News
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.
Historic Histrionics
As part of the Edward Brooke Mattapan Charter School project, the design team is pursuing the award of historic tax credits that are administered by the National Park Service. That pursuit guided many of the scoping decisions for the renovation and restoration of the combined 1911 and 1959 vintage structures that will house the school. The historic tax credit process…
Technology in Construction
Arrowstreet relies on field reports to document the construction process on our projects. Visiting the site and making note of conditions, progress, and (occasionally) problems takes a lot of time and careful planning to manage the issues and archive the images. As the Brooke Mattapan Charter School addition/renovation enters the construction phase, we’re going to do something a little differently – using an option through Newforma (our project information management software) that allows use of a mobile app on an iPhone or iPad to immediately capture, track, and log project photos as we walk through the space. Taking advantage of new technology will speed the process even more; for instance by using the iPhone’s Siri we will be able to add text to whatever image is taken and avoid the pesky old-fashioned drag of writing notes and downloading everything once you return to the office. We look forward to never again having to invent a description of a detail that we don’t recall photographing!
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…
Brooklyn Boulders Grand Opening
We’re so happy to join Brooklyn Boulders at the Grand Opening of their new rock climbing gym tonight. The 38,000-square-foot gym has 45-foot tall climbing walls (the largest bouldering walls in the Northeast!), yoga, weights, treadmills, and copious ways to join in the fun – from kid’s programs to climbing classes to commercial incubator space for business start-ups…
The EpiCenter To Expand
Artists for Humanity will be expanding their studio space in South Boston with the gift of land by Gillette. It’s hard to believe the EpiCenter we designed for AFH (Boston’s first LEED Platinum building) opened almost nine years ago now. They have grown to employ more than 250 teen artists. Arrowstreet has continued to work with AFH over the years, including generating ideas for how they could expand…
A-Team’s Walk-off Win!
Congratulations to the Arrowstreet A-Team for bringing home our first victory of the softball season over SMMA… and in dramatic fashion. It was a close, seesaw-style game throughout the night, with each team being ahead in back and forth fashion until the bottom of the seventh, when the A-Team was down by 3 runs. Then a come-from-behind, walk-off grand slam sent the A-Team cheering to a 17-16 win.
Shades of Green
What do you do when your grocery business generates 55,000 tons of food waste every year – the leftovers from the store aisles that aren’t either sold or donated? If you’re Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., you build an anaerobic digester to convert all that food to usable energy.
Renovations at the Harvard Square Hotel
In June of last year, Arrowstreet completed an interiors renovation of the Harvard Square Hotel’s entry lobby and guestrooms. Our aim was to create a refreshed look in contemporary finishes, with a signature frosted glass rail staircase leading from the Mt. Auburn Street entry up to the concierge. To follow on the internal renovations, Arrowstreet is now assisting the hotel in a visual identity and rebranding effort on the building’s exterior…
Rails and Trails
For the past seven years, I’ve lived with my family in a small house that abuts a long abandoned spur of railroad tracks in Somerville, MA. The tracks have had a colorful history, as they used to serve a factory that manufactured paper products, construction supplies, and root beer at various points in its history. We’ve also heard stories from former residents that circus trains used to park on the tracks overnight before their trips into Boston. So lions, tigers, and elephants may have been transient residents of our backyard…