Moose Hill House in Boston Home
The Moose Hill House was featured in the Summer 2009 issue of Boston Home. Editor-in-chief Rachel Levitt wrote:
“ . . . out of the blue, an e-mail arrived from someone I didn’t know. The author matter-of-factly offered us a project, images attached. I clicked on the JPEG and – whoa – got a sudden jolt of energy. The design gods were clearly issuing a reminder that inspiration strikes unexpectedly. The talent in question is Michael LeBlanc, an architect at Boston-based Utile Architecture + Planning. Following his introductory note and a brief phone call, we clinched a story that captures this magazine’s appreciation for scale (small), budget (moderate), and aesthetics (inviting, modern). A few months later, his work is part of what I like to think of as the Boston Home collection – houses we admire, even envy, but which don’t necessarily involve limitless budgets.”
Love Published in New Book
Tim Love’s essay “Urban Design after Battery Park City” was included in Urban Design, a collection of essays that were originally published in the Harvard Design Magazine and have been recently published by the University of Minnesota Press. Other contributors include Denise Scott Brown, Michael Sorkin, Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Jonathan Barnett, Kenneth Greenberg and Emily Talen.
“In Urban Design, Alex Krieger and William S. Saunders have assembled prominent figures in architecture, planning, and urban design to look back on the evolution of the discipline of urban design, assess the current state of the field, and anticipate how the profession must adapt in order to confront the challenges posed by the unprecedented rate of urbanization.”
In his essay, Love discusses strategies for re-energizing the practice of large-scale urban design including the need to work directly with real estate finance experts to find opportunities to rethink the dimension and plan logic of typical market-driven building types such as office buildings and high-rise residential buildings.
Harbor Park Pavilion Design Endorsed by Boston Harbor Island Alliance Board
Utile, with Reed Hilderbrand, recently completed Design Development for the Harbor Park Pavilion and the design received unanimous endorsement from the Boston Harbor Island Alliance Board at their monthly meeting on May 14.
In addition, the pavilion was reviewed by the Boston Civic Design Commission on April 7. The BCDC commissioners unanimously praised both the site planning strategy and the architectural design of the pavilion canopies. Daniel St. Clair of Jones Lang LaSalle, asked particularly insightful questions about the rationale of the geometry of the pavilions as they relate to the urban context. Linda Eastley of Sasaki, a new commissioner, appreciated Reed Hilderbrand’s strategy for the larger landscape design of Parcel 14; she commented that the design respects the existing logic of the Wharf Area parks but redeploys the existing elements to create a better sense of place. Mike Davis of Bergmeyer commended the design team for integrating a passive sustainable design strategy into the overall expressive and functional logic of the project.
Ames Shovel Works is One of Eleven Most Endangered Sites
The Ames Shovel Works in North Easton, Massachusetts has been listed as one of eleven properties on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2009 list of America’s most endangered historic places. As the New York Times (4/28/09) reported, “Each year the trust selects what it considers important examples of the nation’s architectural, cultural, and natural heritage that are at risk of being destroyed or irreparably damaged.” Other sites on this year’s list include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, Ill. and the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Ames Shovel Works are a mostly intact 19th century industrial complex that was built as part of a larger town-building initiative that includes both a town hall and library by H.H. Richardson. The buildings are threatened by a developer who acquired the rights to the parcels and is using 40B, a statewide as-of-right zoning regulation meant to promote affordable housing, to circumvent local review of the project.
Michael LeBlanc, Utile Principal, continues to work with the Ames family on an economically feasible development alternative that will save and restore the majority of the extant structures. Utile is working closely with Jay Wickersham of Noble & Wickersham (Legal Counsel), George Cole of GLC Development Resources (Development Finance Analysts), and Chris Milford of Milford and Ford Architects (Preservation Architects).
CSX Rail Yards are Focus of Yale Studio
Tim Love, Utile Principal, recently completed coordinating and teaching the second year studio at the Yale School of Architecture. Love, a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale for the Spring 2009 semester, directed the design work of 58 students with seven other instructors. In addition to Love, Alan Plattus, Peggy Deamer, Andrea Kahn, Ben Pell, Makram El Kadi, and Ljiljana Blagojevic also taught studio sections.
