Boston Complete Streets Design Guidelines

As part of a larger effort by the City of Boston to develop a comprehensive set of new street design guidelines, Utile was brought in as early-stage collaborator to design the graphic content and layout for the Boston Complete Streets Manual. The manual—intended to reflect an ideological shift at City Hall in which the “car is no longer king”— also functions as an important reference document for government agencies, developers, engineers, architects, and other design professionals. Working interactively with the Boston Transportation Department, Toole Design Group, and a city-appointed advisory committee, Utile created a versatile palette of perspective sections that clearly and effectively illustrate the new guidelines for roadway, sidewalk, intersection, and streetscape design, all against a carefully-constructed backdrop of facades and street types evocative of Boston. Utile also designed the website for the Boston Complete Streets program.

The project was awarded the APA 2015 National Planning Excellence Award for a Communications Initiative and the 2014 Grand Award for the CNU-NE New Urbanism Awards. The project team talks about the planning process and final outcome in our Boston Complete Streets video.