Inspiration
Greenbuild 2013
Last November I headed to Philadelphia to attend Greenbuild 2013, an annual conference dedicated to the green building movement. Attendees share ideas, learn from industry experts, and develop new ideas to advance this movement. The 10th annual conference was attended by almost 25,000 practitioners, manufacturers, contractors, government officials, citizens, students, and more.
Edward Mazria gave a presentation I particularly enjoyed. Mazria is the founder of Architecture 2030, an organization focusing on buildings, the largest consumers of energy in the world, to address and reverse climate change. The 2030 Challenge sets targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions…
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…
Boston Globe on CitySquare
Paul McMorrow’s article in the Boston Globe this week was a thoughtful, nuanced description of our CitySquare project in Worcester. Advocating for a deliberateness in development as well as the importance of density to create a vibrant downtown, the article offers a glimpse into what makes a city successful. As McMorrow writes: “The city is currently working on rebuilding a downtown that looks and functions like one. It is a turnaround plan that celebrates the downtown, instead of suburbanizing it. It recognizes that good downtowns start with people, and once downtowns fill with people, business happens organically.” McMorrow also highlights the importance of residential density, a key component of our master plan, to the transformation of Worcester as it creates a critical mass of people invested in the success of their neighborhood…
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…
More On the EpiCenter Expansion
Corporate Neighbor Helps Arts Program Expand from Chris Lovett on Vimeo.
Here’s a BNN video with a little more information on the EpiCenter expansion previously mentioned. Gillette’s generous gift has made this expansion possible, and we’re excited to see what comes next.
Mount Equinox
I took a vacation last year to a site with no easy way in or out: Mount Equinox‘s Skyline Drive holds the record for the longest paved private road at 5.2 miles. While it’s not open year round, the drive is a pretty amazing vantage for views of most of New England and the Adirondacks. It’s a pretty crazy drive, full…
Check out Our New View!
While visiting our soon-to-be office, I snapped some photos of the beautiful views we’ll have from the new space. We’re excited to be a part of the Post Office Square neighborhood.