Building a Connected City From the Ground Up

Outside of Boston, community developer LStar Ventures is getting the chance to build a smart city from the ground up on the site of a long-shuttered naval air station in this town just 12 miles south of Boston’s booming technology hub, reports Lisa Provost for The New York Times. By starting from scratch, the company can embed smart technology into the energy, water, lighting and transportation systems that will serve the community.

LStar is pushing ahead with the smart city, called Union Point. Plans include thousands of housing units and millions of square feet of high-tech commercial space on about 1,500 acres that extend into the neighboring towns of Rockland and Abington. The community’s glass towers, public plazas, clustered housing, scattered parks and retail zones will be contained within 500 acres, leaving the rest as dedicated open space.

So far, the community consists of about 1,200 occupied single-family homes, townhouses and apartments, as well as a nearly completed $28 million sports complex with a miniature replica of Fenway Park. A cavernous aircraft hangar will be renovated for use as the centerpiece for a downtown district with shops, restaurants and open spaces with public programming.