In the middle of an industrial section of Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood, a subtly inclined lawn ramps up, culminating in a tree-shaded vantage point. The sculpted terrain, designed by local firms Elkus Manfredi Architects and landscape architecture firm Offshoots, is Hood Bike Park. In addition to green space, the 22,000-square-foot public facility provides sheltered bike parking, a repair service, and showers, to encourage this sustainable method of commuting. The park is the centerpiece of a future development, master-planned by Elkus Manfredi, which will transform H.P. Hood Dairy Company’s historic production facility into a mixed-use district encompassing offices, labs, residences, retail space, and a hotel.

The bike park aims to establish a community focal point. “By far the biggest goal was placemaking: to create a destination for the surrounding neighborhood,” explains David Manfredi, Elkus Manfredi CEO and founding principal. It also provides a buffer from the adjacent elevated interstate, a rail corridor, and nearby active industries, including a recycling center and a food-distribution warehouse. Manfredi and Offshoots lifted and tilted the plane of the landscape to orient it away from the industrial sites and delineate a front and back. The landform, along with the grove of trees at the park’s apex, also works to visually shield the green space from the highway and rail lines and mitigate the air pollution they produce.