Quilting Urban Renewal

When I moved to New Bedford in 2020 I wondered why six lanes of traffic separated the historic downtown of New Bedford from the waterfront. That question ultimately led me to a research and art project to create a quilt that maps the impact of urban renewal in New Bedford from the 1960s through the 1970s. The quilt shows how the construction of I-195 and Route 18, along with “slum mitigation” policies, led to the destruction of immigrant and working class neighborhoods. This project was made possible in part by the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park’s Artist in Residence program. In Fall 2026 the New Bedford Whaling Museum acquired the quilt.

Standing with the quilt outside the Orpheum Theatre on Route 18, one of the few remaining buildings from the South Terminal urban renewal project. Photo Credit: Ben Berke

At the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Opening. Photo Credit: Nathaniel Roberts

The Origin of the Project

My curiosity about the layout of New Bedford led me to a much larger project examining changes in New Bedford in the 1960s and 1970s. Fabric seemed the right material to layer the changes of the city over time. Cities frequently are described as fabric: the “patchwork” of city blocks, the “fabric of the city,” “torn social fabric,” and the like. Using different colors and patterns brought to life what New Bedford’ looked like before urban renewal, while drawing attention to the scale of what was destroyed.

Quilt Construction & Design

Each block of fabric represents a city block’s activities in the 1960s. A quilted color key designates the type of buildings or land located on that back: for example, multi family housing is represented by pinks and purples, a cemetery by green squares, a forest in dark green, businesses in yellow, etc. In New Bedford, one of the primary impacts of urban renewal was the construction of Route 18 and Interstate 195, which separated New Bedford from the waterfront, cut through neighborhoods and displaced residents, particularly impacting the Cape Verdean community. In the late 1960s to early 1970s, urban renewal policies led to the demolition of city blocks and green spaces. The quilt shows this destruction by cutting out those blocks, leaving them frayed and underlaid with black fabric.

Research & Sources

This project provided an opportunity to understand why New Bedford looks the way it does today. To figure out what each block of the city looked like in the early 1960s, I used a 1960s city directory, aerial images of the city, Standard Times microfilm, historic photographs from Spinner Publications, and original documents from the New Bedford Redevelopment Authority. Other sources included Jennifer Smith’s masters thesis on the South Terminal Urban Renewal Project, Not Just Anywhere: The Story of WHALE and the Rescue of New Bedford's Waterfront Historic District, Say Brother documentary on the racial uprising in New Bedford, and interviews with residents who lived through urban renewal.