Starlight Square is a temporary intervention created by the Central Square Business Improvement District, Flagg Street Studio, and Boyes-Watson Architects, designed to build capacity within the Central Square community for outdoor performance, learning, dining, and dialogue. Before the pandemic, however, we pitched the idea to the City of Cambridge as something much simpler. Still using scaffolding and scrim, we imagined using a portion of Lot 5 to create a square in the Square, a civic commons in the heart of the city. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the idea was reimagined to meet the scale of the crisis, still holding true to the original intent. What you see at Starlight today realizes decades’ worth of city planning and participation from the Central Square community.

We are proud to have brought this project to life, but it was truly a district-wide effort. From donated jersey barriers and pro-bono legal advice, to burrito lunches and extra hands for mulching, the extended Central Square family stepped up in a big way to create Starlight