Teams of two and three students designed mixed-use development proposals for a 77-acre brownfield site owned by Harvard University in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. The site, currently housing a CSX freight rail yard and other industrial uses, was envisioned as a commercial development that would create productive synergies with Harvard’s proposed new science campus. The studio program required non-affiliated student housing to meet the needs of both Harvard and Boston University. The brief also included live/work loft space for creative economy businesses and high technology and life science start-ups.
Students were asked to integrate sustainable design strategies into their urban proposals with a specific emphasis on site-wide storm water approaches. Alex Felson, a landscape architect with a joint appointment with the School of Forestry and the Architecture School, served as a roving critic for this aspect of the studio program.
Robert AM Stern, Ken Greenberg, Barbara Littenberg, Patrick Pinnell, Kevin Daly, Robert Culver, Claude Cormier, and Nathalie Beauvais, among many others, were guest critics during the semester.
Michael LeBlanc Speaks at Puma City Panel
Michael LeBlanc, Utile Principal, was one of five panelists invited to discuss the temporary Puma City pavilion with Ada Tolla and Guiseppe Lignano of LOT-EK, the designers of the structure. The pavilion, constructed of shipping containers painted bright red and emblazoned with the Puma logo, included a Puma retail store and a busy bar with a deck on the top floor. More than the appeal of stacked red shipping containers (shoe boxes?), the pavilion provided a thrills-a-second spatial sequence with views down into the Puma store on one stair and up into the Grey Goose-sponsored bar from another.
There was some teeth-gnashing about the relative sustainability of the pavilion, which is following the Volvo racing sail boats from port to port. As Ted Smalley Bowen commented in a recent issue of Metropolis:
“But while the designers typically revel in repurposing the stuff of industrial society—from shipping containers and oil tanks to detergent bottles—the Puma pavilion was actually purpose-built in China (where they’ve been keeping busy with several projects recently). So, wait, doesn’t the container’s newness contradict LOT-EK’s reuse tenet? Not according to the designers, who noted that they’re making use of the modules and logistics of the containerized shipping system and demonstrating the potential of container architecture.
We agree; and for us, the expressive strategy of the building (perfect for its overtly commercial function) and the rich spatial experience that was carved out of the dumb boxes was more than worth the experiment.
Smart Framing and Red Cedar Cladding
The Harris Residence, located on a beautiful wooded site south of the Blue Hills outside of Boston, is nearing completion and the crew from MCR Construction continues to do thoughtful high quality work.
The single-story house, designed to hug the natural topography of the site, takes advantage of prevailing breezes and solar orientation. In addition, the design utilizes Smart Framing, a technique that was adopted and advanced by Michael LeBlanc, Utile Principal, to both reduce lumber costs and thermal bridging in the exterior walls. This dimension-efficient system reduced the costs of the hidden components of the structure, allowing for the reallocation of money to the Douglas fir windows (by Dynamic), Western Cedar cladding, and high-quality interior finishes.
The wood cladding is a rain screen held off the sheathing by furring strips. This system sheds water more effectively than conventional cladding because the large air space is less likely to create the negative pressure that can cause water to be drawn through the small cracks that are unavoidable in typical wood frame construction. Furring strips were installed on a diagonal to ensure that water would drain and convective air movement would occur behind the rain screen cladding.
Profitability Workshop
On Thursday, April 2, Billy Craig and Michael LeBlanc presented a workshop at the Residential Design and Construction Convention in Boston on profitabilty in architectural practice. They focused the workshop around Utile’s experiences managing its business and projects. The setting was informal, discussion was lively, and many thoughts and ideas were shared. Attendees ranged from hopeful start-ups to 30 year industry vets. While Billy and Michael didn’t come with a silver bullet for the audience to achieve their profitability goals with, they aimed to arm the room with a comfort in talking about money and marketing matters. For additional information, please contact Billy Craig.
