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.