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How Design Can Complement Historic Environments
When it comes to design, one rarely thinks of words like “compliment, appropriate, memory or story-telling” as apt expressions to describe our work. That is, unless you plan on intervening in the historic fabric of some of the oldest and most memorable communities of New England. In his book, The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton writes, “In a more emcompassing…
The New Neighborhood Has Spoken
George Tremblay lent me his copy of the book, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. In it, the author writes, “In a more encompassing suggestion, John Ruskin proposed that we seek two things in our buildings. We want them to shelter us. And we want them to speak to us – to speak to us of whatever we find important and need to be reminded of.”
The Alewife Greenway Bike Path
There’s a recently opened section of bike path that connects Mystic Valley Parkway in Arlington to the Red Line at Alewife. The stretch I use on my way to work parallels Route 16 as it passes by Dilboy Stadium just along the western edge of Alewife Brook on its way to Broadway on the Somerville line. It exists in an interesting urban boundary zone…
Visiting India, Part 3 of 3
Srinagar, though only a 90-minute flight from sweltering Delhi, was a place apart. Surrounded by tall mountains and dominated by a beautiful lake, it was forty degrees cooler. We sat by a warm fire in our host’s home the evening I arrived. It seemed more like New England than India…
Visiting India, Part 2 of 3
One of the initial and lasting impressions of urban India involved the mixed-modes of transportation one encounters on the roadways. In general, the typical three-lane road seemed to function in reality with five lanes flowing smoothly amid a cacophony of horns that signaled the intentions of drivers more effectively than blinking directionals…
Visiting India, Part 1 of 3
Arrowstreet sent me to India earlier this year to rekindle ties with a colleague. Saurabh Bagley & Associates (SMBA) is a firm in New Delhi doing a significant volume of work. Mr. Bagley had worked at Arrowstreet during his time as a graduate student at MIT. After his return to India, Arrowstreet teamed up with SMBA on a few commercial projects, but we hadn’t had a chance to work together in a few years. So, I went to meet with Saurabh and see his firm’s work, prospective clients and a country about which I knew little. The impressions I was left with were, in general…
Quirks of 3-D Printing
Arrowstreet is currently designing a unique private residence in India – a Georgian-style estate with some traditional Indian motifs incorporated. At the same time, we’re experimenting with in-office 3-D printing. What better way to combine these two things, we asked ourselves, than by 3-D printing some interesting details of the residence…
Wisconsin Place Wins ICSC Award
We’re pleased to announce that Arrowstreet was a Silver Award winner at this year’s ICSC Design and Development Awards with Wisconsin Place in the category of “Innovative Design and Development of a New Project”…
Rock Spring Centre
Arrowstreet is currently working on Rock Spring Centre, a large mixed-use project in Montgomery County, Maryland. The project received Planning Board site plan approval earlier this year, an important milestone that entitles the development to proceed to final certification prior to submission of documents for construction permitting…