Concrete Formwork Mock-ups
Concrete formwork mock-ups for the Harbor Park Pavilion canopies were recently fabricated at C.W. Keller, a millwork company located in New Hampshire. The curves of the canopy are a “describable surface,” that was fine-tuned in Rhino, a computer modeling program that is now being used to guide the CNC router that is fabricating the formwork components. Utile senior designer Chris Genter is working closely with Joel Lamere, a consultant to the team and instructor at MIT, on the geometry of the canopies and their translation into instructions for the team at Keller. The formwork is a composite of two wood-working approaches: where the curvature is more subtle, sheet material is bent over a series of wood ribs defined by the Rhino model. Where the curves are more extreme, the ribs are laminated together to create a solid block that creates a continuous sculptural surface. The joint between these two fabrication approaches has been carefully engineered to be as seamless as possible.
Click here to view more photographs of the formwork.
Spencer Green Ribbon Cutting
On September 15th, Chelsea Neighborhood Developers cut the ribbon on 48 new affordable rental units at Spencer Green. City Manager, Jay Ashe, was there to participate in the festivities, and he was joined by several elected officials from Chelsea. While several children hung on the play structure right next to the lectern, CND director Ann Houston thanked the multitude of lenders, manager, designers, and contractors involved in the project. She thanked Utile in particular for being steadfast in its commitment to executing a non-traditional design.
Reimagining Boston’s Stalled Filene’s Project
Utile was featured in the Boston Globe on Sunday, September 20th.
The firm was one of several architects, artists, and designers to submit ideas for a temporary installation at the stalled One Franklin Square project in Downtown Boston. The development, halted during the economic downturn last fall, has left several bays of the historic Filene’s building and a nearby building standing but hastened the departure of Filene’s Basement, a Boston cultural landmark, from the Downtown Crossing neighborhood.
Utile’s proposal is meant to be up for three years, calculated by speculating about the time needed for re-design to meet a future real estate market and the new round of approvals that will be inevitably required. The proposal, estimated to cost between $800 thousand to $1.2 million, includes two wooden boardwalks that crisscross over the construction excavation, creating new pedestrian shortcuts in the busy Downtown Crossing neighborhood. The bottom of the pit, almost thirty feet below, is imagined as a pastoral meadow, kept trimmed by a herd of sheep lent from a nearby farm. Casey Ross, writer for the Boston Globe, suggested that the meadow was a nod to the original use of the Boston Common as grazing land available to residents of the growing town.
Utile principal Tim Love, who worked with Aude Jomini, Utile’s summer 2009 Yale intern, on the proposal, recommends a new regulation that will require developers to take out an insurance policy to pay for temporary improvements if construction is delayed more than nine months. The budget for improvements would be pegged to the construction cost of the project. Ross quoted Love: “If developers want to play in this city and take risks, one of the risks they have to mitigate is the chance that the economy might collapse between permitting and construction.’’ Love continued: “Any landowner has a civic responsibility to make their property look attractive. If a homeowner has a weed-filled front yard or leaves trash out, they would face penalties in most municipalities.”
Harbor Park Pavilion Roof Mock-up
The first of two roof mock-ups for the Harbor Park Pavilion is complete. The pavilion design features two cast-in-place 42 foot by 60 foot curved concrete roof canopies (see our June 2009 post) that provide shade and collect rainwater. Utile closely collaborated on the design of the roofs with structural engineers SGH and with Joel Lamere, an expert in digital modeling and fabrication methods.
Translating the curvature from the computer model to concrete has been a primary construction research agenda. We considered the high-tech (a solid foam mold digitally milled from the digital model) and the traditional (wood formwork constructed by boat builders), ultimately settling on a method somewhere between these two. Wood ribs are digitally fabricated in a shop from the model, assembled on site, and clad with a flexible plywood skin. In addition to testing this formwork technique, the 6 foot by 10 foot model examines the detail where the curved steel support ribs, modeled here in plywood, meet the concrete roof. The next mock-up will test a section of roof with an even more extreme curvature. Stay tuned!
Business Journal Names Utile a “Go-To” Firm on Matters of Urban Design
Utile is featured in today’s (Friday, September 9, 2009) print edition of the Boston Business Journal. From James McCown’s article “Drawing on Repeat Business Helps Architectural Firms”:
“…While a small firm, Utile Architecture & Planning is carving a niche for itself as sort of a “go-to” firm on matters of urban design in Boston, doing work for major city and state agencies. The 14-person office, headed by husband-and-wife team Tim and Mimi Love and principals Michael LeBlanc and Matthew Littell, is doing a major study of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Utile also has on-call design contracts with MassDevelopment and Massport.
“For each developable parcel on the Greenway, we’re looking at moderate density and reasonable high-density alternatives,” said Tim Love. “Right now, there are fewer new projects overall in Boston, so the city can catch its breath and focus on a larger vision for the Greenway.
“That’s not to say that things aren’t getting built. Love said he expects to begin construction in October on the Harbor Park Pavilion, on the Greenway adjacent to Christopher Columbus Park. It is envisioned as the gateway to the Boston Harbor Islands. At the opposite end of the Greenway, Utile continues to consult on design issues for the Boston Public Market Association, which holds farmer’s markets at Dewey Square and at the Old Northern Avenue Bridge.”
William Rawn Associates and Chris Grimley at over,under were also featured in the article.