new building after the original mill burned down, the team remained focused on the big picture: creating a place that would enrich and engage the Quinsigamond Village community.
Today, the site supports a number of events and community initiatives—the quantity of which have steadily increased since the center’s opening; prior to the pandemic, the visitor center hosted upwards of 100 visitors per day. Visitors are encouraged to discover and delight in the history of the site through engaging interpretive exhibits both indoors and out, and landscaping designed to promote environmental engagement.
The project transforms a toxic site into a haven for the community; an amenity that the long-emburdened community of Quinsigamond can be proud of, and call their own. By sharing a vision for a new, sustainable future, without losing sight of a storied industrial legacy, the Worcester Blackstone Visitor Center creates an opportunity to stitch Quinsigamond Village back into Worcester’s evolving urban fabric.
