Hillside Center for Sustainable Living

NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS // 2016 - 2025

FORACULTURE: This work was done under our previous studio partnership, Whole Systems Design Collective.

ARCHITECT: Moskow Linn

DEVELOPER: Hall and Moskow

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.  

A fully integrated design, the plan includes a natural playscape with climbing boulders and balancing elements for children, an open lawn area, an amphitheater for performances, rain gardens, and a centrally located vegetable and herb garden for resident use. Small patches of fruit trees, small fruits and berries, hardwood and nut trees, and deep-rooted herbaceous perennials cover the campus. The nut trees provide food, habitat, and increase soil fertility while the perennials attract beneficial insects and pollinators.

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.

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.