Insight
NeoCon 2019 + IIDA Student Design Charette Recap
This year marked NeoCon‘s 51st year as the world’s leading platform and most important event of the year for the commercial design industry. Arrowstreet’s Sallyann Thomas Farnum, Kate Hespenheide, and Anna Vaivoda were in Chicago to take in the latest trends, learn from industry leaders, and find inspiration throughout the Merchandise Mart and across the Windy City. For three days, more…
Military Planning Publications List
Operating in a Persistent Pandemic Environment Arrowstreet—Using data, machine-learning, and an understanding of the Fleet Marine’s on-base job(s) to, in the face of unknown disruptions, enable leadership to make critical workplace and facility decisions to improve resilience on USMC installations. A Marine/Task Centric Approach to Determine Planning Requirements for the Base of the Future Arrowstreet, Quanterion, CHM, 3rd Horizon —A…
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…
US Energy Department Launches Net Zero Energy Schools Program
The US Energy Department has just launched a new program the Better Buildings Zero Energy Schools Accelerator to develop zero energy schools across the country. Several school districts and two states have signed on to be part of this program. These schools aim to greatly reduce energy consumption and provide a better learning environment than conventional construction. The participating districts…
Cambridge Climate Congress
On Saturday I had the pleasure of signing the Statement of Purpose for the 2016 Cambridge Climate Congress. The purpose of the congress was to convene the Cambridge community to discuss the current challenges of climate change and ways in which all people can act as climate citizens to create solutions. Over the last six weeks discussions were held to…
The Future of Architecture with AIANH and AIAVT
There is nothing like fall in New England so it was a pleasure to present my thoughts about the future of the profession and ways that architects can create new value in their work to AIA New Hampshire and AIA Vermont at their annual ARCHtoberfest event. Held annually in a local brewery, this year’s site was the Harpoon Brewery in…
Why Autonomous Vehicles Are Important
With the federal government finally proposing regulations, self-driving Uber’s in Pittsburg, and autonomous taxi’s in Singapore, there has been a lot of media about autonomous vehicles recently. And like so many other disruptive technologies, the news is both exciting and compelling. But why is this important? As much as cars take up a significant amount of space, time, and money…
Disrupting Aesthetics
Recently, Kyle Chayka wrote an interesting article in Verge about “How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world”. Most of the discussion is about what he calls airspace, the “same faux-artisanal aesthetic” (to be clear, which I like) that companies like Starbucks and social networks like Instagram (companies I patronize) seem to have independently chosen to…
Reflecting on KIPP Academy Boston
Ahead of the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the KIPP Academy Boston Charter School in Mattapan, we’ve been looking back on the journey from concept through construction, culminating with our office tour, and the first day of school. Here is what some of the team had to say about working on the project. Larry Spang: Bringing buildings to life through strategic…