Author Archives: deean

E+ Housing receives approval

Utile and GFC Development recently received approval from the Boston Zoning Board of Appeals  for the E+ (energy positive) project on Catherine Street in Jamaica Plain. The decision comes after a substantial engagement with the BRA and the neighborhood to … Continue reading

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Save That Stuff Mobile Office Building is Underway

Our new mobile office building for Save That Stuff, a recycling and composting company, is well into construction at the factory. In keeping with the client’s mission, the project started with old construction trailers to provide efficient, sustainable, and well … Continue reading

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Press

The Atlantic Cities Website Anthony Flint, “The Tricky Second Wave of Urban Highway Removals.”  Posted January 9, 2011. [McGrath Highway De-elevation Study] Spacing Magazine “No mean city: The genius of walk-up apartments” by Alex Bozikovic. Posted January 5, 2012. Boston … Continue reading

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Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion wins Honor Award for Design Excellence

We’re very pleased to announce that the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion won a 2011 Honor Award for Design Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects. From the jury comments: The design is a wonderful example of how a simple issue—in … Continue reading

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MIT Center for Real Estate Opens

This winter Utile completed work on the MIT Center for Real Estate’s new offices overlooking Massachusetts Avenue on the third floor of MIT’s Building 9.  This new home will further the integration of the real estate program with graduate education … Continue reading

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SMART Lab adds engineering lab, art and music studios, and gallery space to The Advent School

This past summer Utile completed work on The Advent School’s SMART Lab, a satellite facility housing the independent elementary school’s science, math, and art programs.  Located a few blocks from the school’s main campus on Beacon Hill, the new facility … Continue reading

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Utile studies cafe designs for The Arsenal on the Charles

Utile has been hired by The Beal Companies to develop a sustainable cafe concept for the main office building at The Arsenal on the Charles complex. The study reveals how the surplus space in the lobby area can facilitate  increased … Continue reading

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First+First Townhomes Update

Fast progress is being made at the First+First Townhomes project in South Boston: 10 of the units are fully framed, and foundations are now started on all the remaining units. Windows started going in yesterday, and rough-ins, roofing, and insulation … Continue reading

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Broad Street under way!

At last! Our urban design for Broad Street is taking shape. They are currently installing our state-of-the-art storm water collection system, developed by our landscape partners Richard Burck Associates. What you see (above left) are the PVC water collection sumps, … Continue reading

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Tim Love speaks at Build Boston

Tim Love recently appeared on a panel at Build Boston about how architects and developers can work together to engage the community and ensure the success of their projects. Helene Solomon moderated the panel, which also featured Aaron Gornstein, executive … Continue reading

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Utile to begin master plan for City Hall Plaza

Utile, Inc. has been designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority as the master planners for City Hall Plaza. Utile–working closely with Reed Hilderbrand Associates and Alex Krieger of Chan Krieger NBBJ–will develop an implementation master plan for the plaza, building … Continue reading

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Matthunt Elementary School Facade

The new curtain wall for Mattahunt Elementary School is going up! Utile has been working with Gale Associates on the project for the Boston Public Facilities Department.

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Utile studies McGrath Highway De-elevation

Utile is part of a collaborative team, led by McMahon Transportation and Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, that is studying McGrath Highway for its potential to reconnect fragmented Somerville while still serving local and regional traffic needs. The team has finished the … Continue reading

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Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion wins Grand Honor Award at Build New England

We’re very pleased to announce that the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion won the Grand Honor Award at the Build New England Awards gala last night. The Build New England Awards program, organized by the Associated General Contractors (AGC), recognizes project … Continue reading

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Utile / GFC Team selected for the E+ Green Building Program

Utile and GFC Development are pleased to have been selected for Mayor Menino’s Energy Positive “E+” Green Building Demonstration Program. Utile and GFC will be developing a project for 64 Catherine Street in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Congratulations to the … Continue reading

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Utile begins urban design study for Dar Es Salaam Waterfront

Utile, with CPCS Transcom, is helping the Tanzania Ports Authority develop strategies to revitalize the downtown Dar Es Salaam waterfront. Like cities across the globe, Dar Es Salaam is trying to capitalize on its waterfront as a driver of economic … Continue reading

