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Tesla Drives to the Future
Last year, Elon Musk of Tesla announced that they were expanding beyond cars, and launched Tesla Energy. He said, “Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy.” While it seems hard to imagine how a small car company can change the way the entire world uses energy, I recently attended a presentation by Tesla’s Chris Walti,…
Hitting the Links with AST
On June 16th Arrowstreet employees and their families designed and played our in-office golf course for the annual Arrowstreet Mini-Golf Tournament. Each year, Arrowstreeter’s sign-up to design one of nine holes around the office using whatever they can find, leading to some very interesting holes. This year we had a Vermont-themed farm with Cabot cheese and maple flavored treats, an anti-Patriots…
RetailGreen: Tales from a Newbie
I recently attended my first ICSC RetailGreen and Centerbuild conferences this year. As a newbie in the room I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I must say it was a great experience. There were tons of people to meet and a wide spectrum of perspectives from within the retail building industry. This led to plenty of interesting and diverse conversations throughout the week.
Brooke Mattapan Charter Concludes Construction
We are currently wrapping up construction for our work at Brooke Mattapan Charter School, and while on site I snapped these pics to show the progress. The building was constructed in the early 1900s, and we’re modernizing it to accommodate 475 students in grades K-8. Most noticeably in these photos you can see the addition of the glass stair tower,…
TedxSomerville: Movement
Recently in Somerville, TED’s “Ideas Worth Spreading,” were in full motion, with a local twist! Located at the Arrowstreet-designed Brooklyn Boulders rock climbing gym, TEDxSomerville’s Movement-themed event was a 6-hour long series of talks and performances by local community members. Aptly located, the event centered around the theme of “motion” – from physical to mental and individual to communal.
Stair Reconstruction
In the center of the Edward Brooke Mattapan Charter School is a unique egress stair, an anomaly compared to what is a necessary, yet nondescript, element of many buildings. In much commercial construction, egress stairs are designed solely for the logistical purpose of getting occupants out in the event of an emergency. In schools, however, while still providing that code-required functionality, egress stairs also serve as arteries for student movement. Since these stairs are central to a school’s vertical circulation patterns, considering the spatial qualities of an egress stair is just as important as making sure that it is code-compliant…
BAC Graduation
On May 24th David Burn and I graduated from the Boston Architectural College as part of a 148 student graduating class. We proudly participated in a BAC tradition walking in full regalia from 320 Newbury Street (the main BAC building) to the commencement ceremony at Old South Church in Copley Square, accompanied by a Dixie land band. It must have been quite a sight, judging from the looks on bystanders’ faces! The commencement ceremony itself was a great celebration. There was a pleasantly personal feel and focus on the students by the president of the school, Ted Landsmark, and an interesting commencement address from Architect of the Capital, Stephen Ayers…
Fenway High School Senior Science Fair
Last December, Matt Rice and I spent a morning helping out as judges for the Fenway High School Senior Science Fair. It was a fun venture out of the office, a way to get involved with the community, and a great way to get to know some of the students, since Arrowstreet is currently designing a renovation and addition to their school. The science fair was held at the Museum of Science with several dozen seniors presenting their experiments. We were given a rubric and an overview of the grading, then were sent off to inquire about students’ work. While there are too many great examples to list, I specifically remember one student who studied the effect of hair coloring products on the strength of hair; a study which has some potential to be quite useful in applications outside of the classroom. I’m excited to see what next year’s seniors come up with.
Volleyball at Arrowstreet
Arrowstreet just rounded up competing in the architects’ volleyball league in Boston. A handful of AST’ers helped lead us to success this season, including Jason King (our heralded coach and inspirational pre-game speaker), Greg Triplett, Kate Bubriski, Victoria Wright, and myself, along with several spouses and friends. We put together a strong showing during the regular season with a 43-13 record, earning us a #3 seed in the playoffs. Sadly, our tournament hopes ended in the second round of the playoffs this year, but we have high hopes for next year: we anticipate the return of many strong, and now seasoned, players from this season’s squad. (Not to mention the strenuous off-season workouts Coach King surely has planned.) Thanks to all who played, it was fun!
Softball at Arrowstreet: The A-Team
Work hard and play hard: several of us Arrowstreeters have joined “The A-Team”, a softball team in the Boston architects’ league. Our team is a crew of employees from a few different firms around the area including Albert, Righter & Tittmann Architects, the MSCBA, Foley Fiore Architecture, Form and Place, and Arrowstreet. We are about halfway through the season and just shy of .500 at 3-4. It’s time to step up to the plate and finish the season strong. Go A-Team!