Despite playing an important and vibrant role in Massachusetts’ strong tech economy, Kendall Square’s physical appearance, urban design, and vehicular design are at odds with its importance as home to MIT, Google, Microsoft, and Cambridge’s innovation hub. As part of an on-call house doctor contract, Cambridge selected KMDG to lead a visioning exercise for a new and more vibrant Kendall Square, followed with completion of construction documents to remake the Main Street corridor.

Our visioning process included broad public involvement and intensive work with a stakeholders group comprised of the primary real estate, research, and entrepreneurial entities headquartered on the site. There was an overwhelming demand for a relevant and appropriate identity of place, better bike accommodations, and pedestrian safety. These demands were integral to our design: we reconfigured the existing street section to make bike lanes and clarify transit stops, added a double row of trees to define urban rooms, and integrated art and details to point to the site’s innovation culture. This detail scale includes a pixelated paving pattern with a techy connotation, adding a perforated graphic reminiscent of genetic code patterning to an 8’ tall MBTA vent pipe, and selecting a local artist-designed bike racks in the shape of a caffeine molecule and a sine wave. Part ‘blue sky thinking’ of innovative sculpture, information devices, and site elements, and part pragmatic strategic redesign of sidewalks utilizing Cambridge standard bricks and furniture, the objective of the project is to create a vibrant and visible new hub of Cambridge’s innovation epicenter.