Oasis @ Bartlett

Oasis @ Bartlett is a 15,000 square foot arts-focused park and 1,000 square foot gallery south of Nubian Square in Roxbury. Located off Washington Street within a new mixed-use development, the project creates a dynamic and purpose-built event and open space. A grid of pillars deployed across the park commemorates the historic uses of the site as a transportation depot and provides a flexible armature to host shade canopies, lighting, and artwork.

Visitors are pulled from Washington Street onto a hardscape plaza designed to host markets, events, and casual gatherings. Beyond the plaza, a lawn and stage provide a space for local artists to perform. Adjacent to the park is the Oasis Gallery complete with restrooms, a wash station, event storage, and display space for rotating art. The design will allow for greater frequency and diversity of local users and scheduled programs to center and amplify the creative community in Roxbury. The culmination of a 10-year multi-stakeholder process, the park is a leading example of how arts-focused spaces can become catalysts for community equity and resilience across the country.

The project seeks to create a permanent Boston-based space that reintroduces public art to Roxbury, thereby participating in the development of the Roxbury Cultural District. The parcel sits within Bartlett Station, an innovative urban mixed-use development comprised of retail shops and 323 units of mixed-income housing that will satisfy the growing need for rental and home ownership housing, designed for families of all incomes.

Artists housing is also included in the building program, contributing to the revitalization of Roxbury, specifically through the lens of art, creative placemaking and community engagement.