Malden River Works

Maria Law Adams, Souad Akib, Xio Alvarez, Carlos Aragon, Karen Buck, Deborah Burke, Gary Christenson, Amber Christoffersen, Linda Cline, Melanie Gárate, Marie Law Adams, Laura Le, Khalil Kaba, Bobby Knox, Marcia Manong, Emmanuel Marsh, Barbara Murphy, Ramon Norales, Erga Pierrette, Tanvi Sharma, Evan Spetrini, Kathleen M. Vandiver (Project lead), Billy Zeng.

Malden River Works is a new, experimental resilience project in the City of Malden, Massachusetts. Bringing together a new coalition of community leaders of color, youth, environmental advocates, and government stakeholders in action, this project will demonstrate a community-led planning and design process for the creation of a new flood resilient public open space on Malden’s industrial riverfront. Malden Works proposes an innovative 'both-and' model, resisting waterfront gentrification while introducing essential climate resiliency improvements with existing industrial uses and open space. Starting with the only publicly-owned parcel along Malden’s riverfront which houses Malden’s Department of Public Works, the physical transformation of the project site and the planning process will serve as a precedent for realizing the community’s larger Malden River Greenway vision for an accessible pathway along the length of river, designed for public recreation and enjoyment. The project also seeks to serve as a model for the equitable and resilient transformation of similar urbanized waterways in metro Boston and beyond.
 
Malden River Works are the inaugural recipients of the Norman B. Leventhal City Prize.