Hillside Center for Sustainable Living

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS // 2016 - ONGOING

The Hillside Center for Sustainable Living is the first housing community of its kind striving to decrease CO2 emissions from housing, food, and transportation to create a net-positive development. Everything about this project is an experiment in modern urban living. The plan included a greenhouse, individual and shared garden spaces, half an acre of edible landscape, outdoor gathering spaces, and outdoor amphitheater seating for events.  

The fully integrated design includes porch and rain gardens and a centrally located vegetable and herb garden for resident use. We also planned (and have planted some) small patches of fruit trees, small fruits and berries, hardwood and nut trees, and deep-rooted herbaceous perennials. In addition to providing food, the nut trees provide habitat and increase soil fertility while the perennials attract beneficial insects and pollinators

Outdoor gathering spaces include a natural playscape with climbing boulders and balancing elements for children, an open lawn area, and an amphitheater for performances. A small amphitheater complements the grading needed for stormwater management, integrating seating walls and stone steps into the existing hill.

Construction is ongoing with new units coming online annually. The landscape is slowly developing and maturing while residents become accustomed to and find balance with a working and edible landscape.

*Work performed while at Whole Systems Design and Whole Systems Design Collective. Photo Credit: Hillside Center for Sustainable Living

Site plan showing layout of buildings, greenhouses, parking, pathways, landscaping, and recreational areas for a residential or community development.
A digital rendering of sustainable, eco-friendly community housing with rooftop solar panels, greenhouses, and outdoor gathering spaces.
Architectural site plan with garden landscaping, trees, and building layout details, including labeled sections, plantings, and construction notes.
Aerial view of a residential area under construction with new houses, construction material piles, and a wooded area in the background.
Black and white photo of a two-story house with a steep gable roof, three upper windows, and a front porch with two rocking chairs. There is a small garden with plants in front and a Buddha statue near the stairs.
Stone retaining wall with plants and yellow flowers growing in front of it.
A garden scene with pink coneflowers and yellow Black-Eyed Susans, with a stone waterfall feature in the background and a staircase leading up a hill.
Black and white photo of a backyard garden with a stone pathway, large rocks, bushes, flowering plants, a wooden fence, and a stone retaining wall.
Two men working on a garden or landscape project, placing large rocks on a slope with trees and a wooden fence in the background.
A blooming tree with white flowers in a residential neighborhood, with houses, a sidewalk, and parked cars in the background.
Yellow flowers with dark centers growing alongside gray stones and green foliage.