Harvard Law School Panel Discussion
Tim Love is one of four panelists invited to comment on the new book “City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation” by Gerald E. Fung and David J. Barron. The authors, both professors at the Harvard Law School, make the case that the legal structure that binds city power to state authority limits the ability of cities to do comprehensive planning. Love will discuss the issues raised by the book in the context of potential approaches to the redevelopment of Government Center in Boston. Utile recently explored a range of strategies for the district on behalf of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency (MassDevelopment).
The other panelists are Susan Fainstein, Professor of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Robert J. Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University; and Sam Bass Warner, Visiting Professor of Urban History at MIT.
A conversation to celebrate the release of City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation
Monday, March 16 6:00 PM
Stubbins Room
Harvard Graduate School of Design
48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Utile selected for the Downtown Boston Greenway District Study
Utile was selected by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to lead an ambitious new planning initiative in Downtown Boston. As the BRA Request for Proposal states: The study seeks to develop guiding urban design and planning principles for the new Greenway District focused around the Rose Kennedy Greenway. The study will examine potential development opportunities; identify and define height, density, and use guidelines; and develop scenarios for future development in the area. The study will include an assessment of impacts of density and height on the Rose Kennedy Greenway as well as the adjoining districts/neighborhoods.
The study will include recommendations for sustainable design guidelines for the District in keeping with Mayor Thomas Menino’s recently announced Government Center Green Growth District.
Utile’s work will also explore an innovative parking policy that reduces commuter and special event car use Downtown, achievable because the area is well-served by mass transit. Parking policy is being prioritized because three potential development sites within the study area are currently publicly accessible parking garages with a total capacity of 4378 cars. A development proposal to replace one of them, the 2300-car Government Center Garage, is active right now and is being vetted by the developer/owner Raymond Properties in a series of informal community meetings.
Utile will be collaborating with Ken Greenberg, a Toronto-based urban designer; HR&A, a Manhattan-based real estate and economic development advisory firm; and the Boston office of Nelson Nygaard, a nationally recognized transportation planning firm.
Ames Shovel Works in the Boston Globe
When a local developer purchased a site in North Easton, Massachusetts that used to house the Ames Shovel Works, the Ames family took notice. As lifetime owners and operators of the Shovel Works (they sold the complex in 1972), they had strong emotional ties to the site and were uniquely positioned to create awareness about its’ storied history.
The Village of North Easton is one of the most important industrial sites in Massachusetts, home to National Landmarks designed by H.H. Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted open spaces, other significant period architecture and of course, the Shovel Works. As one time producers of 60 percent of the world’s shovels, the Ames wealth fueled all the aforementioned building.
When it became clear that the granite buildings that once housed the Shovel Works were in jeopardy of being demolished or, at best, irreparably altered in the planned Chapter 40B redevelopment, the Ames sprung to action. Along with other concerned residents, agencies and commissions, they formed The Friends of the Historic Ames Shovel Works at North Easton. The group hired an expert team to take up their cause: Utile, Inc. as urban designers and master planners, Noble and Wickersham as regulatory lawyers, Milford and Ford Architects as preservationists, and GLC Development Consulting as financial analysts.
Utile was tasked with creating a set of guidelines both sensitive to the historic importance of the site and realistic to potential redevelopment under existing 40B regulations. Under the new guidelines, Utile designed an alternative development scheme that kept density low and allowed for the preservation of significant buildings, primarily by using historic tax credits to meet the developments financial objectives.
The process is ongoing, and Utile remains an active and open participant. An article written by architecture critic Robert Campbell on the situation (including the image you see above) appeared in the Boston Globe on November 30.
ZUMIX Firehouse to proceed
Utile has been working closely with ZUMIX, a youth-centered music non-profit, to design their new cultural and performance space in the old Engine 40 Firehouse in East Boston. The 1923 brick building will house a large performance area, a radio station, a recording studio, music classrooms and support spaces, and will greatly enhance both the capacity and profile of the organization. The project aspires to a LEED Silver certification, an effort lead by collaborator New Ecology, and will be a green-building demonstration project for other non-profits and the neighborhood of East Boston.
Find out more about ZUMIX here.