Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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continues to advise on environmental matters and monitoring. The magnitude of land remediation, even before the first concrete was poured, made for unusual demands. "Nobody wanted to touch it because the environmental liabilities were expensive to touch," Elizabeth Henry president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts told a New York Times reporter. However, many studies of the site were already completed, says Gordon "so we had a didn't know that this city of 45,000 had a shoreline, even though 10 shipyards lined the river once; mills sprang up to process grain and spices, paints, cloth, and other products. More recently, a Monsanto chemical plant sprawled across the acreage to the south, even earning a street name, Chemical Lane. Once the plant closed and was dismantled after more than a century of producing chemicals and herbicides, the land remained fallow and toxic, an environmental nightmare. But in 2014 Wynn Design and Development began envisioning a radical makeover of the property to build a world-class resort and casino. Once the Massachusetts Gaming Commission approved legislation that legalized gaming, which allowed for an integrated resort, Wynn moved swiftly to gain the coveted license. According to president of development and Winchester resident Chris Gordon, "The Boston market is spectacular, with a vibrant economy, and is a great tourist location. There's a lot of international tourism, and it's a tourist hub for people who visit New England." After five years of planning, review, and competition—and $2.6 billion—Encore Boston Harbor has risen as a testament to smart development, environmental rescue, and community renewal. Building on a polluted site did present challenging obstacles that required cooperation among government, environmental stewards, organizations, and local communities. Erik Hansen, Wynn's chief sustainability officer, says Wynn was committed ultimately to making it a pristine site. "Whatever the cost would be, we were going to cover the complete cost of remediation and bring it back to the condition it was over 150 years ago." Early on, Wynn partnered with the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), an organization whose mission is to protect and restore the Mystic River, its tributaries, and watershed lands. The group provided invaluable assistance in the restoration and 102 pretty good idea of what we were getting into." Yet the scope of the cleanup was broader than expected and more than doubled the re- mediation costs. The process lasted 18 months and cost $68 million to complete, requiring removal of 840,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site and 41,000 tons of contaminated T H E R E W A S A T I M E W H E N M A N Y I N E V E R E T T The location for the resort and casino was once a polluted site. More than 840,000 tons of contaminated soil was removed. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR. BY BARBARA KRAFT (OPPOSITE TOP), BY ROGER DAVIES (OPPOSITE BOTTOM)