The UMass Boston Public Safety and Athletics Garage has been recognized with an AIA New England Design Award, and for the jury, it was all about thoughtful and well-executed details.

The 1,400 space garage serves as a connection node for the University, traditionally a “commuter college” since relocating to Columbia Point on Boston Harbor, in alignment with the school’s master planning vision.

The garage features playful design details that are a nod to the baseball field directly adjacent to the structure. By pulling out various pedestrian circulation components from the façade, and providing multiple athletic field viewing opportunities, the west façade heightens the connection to the fields and becomes more dynamic than expected. In addition to these added viewing opportunities, the façade is further deformed by perforations that imagine the memory of ball trajectories. Within this part, aluminum tubes are added, to screen the parked vehicles within but also to invoke an emblematic association with aluminum baseball bats, lined up along an imaginary fence.