NEWS & UPDATES
Culture & Community
Nubian Square was once Boston’s second commercial center. The goal of the Project is to re-establish the Square as an employment, cultural, and social focus of the Roxbury community. By creating new opportunities for local MBE businesses and entrepreneurs, promoting Black and Hispanic arts and culture, and connecting low-income Roxbury residents to the region’s life science industry through job training, the Project will be a socioeconomic and artistic vehicle to create and expand equity.
Nubian Ascends will create a destination to attract visitors from all over the city and beyond to come and patronize community-based art, culture, shops, and businesses that will leverage other developments and bring the Square back to its former glory.
Nubian Ascends will convert the Blair parking lot into a vibrant center of community interaction, artistic and cultural activity, culinary marketplace and restaurant, culinary training, life science training center, artist housing, and artist studio and collaboration space.
THE PROJECT
THE BUILDINGS
-
Office/Medical/Lab Training Building (130,413 SF)
-
NuSq Market – a Marketplace and Culinary Center (41,536 SF) Public open space, including an Artist Way and planned outdoor activity spaces for concerts, farmer’s markets, etc.
-
NuSq Life Science Training Center - creating career opportunities for Roxbury residents
-
Cultural Hall (21,035 SF) that will create a public performance space and art gallery.
-
15 Artists Residences (15,786 SF), 10 of which are affordable
-
An Art Lab that will provide studio maker space for local artists.
-
A 300-space parking garage (120,035 SF) that will supply parking for the entire Square.
LIFE SCIENCE TRAINING CENTER
The NuSq Life Science Training Center creates career opportunities for diverse Boston residents and helps Boston's life science industry continue to grow locally. There are not enough trained workers to fill Boston's life science jobs and we have eager students looking for solid careers. The solution will take creativity, commitment, and collaboration between the life science industry, the education sector, local and state governments, and projects like NuSq. ​
Nubian Ascends is located in the heart of Nubian Square and provides convenient access to public transportation, ride-share services, and Blue Bike Services. The Nubian Square Bus Station boasts two Silver Line buses (the SL4 to South Station and SL5 to Downtown Boston) and 14 other bus lines for easy access throughout the city.
The proposed 300-space parking garage will allow the project to draw employees and patrons to the 190,000 square feet of commercial, food court, cultural hall. It will also allow the activation of the cultural hall and restaurants that need to provide adequate parking for night activities. And the garage will be a public garage offering parking for all of Nubian Square that has been held back by the lack of parking.
TRANSPORTATION
OPEN SPACE
​Nubian Ascends will also entail the creation of a high-quality public realm. The project will feature a large flexible plaza at the corner of Palmer and Washington Streets, and an “Artist’s Way” that runs through the project site connecting that plaza to Harrison Ave. The Artist’s Way will be an active dining and shopping corridor will be a new place to discover without cars, inspired by pedestrian passages all over the world. Enjoy the ethnic restaurants and artisan retailers whose wares can spill out from their stores. With painted paving, floating lighting, mural screening on the garage, and areas for food trucks, local artisan vendors, and street musicians, the Artist Way is envisioned to draw people to this special, one-of-a-kind ‘instagram-able’ place during the day and into the evening.