Granite pavers for the Harbor Islands Pavilion
Chris Genter of Utile recently returned from Quebec, where he visited A. Lacroix et Fils Granite, a family-owned company that is supplying and cutting the granite pavers for the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion. The pavers will form a 40-foot-by-55-foot granite floor map of the Harbor Islands Park. Each element of the map–water, land, islands, and tidal zone–will be represented by a different finish of Atlantic Black granite. For the mockup paver, Lacroix created a set of puzzle-like interchangeable parts so we could better judge the most effective combination of colors and textures.
Lacroix has developed a clever technique for creating these challenging pavers. The granite is finished with a combination of thermal, water-jet, and sandblast to achieve the desired colors and finishes. Using a digital file of the map, the granite is then water-jet cut with remarkable precision into shapes that are assembled to create the final paver. The contour lines on each island are also water-jet cut from a digital file, then hand-tooled to accentuate the contract of each line.
Read all about the Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion groundbreaking, see the concrete formwork mockups, and learn about the process of designing the curvature of the roof. And stay tuned for more photos as the Harbor Islands Pavilion progresses!
Utile to Design City of Boston Complete Streets Manual
Utile has been hired to conceptualize, design, and produce the Complete Streets manual for the City of Boston. The Utile team, led by Ryan Sullivan and Corey Zehngebot, is working closely with Nick Jackson of the Toole Design Group and Vineet Gupta and Charlotte Fleetwood of the Boston Transportation Department, on the layout and graphic language of the emerging guidelines. To better frame the assignment, the team researched best practices examples from other North American and European cities. Utile is inventing new kinds of drawings and information graphics to better describe multi-modal streets, sustainable storm water approaches, and a fully conceived taxonomy of urban street types.
Maine Home + Design magazine photoshoot for Utile’s North Bridgeton home
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Utile Principal Michael Leblanc recently dropped in on Maine Home + Design’s photoshoot of Utile’s North Bridgeton home. The weather cooperated splendidly, blanketing the property with several feet of fresh, white powder the day before for photographer Trent Bell. Look for copies of Maine Home + Design on newsstands later this year! We’d also recommend checking out Maine magazine.
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 Ash, 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.
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!
Spencer Green Nears Completion
Utile’s latest affordable housing project, Spencer Green, will soon be ready for tenants. The 48-unit, affordable apartment development by Chelsea Neighborhood Developers showcases a variety of sustainable features. Carefully selected mechanical systems and fixtures, along with an energy-conserving exterior envelope insure the project will meet or exceed the EnergyStar Homes standards for efficiency. Solar panels will power most of the common electrical loads and a rainwater cistern (certainly full at the moment) will provide a source for irrigation water for a wide variety of native species during droughts.
Spencer Green’s ambitions include a socially forward-thinking program. Great care has been taken in the development and design of the project’s communal spaces. The project’s three buildings frame a landscaped courtyard designed by Heimarck & Foglia that includes extensive outdoor seating and a play yard for small children. Generous balconies provide further opportunity for interaction on the street and in the courtyard. A flexible ‘Common Room’ will be made available to the residents for special events and educational programs.
Carefully keyed into a mildly sloping site, the two “townhouse” buildings are composed of a unique combination of two-story duplex units above single-story two and three bedroom flats at ground level. The “main” building is a more conventional double-loaded corridor plan, offering five different one and two bedroom unit layouts. Utile’s fresh approach to the exterior details aims to provide a bridge between the surrounding fabric and the area’s emerging, contemporary market-rate housing.
Final close out is expected in August.
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).
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.
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.
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.