Ora Seaport

Arrowstreet is the master planner and architect for this vibrant 500,000 square-foot waterfront development in Boston’s Innovation District. The thoughtful balance of uses integrates 304-units of rental housing, a 297-key boutique hotel, flexible office space, restaurants, and retail. Ora Seaport provides sweeping water views from an array of unit types, including micro units, studios, and one- and two-bedroom apartments.

A significant structural cantilever frames a sizeable outdoor roof deck above the ground floor restaurant space and maximizes the rentable square footage of the building. Additionally, a shared courtyard in the heart of the site connects residents, workers, and visitors. These outdoor rooms, coupled with the residential and hotel roof decks, create a vertical neighborhood and dynamic street edge, taking advantage of water views and performances at the Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion across the street.

For the foundation, the design team evaluated the typical three-level below grade garage with slurry wall and worked with the General Contractor to achieve a significant cost and schedule savings with a 1-story below grade parking and deep piles. This design accommodates a higher number of vehicles within a smaller footprint through valet operations and alternative parking plans.

Resiliency measures, to address critical storm surge and rising sea levels, have been integrated into the site design and building façade to minimize the operational costs and protect the development during the event of flooding.