The fold house is a study in concrete panel construction. One of the full scale prototypes created for the Boston Architecture College exhibition was a concrete panel wall with a tessellated surface. Vertical concrete panels were hinged one to the other establishing the folded geometric pattern. The underlying idea for this prototype is the driving force behind the Fold House. Here, concrete panels hinge upon one another to form a compressed surface.
The Ashby Free Public Library is a passive solar building, intended to serve as a model for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). The project is an 8,000 SF addition to an existing masonry library. The two-story structure houses a children’s library on the lower level. The upper level contains a young adult’s area, main adult library, periodicals, and director’s offices. The resulting efficient plan separates children’s, and adults programming, while allowing integration on various levels.
The goal of this project was to divide the space into a definitive function, yet retain the feeling of an open plan loft. A series of “L” shaped bars were inserted to organize the space. Visual unity is maintained by reducing form and color to bare essentials, and breaking this mold only when required by program. Continuous light maple built in cabinets provide a constant rhythm throughout the loft. Darker idiosyncratic cabinets are inserted into this baseline to provide definition.
This project is an inquiry into shared lives in multi-family dwelling situations. Specifically, here is a two family house oriented around a central courtyard. The lower level serves a more public function; kitchen, living room, dinning, etcetera. While the upper floor contains private functions; sleeping, and office work. There are two separate dwelling units literally, and figuratively interlocked.
This project is an effort to bring levity to a housing crisis in the City of Cambridge. In today’s market, if one could find the land, it would cost less to build a new two bedroom house than it would to buy an existing one. This small sliver of land is occupied by a squat little structure known locally as “the grudge building.” Locals speculate that the landowner built the house to spite an abutting neighbor who refused to purchase the tiny parcel. This serves as the basis for our site response.
BERKLEE COLLEGE COMMISSIONS WSDG FOR MAJOR PROJECTS
Concurrent Work On Two Continents: Boston, Mass. & Valencia, Spain
In a patent message of confidence in education and the inherent strengths of the world economy, the Berklee College of Music has embarked on a significant expansion program. In Valencia, Spain, an entirely new campus opened in January, 2012. In Boston, the first ground-up building in Berklee’s 66-year history, 160 Massachusetts Avenue, a 16-story, $100 million structure, began construction in December 2011. While U.S. and Spanish architects were engaged to create strikingly disparate footprints for each of these bold projects, a single internationally recognized studio design and acoustical consultancy, the Walters-Storyk Design Group, was commissioned to create the audio education studios for both these learning complexes.
Tags: Boston, Massachusetts, Spain, Valencia Comments Off on Berklee Valencia / Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts & Valencia, Spain by Walters-Storyk Design Group
The latest in a series of strategic development and planning initiatives by BMC, this ambulatory building embodies the hospital’s mission to provide “exceptional care, without exception.” Located on a highly visible site, the nine story building represents the first phase in a long term effort by Boston Medical Center to transform the image of its Albany Street campus edge. The building will set the stage for future improvements along Albany Street, including a provision for easier pedestrian access and a better defined, active street edge.
By placing the new addition of the Islamic Cultural centre next to the existing building we where able to set the parameters and proportions of the new part freely. The new building is raised above the ground by round, slender pillars. The volume is connected to the existing building by a passage, linking the new building to the communication of the existing one. The proposed volume is closed to the outside and opening up on the inside. The concrete facade has an intricate pattern working with shifting planes, creating shadow effects and an elegant and playful expression.
The Center for Life Science | Boston is the first of its kind in the country, a speculative, privately-owned, high-rise, multi-tenant laboratory building that offers flexible, cutting-edge research space to leading academic and medical institutions— Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital Boston, and the Immune Disease Institute—without the institutions’ having to spend their own capital dollars. The 22-story building is located in the Blackfan Research District of Boston’s renowned Longwood Medical Area, home to the highest concentration of life science researchers in the world.
Construction Manager: William A. Berry & Son, Inc.
MEP Engineer: AHA Consulting Engineers
Structural Engineer: McNamara/Salvia, Inc.
Landscape Architect: Copley Wolff Design Group
Acoustical Consultant: Shen Milsom & Wilke
Photographers: Jeffrey Totaro
Software used: Given the high rise nature of the project, as well as the unusual geometry, designing and constructing the exterior curtain wall and its supporting structure was critical to maintain the budget and schedule. TK&A used an early version of BIM software to describe the various design options, both in terms of the visual geometry and the physical construction of the components and structural attachments.
Located in Western Massachusetts, the site is a 10-acre sliver of land that runs down an eastern mountain slope of large red oak and birch trees. To preserve and inhabit this forested landscape, the house nestles into its wooded setting with views through the long trunks of downslope trees. The program requirements were to create a simple, modest-sized, 750sf two-bedroom house with the feel of a one-room cabin.
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