Extensive Welcome: Three-way Threshold at Chinatown’s Gate

Abstract

Benevolent Associations have helped Chinese immigrants settle in America for more than a century. Not only do they harness Chinese American collectivity for a voice in local governments, but they also offer classes and social services to new arrivals. Yet unlike missionaries intent on conversion, Benevolent Associations operate without the need to shed existing identities and beliefs. These Associations service immigrants' liminal state and teeter to fulfill Chinese and American expectations. In other words, Benevolent Associations see thresholds as hospitable conditions unto themselves. This thesis considers a new space for Boston's Benevolent Association through thresholds under urban, programmatic, and tectonic conditions. Straddling Chinatown's border, the structure frames and reinforces the iconic Chinatown gate. Meanwhile, by moving what is typically at the center of Chinatown to its periphery, the Association opens itself up for a reciprocal relationship between insiders and outsiders. Just as new immigrants learn English to venture beyond Chinatown, others can learn Chinese for opportunities in Chinatown. The softened border manifests as parallel walls with spaces in between. Meandering circulation punctures these walls to produce spatial depth in the oblique, which concludes at a roof garden vis-à-vis the Greenway. Conceived as CLT blanks, cross-stacked, the structure accommodates varying bays that house the Association's diverse programming. The resulting spaces push back on the open plan's promise of a melting pot - that belonging is best produced by smoothing over difference - to retain and contrast each space's character through a staccato of thresholds.