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Touring the BPL Graphics Project
Lions and libraries and signage, oh my! As the new intern for the Arrowstreet graphics department, I was excited to join a small group of Arrowstreeters on a tour of the large volume of completed graphics and wayfinding work at the Boston Public Library. Over the course of the project, Bob Lowe, Lauren Haggerty, and Jen Hoerig have filled many roles…
Watch the Kinetic Facade in Action
In East Boston, Arrowstreet has been working to deliver Massport an innovative and beautiful skin for the West Garage of Logan Airport. The design team has been working closely with Extech, out of Pittsburgh, on the 50,000 aluminum wind flappers which will show patterns of the wind across two façades of the new garage. We were excited to see a…
Living With Water -100 Acres: Urban Resiliency Test Lab
For the greater part of two months, Arrowstreet has been engaged in a process of research, outside collaboration, and critical design thinking to submit an entry for the city of Boston’s International Design Competition, Living with Water. Intended to catalyze an increase in the city’s sustainability and climate change resiliency, the competition challenged leading planners, designers, and thinkers to envision new solutions and concepts that promote our ability to live with water.
Planning for Resilience in East Boston
Last week, I was invited to attend a grant planning orientation hosted by The Kresge Foundation in Berkeley, California. Recently, East Boston was selected to receive a planning grant for climate resilience in low-income communities around the country. The grant was awarded to Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) in East Boston and was supported by the Urban Land Institute. As…
“Living with Water” Design Charrette at ABX
Yesterday at ABX, the “Living with Water” Design Charrette was held to kick off a companion Design Challenge for the Boston design community. Mayor Marty Walsh was on hand to announce the competition and to emphasize the city’s commitment to finding solutions to climate change and rising sea levels in our coastal communities. Hosted on the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the charrette invited designers, community leaders, and government officials to reflect on the new policies implemented in New York City and to consider what we here in Boston can learn from them.
“Swing Time” at The Lawn on D
Last week, my colleague, Rachel and I ventured over to check out the interactive art display, “Swing Time,” at the Lawn on D in South Boston. If you haven’t been over to check out the piece, I encourage you to do so before it disappears on October 31!
North Jetty Building Groundbreaking
The groundbreaking for the new cold storage building we are working on for Cargo Ventures – located in the Marine Industrial Park in the Seaport – will be held in the next two weeks. The 325,000-square-foot facility will provide refrigerated space tailored to the needs of each cold storage tenant. The rooftop will be a 110,000 SF greenhouse (the size of two football fields) for a yet-to-be-announced urban agriculture grower and will generate enough food to feed 7,000 people…
Brooke Mattapan in USA Today
Brooke Charter Schools are doing some amazing work in our community as discussed in today’s USA Today, and it’s nice we can play a small role with helping them to do those great things. Can’t wait to see what happens when they can teach in their new facility come September.
Technology in Construction
Arrowstreet relies on field reports to document the construction process on our projects. Visiting the site and making note of conditions, progress, and (occasionally) problems takes a lot of time and careful planning to manage the issues and archive the images. As the Brooke Mattapan Charter School addition/renovation enters the construction phase, we’re going to do something a little differently – using an option through Newforma (our project information management software) that allows use of a mobile app on an iPhone or iPad to immediately capture, track, and log project photos as we walk through the space. Taking advantage of new technology will speed the process even more; for instance by using the iPhone’s Siri we will be able to add text to whatever image is taken and avoid the pesky old-fashioned drag of writing notes and downloading everything once you return to the office. We look forward to never again having to invent a description of a detail that we don’t recall photographing!
Scala Shopping Center
Arrowstreet designed a new shopping center in the Cumbayá district of Quito. Scala consists over 170 shops and restaurants wrapped around a beautiful open-air plaza, effectively turning the mall “inside out” to create a vibrant, active shopping experience. High-end finishes and details appeal to both sought-after tenants and visitors. As part of the development’s commitment to sustainability, the shopping center features an energy-saving passive ventilation system and over 90,000 square feet of vertical gardens.
Designed in partnership with local architect Marco Coello.