The Wayfarer

Location
Hull, MA
Status
Construction Q3 2025
Details
• 186,500 SF
• 132 Units
• Commercial Space
• Chapter 91, MEPA Compliant
Project Team
Client: The Procopio Companies
GC: Dellbrook | JKS
Civil, Environmental, Survey, Landscape: CEC
Environmental Consulting, Engineering, Entitlement: VHB, Lucas Environmental, Woods Hole Group
Code: SLS
Structural Engineer: H+O 
MEPFP: WBA
Interiors: Cube3
MFDS is collaborating with The Procopio Companies to realize a new mixed-use project at 197 Nantasket Ave that will transform a long underutilized stretch of Nantasket Ave in Hull, MA into a vibrant block providing housing, retail, community and recreational spaces, and significant improvements to the public realm in the heart of the Nantasket Beach recreational area. The approximately 190,000 GSF building will provide 132 rental units and 9,350SF of retail and food and beverage operations, and a community room that will be available to reserve for community groups. The project sensitively mediates the private and public programmatic demands it is charged with given its locale in a prominent recreational area, while balancing the need for adaptability and resiliency with current and future flood risks from sea level rise and storm surge.

Site & Context

The project, located in the Nantasket Beach Overlay District, overlooks two bodies of water and is centered between numerous public and civic amenities and recreational areas. Nantasket Beach and Massachusetts Bay is directly east of the site across a Department of Conservation & Recreation owned and operated area that includes beach parking, covered pavilions, bathhouses, and comfort stations.

Directly north, the Paragon Carousel and Paragon Park Museum cap the end of the block of the former Paragon Park, an amusement park that once anchored the area but closed over 40 years ago.

More DCR beach parking abuts directly to the west, but immediately beyond lies Hull Bay, with a local marina and popular seafood restaurant calling the site neighbors.

Site & Context

The project, located in the Nantasket Beach Overlay District, overlooks two bodies of water and is centered between numerous public and civic amenities and recreational areas. Nantasket Beach and Massachusetts Bay is directly east of the site across a Department of Conservation & Recreation owned and operated area that includes beach parking, covered pavilions, bathhouses, and comfort stations.

Directly north, the Paragon Carousel and Paragon Park Museum cap the end of the block of the former Paragon Park, an amusement park that once anchored the area but closed over 40 years ago.

More DCR beach parking abuts directly to the west, but immediately beyond lies Hull Bay, with a local marina and popular seafood restaurant calling the site neighbors.

Public Realm Activation

The proposed project design works to integrate with the numerous amenities and recreational components surrounding the site, incorporating multiple throughways for the public to cross between the two major roads flanking the site, allowing Hull residents and visitors to easily traverse the site and access the adjacent areas and programming.

These linkages take on many forms from simple landscaped pathways to larger, programmed and activated spaces incorporating retail, outdoor and recreational components with multiple uses, all while the main residential housing component of the project retains central and integrated access with Nantasket Ave. 

Placemaking

The building form is segmented into gable roofed wings that anchor the major public and access intersections along the primary street. The wings create a consistent street wall along Nantasket Ave with retail spaces and a residential entrance lobby, while the spaces separating the wings allow for the outdoor expansion of retail spaces into outdoor recreational areas.

These insets and openings are envisioned as vibrant open plazas with planting islands, elevated structures, and material transitions delineating circulation and gathering spaces and defining café zones. A multi-level boardwalk connects sidewalk to ground floor retail spaces, with expansive glass storefront, tall openings, and covered promenades enlivening the pedestrian experience along Nantasket Ave. 
Vignettes of public, retail, and recreational placemaking components

Coastal Resilience

Located in a prime waterfront area, flanked by two bodies of water, the project is designed for free passage of people and water. Though located in a relatively low risk flood zone, the project responds and adapts to changing conditions and future sea level rise. Through a collaborative and productive process with local and state entities, the project is Chapter 91 and MEPA compliant, ensuring the design is sensitive to its locale in all aspects, balancing the needs of site and community with environmental impact and future resiliency.

Sea Level Rise

A series of elevated structures and program allow for the unimpeded flow of storm surge and potential future floodwaters to pass under the building and through the site, minimizing disruption to the natural sheet flow as modeled by the Woods Hole Group specifically for the project for sea level rise conditions in 2070. The tiered elevated structures align programmatically with the hierarchy of public to private spaces from street front into the site, ensuring retail and recreational adjacencies with the public realm remain accessible and approachable while the more private residential components are elevated well above flood elevations so that the main programmatic components are well adapted to future conditions.