CBT Wins Rethinking the Future Award for Commonwealth Pier

CBT is excited to share that Commonwealth Pier has received a First Award in the Commercial (Concept/In Construction) category of the 2025 Rethinking the Future Awards. This global design competition recognizes architectural vision and future-forward thinking across a wide range of disciplines and project types.

Set in the heart of Boston’s Seaport, Commonwealth Pier is one of the region’s most complex adaptive reuse efforts, transforming an 11-acre historic marine facility into a vibrant, sustainable waterfront destination. In collaboration with design architect Schmidt Hammer Lassen and client Pembroke, CBT’s role as Executive Architect has focused on delivering a vision of renewal, resiliency, and public vitality.

Built in 1901 as a cargo hub, the original pier structure was once touted as “the largest and best equipped in the country.” Today, its ambitious transformation includes the preservation and reuse of the neoclassical headhouse, 705,000 square feet of modern office, retail, and dining spaces, and over 170,000 square feet of newly accessible public open space—making it a dynamic civic platform that’s rooted in history and designed for the future.

The project’s sustainable strategies are equally forward-thinking. Raised infrastructure, deployable flood barriers, and a structural tie-down system position the pier to withstand sea-level rise, while generous daylighting, stormwater systems, and five new interior courtyards elevate both occupant well-being and environmental performance. The result is a new kind of urban living room for the Seaport District, one that reflects Boston’s maritime legacy while embracing a visionary future.

From a repurposed viaduct and an extended Harborwalk to enhanced marine transit connections, Commonwealth Pier expands what’s possible for legacy sites in flood-prone coastal cities—serving as both a model of sustainable redevelopment and inclusive placemaking.