Resilient Communities - Lower Roxbury - Cooling station construction

Cooling station construction

4 cooling structures built.

Lower Roxbury, Boston

Cooling structures and site activations are turning an underused lot into a space for community rest and relaxation.

Green construction trainees put their new skills in practice building 4 cooling structures.

The structures provide shade, mist and seating to improve an underused, city-owned lot.

An opening event to introduce the site and cooling stations to the community drew over 90 attendees.

To build a picture of each community, the Resilience for Communities (R4C) program used risk mapping, open-data sources, expert interviews, community surveys and focus groups. This assessment used the Climate Resilience Measurement for Communities (CRMC) tool to assess community resilience to extreme heat and flooding - helping to identify priorities and design solutions.

Sources of resilience — Shade and seating structures in an underused city lot add to the community’s Physical, Social and Human capital.

Physical

Social

Human

Shade and seating structures improve the comfort and useability of a local green space.

Green construction trainees honed their construction and designed skills with a practical, hands-on project.

Impact multipliers — Resilience solutions have a different mix of impact multipliers and impact multiple systems, businesses and societies. Together, multipliers produce an amplified impact.

Access to Cool Spaces

The cooling structures improve the useability of an underused, city-owned lot. More community members using the space makes it more likely for the City to maintain and invest in the lot as a green space instead of for development.

Community awareness

Adding shade and seating to this underused city-owned lot has allowed more community members to use the space, raise awareness of it and ensure the lot is maintained as green space and not developed.

Job creation for all

The green jobs curriculum model, paired with a hands-on, practical project in the community has the potential to be replicated and multiply impact in other communities in Boston and in other cities.

How does this solution make a difference? – Addressing prioritized shocks and stresses

Extreme Heat

Lack of green space

Unemployment

A cool place to rest and relax

The addition of cooling structures to the lot has enhanced its usability and attractiveness for nearby residents and the house of worship located on site, creating a cool space for rest, relaxation and community events.

Expanding green space through tactical design

Communities like Lower Roxbury are seeing increased development, even as they are overheating and have historically experienced underinvestment. A tactical approach to enhancing green spaces and bringing community members together can help preserve and expand green spaces in the neighborhoods that need it most.

A practical, hands-on project

Participants in the green jobs curriculum gained valuable career skills and completed a practical, hands-on project they can showcase as a professional accomplishment.

Roxbury and neighboring Dorchester have uneven access to parkland. Outside of Franklin Park, a large park in the southern part of the neighborhood, only 6% of the neighborhood is park space. Uneven park access means not all residents benefit from the cooling features of parks.

Source: Heat Resilience Solutions for Boston Final Report.

These observations led to a surprising observation: grass nearby and under the shade and misting structure thrived, while areas of the lot exposed to direct sunlight were hotter, patchy and dry.

In 2024, YouthBuild Boston served 149 students, 85% of whom from lowincome families.

Source: YouthBuild Boston 2024 Impact Report.

Hot links

Dorchester Weather Theater Ensemble on Instagram

Lower Roxbury Community Action Plan