Design
New Photos of 101 Main
After working with BioMed for a number of years on several biotech buildings within their portfolio, they asked Arrowstreet to design the fit out of their new office space at 101 Main in Cambridge. The offices have views of the Charles, Boston, and many buildings in their Kendall Square portfolio. The space has a modern, open feel that embodies the development firm’s brand identity. A…
LEED Goes Shopping
Our LEED Certification portfolio is full of retail projects, but one retail building type has been elusive: the mall in-line store. That is, until this year. With a project on the boards now (sorry, confidential), we have worked out a path to the LEED plaque. Getting LEED certification for a retail store in a mall setting can be difficult. If…
It Starts With Light
Recently, I had the chance to visit the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The little art museum by Louis Kahn is one of those master works we study in architecture school, learning by re-drawing its plan, section, and details. It seems simple. Six rows of barrel vaults with some space left out in the middle for a small exterior garden. Concrete, travertine marble, and some drywall. But what Kahn did with those few things! …
Engehoej Kirke
I recently visited the beautiful and striking Enghǿj Kirke (church) in the northern part of Jutland, in Denmark. The building’s minimal form and details create a space that, while much smaller, recalls the volumetric feel of a cathedral. The inverted ‘V’ shape of the structure is meant to reference the underside of a ship, an apt reference in a country where the sea is only ever 45 minutes away. While one might expect that these elements (starkness and ships) be unique to this building, they are in fact prevalent in most Danish churches. The last two photographs, from a neighboring 16th century church, clearly illustrate these similarities.
Rechler Corporate Headquarters Wins EDC Award
We’re happy to announce that the Rechler Corporate Headquarters has been awarded EDC Magazine’s Excellence in Design Award in the Commercial Renovation category. The award honors the building’s unique sustainable strategies, such as its highly efficient, super-insulated building envelope. The project will be featured in EDC Magazine’s June issue, along with a podcast on their website.
Check out the video above (1:50 – 2:50), and for more information on this project and the other winners check out the awards webpage.
New Retail in White Plains, NY
On May 7th, our design team received the site plan approvals for a new retail project on Bloomingdale Road in White Plains, New York. Led by our fantastic new clients, Faros Properties and Caspi Development, we designed the building to work with the challenging topography of the site by placing all of the parking on top of a single floor of boutique retail shops. Our goal for the project has been to provide a pedestrian-driven shopping center with an outdoor sidewalk bustling with window-shoppers, café seating, and lush landscaping. An existing office building on the site was the former headquarters for Nestle, and is now home to several private and government offices. The new parking garage will serve the offices as well as new retail shops. The Common Council of White Plains approved the project unanimously!
Stay tuned for updates. We’re working on the retail marketing campaign now, and construction will start soon.
The Greatest Party on Earth
Our client, Artists for Humanity, throws an amazing fundraiser every year in their headquarters facility, the EpiCenter, which Arrowstreet designed. In addition to being for a great cause, the spectacular event exhibits the work of a talent group of artists – from the paintings, to the break dancer,s to the decor, to the trapeze artists, to the food. These photos should give you a glimpse of what it’s like – hope to see you there next year.
301 Binney Lobby Photography
We are happy to share this photography of the new lobby at 301 Binney Street. Arrowstreet originally served as the architect for this Kendall Square biotech building, which opened about five years ago. Our client, BioMed, then approached us about creating a lobby that would differentiate the building amongst the Cambridge lab market. The active, dynamic shared space now encourages tenant interaction and collaboration. A custom…
301 Binney Lobby Opens
Recently Jim Batchelor, Peter Belford, Meghan Perlow, and I attended the grand opening celebration for BioMed Realty’s new lobby at 301 Binney Street. This Arrowstreet-designed building opened in 2008, and a little over a year ago BioMed asked us to help them revamp the lobby to encourage more tenant interaction. The most admired feature of the new space is without a doubt the video wall, which loops a 53-minute video featuring numerous aquatic scenes. We’re also proud of the undulating metal ceiling panels that break up the space in a visually interesting way. Stay tuned for professional photography in the next few weeks!
Green Thoughts from Walmart at ICSC RetailGreen
[Part 3 of a series of posts from ICSC’s RetailGreen conference.]
Last year, at ICSC’s RetailGreen conference, Don Moseley from Walmart gave an amazing 15 minute presentation on how codes differ from one municipality to another, and especially how they vary even more from the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Although it sounds wonky, Mr. Moseley used the specific example of how the prescribed number of plumbing fixtures can vary from code to code, with the delta being as much as 20 fixtures for the same size Walmart store. Same store footprint, same demands, totally different plumbing requirements. Importantly, when a retailer has thousands of locations across the world, it’s more difficult to plan, and it hits the bottom line in myriad ways.
This year, Mr. Moseley showed what Walmart has been doing on their roofs…