Amidst over 2 million square feet of cultural space in the Greater Boston region, there are two unsung heroes in the city of Somerville that aim to preserve and create arts space. In 2019, Somerville adopted a Fabrication District along with an ACE (Arts and Creative Enterprise) requirement when developing.
The spirit of the Fabrication District is to preserve these usually 100-year-old-plus former industrial buildings as artist and creative communities for affordable individual artist workspaces. In Somerville, these are Joy Street Studios, Miller Street Studios, Vernon Street Studios, Milk Row Studios and Washington Street Arts Center. Meaning: Somerville, known for being big on arts, saw how the region was changing, and chose to do what it could to keep artists working in Somerville.
In the Fabrication District, owners may only develop up to four floors, ultimately de-incentivizing developers. Preserving arts spaces. Further, those who want to develop in most commercial or mixed-use Somerville zones are required to allot 5% of the commercial leasable floor plate to ACE uses. Creating more arts space.
Even with these special tools, artist workspace communities in Somerville are at risk, even “high risk,” according to a recent report by the Massachusetts Area Planning Council (MAPC). Any development near an arts building makes it at risk. Development usually causes property values to go up, thus making it tempting for benevolent arts space landlords to sell, when they normally wouldn’t have, causing displacement.