Institutional
Fenway High School Groundbreaking
Our Fenway High School addition and renovation project officially began construction with a wonderfully attended groundbreaking on May 8th (video is available). The groundbreaking demonstrated the commitment the City of Boston, Boston Public Schools and Fenway High School have towards its students and the surrounding neighborhoods…
Marblehead Teen Center Update
A nice update on our work in Marblehead on adding a teen center to their library appeared in the local paper yesterday. As it mentions, we’ve been working with the Abbot Public Library and Marblehead High School for about two and a half years now in both an educational and design role. Check out the article here.
Arrowstreet at the Architecture Boston Expo
Arrowstreet’s work will be on display in the exhibit hall again this year at the Architecture Boston Expo, being held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center on November 19-21.If you’re attending, see if you can spot our boards featuring photos of our work at KIPP Academy Lynn and the 210 Broadway Courtyard around the hall!
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.
ULI UrbanPlan Volunteering
As an architect, I enjoy bringing my passion for good design to both the office and to the community. I feel that having connections with the larger community strengthens my ability to connect with the people who interact with our buildings every day. Many of the projects I work on are schools, so I particularly enjoy working with students and…
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…
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…
Building Information Marveling
Perhaps it’s the inner BIM (Building Information Modeling) geek in me, but I’m constantly impressed while looking at the construction document level MEP models that our engineers generate. While there is a certain level of mundanity to the subject matter, there is also an elegance that stems from being able to visualize the entirety of the air and hydronic systems in a building in three dimensions. The models at this stage of development are notable because they represent the many hours of thought and effort from the engineering disciplines all consolidated into one digital representation…