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Harbor Islands Pavilion Video Programming in the Boston Globe

In today’s Boston Globe, Cate McQuaid writes about public art in Boston (full article here), and she mentions the Nature Special temporary exhibition, curated by the DeCordova, at the Harbor Islands Pavilion on the Greenway: The Boston Harbor Islands Alliance … Continue reading

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Harbor Islands Pavilion on Boston Magazine website

On the Boston magazine website, Janelle Nanos wrote about the new Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion: . . . It’s a welcome reprieve from the otherwise frenzied tourist outposts that line the harbor. Its thoughtful, open-air design showcases a mix of … Continue reading

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Watch a video about the Harbor Islands Pavilion

The Northeastern University News Office produced a three-minute video about the pavilion and the Harbor Islands, with interviews with Tom Powers, president of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance, Bruce Jacobson, the NPS superintendent for the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation … Continue reading

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E+ Housing

For the E+ housing challenge, organized by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), Utile worked with GFC Development to devise a well-balanced concept that could be flexible, adaptable, redeployable, and, most importantly, conceived of sound economic principles. The building envelope is … Continue reading

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Tim Love to speak at TEDxBoston

Utile founding principal Tim Love will be speaking at TEDxBoston on June 28th. Watch the live simulcast online!

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Michael LeBlanc speaks at UMass Amherst Hillside Salon

Michael LeBlanc recently spoke about Utile’s work at the Hillside Salon at the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass Amherst. Michael is an alumnus of the university’s architecture program.

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Mimi Love speaks at the Boston Harbor Association forum

As part of the Boston Harbor Association’s series on “A Clean Boston Harbor: What Next?”, Mimi Love spoke about Utile’s recent work on the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at the Moakley Courthouse. e 

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Tim Love and Christina Crawford write on urban design

Tim Love and former Utilian Christina Crawford (currently a PhD student at Harvard) recently published “Plot Logic: Character-Building through Creative Parcelization” in Urban Design in the Real Estate Development Process.

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Harbor Islands Pavilion officially opens

The Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion on the Greenway officially opened on Thursday, June 2. The pavilion was also featured in an article by Casey Ross in the Boston Globe (full article here) on June 1, 2011.

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Urbanism Starter Kit

With funding from Yale University, Utile developed nine market-driven building types as a kit-of-parts to inform the graduate urbanism studio, a course that Tim Love coordinated and taught in 2009. These buildings were conceived to allow for more informed early-phase … Continue reading

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Harris Residence

Utile helped a family build a modern home in the Boston suburbs to suit their lifestyle and as a model for sustainable living. With geothermal heating, rainwater capture, “smart” framing and passive site strategies, the family’s home becomes a teaching … Continue reading

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North Bridgton House

Located in the foothills of Maine’s western mountains, this house for a retired couple was inspired by the material strategies found in past local agricultural structures and remnant stone foundations. Horizontal board-formed concrete foundations, clear-sealed vertical red cedar siding and … Continue reading

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Concord Studio

The studio allows a young couple, both artists, to combine their practices in a single environment, and to provide a space for their preschool-aged daughter to experiment with art. The layout is conceived as a single room with a large … Continue reading

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Spencer Green as a case study in community

Matthew Littell spoke at the recent Residential Design and Construction conference on Spencer Green. Utile worked on the 48-unit affordable, sustainable rental housing project for Chelsea Neighborhood Developers.

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Gumball Factory Loft

Text coming soon . . . The living room, before and after.

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Jackson Square

The Jackson Square Development Initiative was an ambitious 11-acre community redevelopment project being done collaboratively by three development teams and with the active participation of community stakeholders and the City of Boston. Utile was the planner and architect for Urban … Continue reading

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A 10-year plan for City Hall Plaza

Utile has been working with Reed Hilderbrand on a study of City Hall Plaza for the EPA’s Greening America’s Capitals initiative. A three-day workshop in December helped identify priorities for the plaza. Casey Ross interviewed Tim Love and writes in … Continue reading

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North Bridgton House in Maine Home

The North Bridgton House is featured in the January/February 2011 issue of Maine Home + Design.

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Double Gable House nears completion

The Double Gable House, west of Boston, is nearing completion, and Utile made an office field trip to the house.

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