Creating the Future: How Bohler Designs for Resiliency

Bohler is helping to create the future every day by designing projects that transform communities and innovating new opportunities and solutions for our clients.

We look beyond a single plan to consider how a project can remain resilient for decades to come and positively impact future generations. Through historic preservation, redeveloping dilapidated spaces into vibrant communities, and future-proofing projects for climate change, our teams play an important role in creating meaningful, lasting spaces.

This year’s Engineers Week theme is “Creating the Future.” In honor of Engineers Week, we’re celebrating some of the ways our teams contribute toward building a resilient future. The following projects are just a few examples of how Bohler has partnered with our clients to develop with an enduring impact in mind.

Kearny Point

Developer Hugo Neu’s vision for Kearny Point – a 130-acre industrial and office complex in Kearny, NJ – was to provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners to flourish. Bohler helped accomplish that vision by future-proofing the design, recommending to raise the site nearly 10 feet to protect it from potential storm damage. Bohler also developed an innovative stormwater management design, which allowed for a park-like feel while giving Hugo Neu the opportunity to make improvements to the public utility infrastructure. The project won New Jersey Future’s Smart Growth Award for promoting land-use policies that help revitalize cities, protect natural lands, and fuel a prosperous economy.

The Point at Phoenixville

At the Point at Phoenixville, Bohler helped the development team create a new future for a site with a rich history. Throughout the 350-unit multifamily community, located on the site of a historic steel mill, the team preserved historical elements while providing opportunities for residents to connect with each other and the local community. Bohler’s design minimized environmental impact by reducing impervious surfaces, raising the site out of the floodplain, and preventing direct discharge into the French Creek. The team also used a rehabilitated historic footbridge to provide pedestrian access to restaurants and boutiques in town and, ultimately, add value to the entire town of Phoenixville, PA.

Market Terminal

In the early 2000s, the once-bustling market at what’s now known as the Union Market District in Washington, D.C., served as an industrial warehouse, car repair shop, and long-term parking area. Once EDENS transformed the market into a modern food and shopping destination in 2012, the surrounding community gained renewed potential. Bohler helped Kettler and Carmel Properties breathe new life into the industrial neighborhood through the development of a vibrant mixed-use, transit-oriented community called Market Terminal. Bohler designed one of D.C.’s first overall stormwater management master plans for the project, bringing the site’s individual parcels together to meet the city’s environmental regulations as a single unit.

Heron

Water Street Tampa is a transformational urban redevelopment community that connects Tampa’s Central Business District with the surrounding neighborhoods and waterfront. With new residential, office, retail, and hospitality space located directly along the water, the development forms a new central gathering place for decades to come. In designing the Heron, a dual-tower residential high-rise with 420 units, Bohler leveraged long-standing relationships to secure entitlements on a tight deadline and addressed critical site details to keep the project moving forward.

Polar Park

The massive Polar Park redevelopment and surrounding neighborhood in Worcester, MA, rises from a 20-acre brownfield site that had been largely vacant and unused in recent decades. Now, thanks to a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), it’s a community-focused, mixed-use district anchored by a baseball stadium for the WooSox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. As a common consultant between multiple stakeholder groups, Bohler joined an extended project team in bringing the challenging urban renewal project to life. In an unprecedented timeframe, the team conceived, designed, approved, and built the ballpark in just over two years. The redevelopment has created a vibrant downtown, improved infrastructure, and brought the WooSox baseball team home to Worcester.

Two Drydock

The transit-oriented development of Two Drydock contributes to the ongoing transformation of the Seaport neighborhood of Boston, offering state-of-the-art office space, retail, and public amenities. Developer Skanska sought to create an exceptional work environment that considers employee health and enhances workplace productivity while focusing on environmental responsibility. To accomplish the vision, Bohler implemented a sustainable design, creating opportunities to increase resource efficiency throughout the design process and beyond. This included an innovative rainwater reclamation system that reduces potable water usage. Considering long-term climate change factors, the project contributes to the “Climate Ready Boston” initiative, a plan that prepares the city for the eventual impacts of climate change to help build a resilient future.