The Project
605 Concord at Fresh Pond is a 6-story, 49-unit mixed-use development in Cambridge, MA, completed by Nauset Construction for developer Acorn Holdings. The building offers residential units above street-level retail, with ground-floor amenities designed to activate the streetscape and engage pedestrians throughout the day.
Like any urban mixed-use development, the exterior landscape details needed to be durable, attractive, and built to last, including 22 large custom planters along the building's street-level frontage.
The Challenge: Aluminum on a High-Traffic Urban Street
The original landscape plans called for powder-coated aluminum planters. On paper, it made sense. In practice, there are real concerns about how metal planters would hold up at street level in a dense urban environment, where pedestrian traffic, bikes, and daily wear are unavoidable.
The problems with powder-coated aluminum: scratches expose bare metal and are nearly impossible to touch up, dents are permanent, and the finished appearance degrades quickly. For a brand-new development designed to attract quality tenants, that wasn't acceptable.
Nauset Construction reached out to explore an alternative.
The Solution: Custom Fiberglass, Specified to Match
Tikal proposed custom fiberglass planters as a direct substitution. The case was straightforward: fiberglass delivers the same clean, architectural appearance as powder-coated metal, at a better cost, with a critical advantage in durability. That is, surface damage is repairable, the material doesn't dent, and the finish holds up far better under street-level conditions.
Fiberglass also offered a practical horticultural advantage: as a natural insulator, it buffers roots from the dramatic temperature swings common in New England springs and falls. Black metal planters, by contrast, absorb and conduct heat rapidly, thus stressing root systems and shortening the lifespan of plantings.
As with any specification change on a commercial project, approval required documentation. Tikal provided full submittal packages including shop drawings and physical color and finish samples, giving the landscape architect and developer everything needed to approve the substitution with confidence.
The scope: 22 large custom planters, finished in a custom color matched to the project's design intent and shipped directly to the jobsite.
What Happened Next
Good work gets noticed. A tenant in the ground-floor commercial space saw the planters, tracked down Tikal's contact information through the GC, and reached out about custom matching planters for their patio space. That project is currently in design and quoting, a direct referral born from the quality of the original installation.
What This Project Demonstrates
- Material expertise matters. Knowing when to recommend a substitution, and why, is part of what Tikal brings to every commercial project.
- Submittal-ready from day one. Shop drawings, samples, and documentation handled in-house, so the approval process moves fast.
- Street-level durability. Fiberglass is the right call for high traffic urban environments where metal finishes degrade.
- Work that generates referrals. When the end result is right, the next project finds you.
Planning a multifamily or mixed-use development and need planters that will hold up and look great for the long term? Contact us — we'll turn around a quote in 48 hours.