News
LEED Goes Shopping
Our LEED Certification portfolio is full of retail projects, but one retail building type has been elusive: the mall in-line store. That is, until this year. With a project on the boards now (sorry, confidential), we have worked out a path to the LEED plaque. Getting LEED certification for a retail store in a mall setting can be difficult. If…
Brooke Mattapan Charter School
We’re excited to announce the start of construction for the new Brooke Mattapan Charter School that will be opening in the fall of 2014. This K-8 school is an expansion of the extremely successful program that the Brooke School is currently operating in Roslindale, and the staff and students who will occupy the Mattapan site will be relocating from a temporary space elsewhere in Boston…
It Starts With Light
Recently, I had the chance to visit the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The little art museum by Louis Kahn is one of those master works we study in architecture school, learning by re-drawing its plan, section, and details. It seems simple. Six rows of barrel vaults with some space left out in the middle for a small exterior garden. Concrete, travertine marble, and some drywall. But what Kahn did with those few things! …
Rebuilding Together
I recently participated in a volunteer event organized by Rebuilding Together Boston. Rebuilding Together’s mission is to provide critical repairs and renovations for low-income homeowners across the United States. The organization gathered about 300 volunteers to participate in building rehabilitation projects throughout the city. The site I visited was a Dorchester home owned by a 63-year-old single woman who suffers from…
Women’s Lunch Place Volunteer Session
On a recent Saturday morning, Arrowstreet sent three volunteers to help staff the early shift at the Women’s Lunch Place. A privately funded, non-profit organization operated almost entirely by volunteers, the Women’s Lunch Place provides meals and other services on a daily basis to the homeless and underprivileged women of Boston. Their kitchen and cafeteria are housed in a pleasant and brightly-lit space which Arrowstreet helped renovate in 2011 in the basement of the Church of the Covenant on Newbury Street…
Engehoej Kirke
I recently visited the beautiful and striking Enghǿj Kirke (church) in the northern part of Jutland, in Denmark. The building’s minimal form and details create a space that, while much smaller, recalls the volumetric feel of a cathedral. The inverted ‘V’ shape of the structure is meant to reference the underside of a ship, an apt reference in a country where the sea is only ever 45 minutes away. While one might expect that these elements (starkness and ships) be unique to this building, they are in fact prevalent in most Danish churches. The last two photographs, from a neighboring 16th century church, clearly illustrate these similarities.
Reach for the Stars
It’s been a long time since I saw “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” the German expressionist movie from 1920, but I’ll never forget the strange stage sets with their outlandish, angled buildings and furniture. Walls curve up, doors and windows are turned, and no two lines are parallel. The performers dance more than they walk, swinging their arms with emphasis and force.
On a recent site visit to the Somerville Brooklyn Boulders rock climbing gym, I snapped some photos as I usually do. When I returned to the office, I was struck by these two photos. The curving walls, mix of textures, angular light, and the construction machinery all mix together to bring back memories of Dr. Caligari’s set. Of course, that’s where the similarity ends. The movie is about a sleepwalker. I assure you that nobody will be sleepwalking in this facility when it’s open!
Brooklyn Boulders in the News (Again)
Check out the article in this week’s Metro, featuring Brooklyn Boulders’ rock climbing gym – opening soon in Somerville. It features our renderings of the space and a snapshot of what’s to come…
Sustainability is Good Business
Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Boston Chamber event “Making the Business Case for Sustainability”. This was a panel discussion of the integration of sustainability into business with representatives Johanna Jobin from EMD Millipore, Carolyn Kaplan from Nixon Peabody LLP, and Tony Calandro from VOX Global. The panelists represented varying industries, from service to production, which provided a range of perspectives on what sustainability means to various sectors…
Excel Academy Gala
Last week Larry Spang, George Tremblay, and I had the pleasure of attending a fund raising celebration that was put on by Excel Academy Charter Schools. Excel serves the Boston area with three individual middle schools, one of which is a recently completed Arrowstreet project. With the recent approval of their charter expansion, they also plan to open a high school in the near future…