Insight
Technology in Construction
Arrowstreet relies on field reports to document the construction process on our projects. Visiting the site and making note of conditions, progress, and (occasionally) problems takes a lot of time and careful planning to manage the issues and archive the images. As the Brooke Mattapan Charter School addition/renovation enters the construction phase, we’re going to do something a little differently – using an option through Newforma (our project information management software) that allows use of a mobile app on an iPhone or iPad to immediately capture, track, and log project photos as we walk through the space. Taking advantage of new technology will speed the process even more; for instance by using the iPhone’s Siri we will be able to add text to whatever image is taken and avoid the pesky old-fashioned drag of writing notes and downloading everything once you return to the office. We look forward to never again having to invent a description of a detail that we don’t recall photographing!
The EpiCenter To Expand
Artists for Humanity will be expanding their studio space in South Boston with the gift of land by Gillette. It’s hard to believe the EpiCenter we designed for AFH (Boston’s first LEED Platinum building) opened almost nine years ago now. They have grown to employ more than 250 teen artists. Arrowstreet has continued to work with AFH over the years, including generating ideas for how they could expand…
Shades of Green
What do you do when your grocery business generates 55,000 tons of food waste every year – the leftovers from the store aisles that aren’t either sold or donated? If you’re Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., you build an anaerobic digester to convert all that food to usable energy.
Rails and Trails
For the past seven years, I’ve lived with my family in a small house that abuts a long abandoned spur of railroad tracks in Somerville, MA. The tracks have had a colorful history, as they used to serve a factory that manufactured paper products, construction supplies, and root beer at various points in its history. We’ve also heard stories from former residents that circus trains used to park on the tracks overnight before their trips into Boston. So lions, tigers, and elephants may have been transient residents of our backyard…
Scala Shopping Center
Arrowstreet designed a new shopping center in the Cumbayá district of Quito. Scala consists over 170 shops and restaurants wrapped around a beautiful open-air plaza, effectively turning the mall “inside out” to create a vibrant, active shopping experience. High-end finishes and details appeal to both sought-after tenants and visitors. As part of the development’s commitment to sustainability, the shopping center features an energy-saving passive ventilation system and over 90,000 square feet of vertical gardens.
Designed in partnership with local architect Marco Coello.
Building Information Marveling
Perhaps it’s the inner BIM (Building Information Modeling) geek in me, but I’m constantly impressed while looking at the construction document level MEP models that our engineers generate. While there is a certain level of mundanity to the subject matter, there is also an elegance that stems from being able to visualize the entirety of the air and hydronic systems in a building in three dimensions. The models at this stage of development are notable because they represent the many hours of thought and effort from the engineering disciplines all consolidated into one digital representation…
Windmills
I recently came back from upstate NY and got a chance to revisit my extended family’s windmills. My sister-in-law’s family scaled back their farming over ten years ago and now rent out part of their land for seven windmills. Most of the land around the windmills is still in rotation, so it’s a relatively fluid and symbiotic relationship…
Sea Glass Mural Again in the Globe
Our work was profiled again recently in the Boston Globe (link to article). As mentioned previously, it’s great to look back on a successful project and see that it has become iconic to the local area… at least when discussing the weather. Hand-pieced together a few years back from over 900 pounds of sea glass, the mural continues to enliven the windows at 255 State Street.
The New Industrial Revolution
The Wall Street Journal recently had a very interesting and thought-provoking article about the future of manufacturing in both this country and the world and the impact that 3-D printing, in all its forms, is having on the way we make, think about, and consume products. In many respects, the process of making things has really been driven for the last 50 years by the cost of labor (just like construction) and thus Asia (first Japan, then Korea, then China, and now places like Bangladesh) became the world’s factory floor. But with 3-D printing, labor becomes about the time it takes to design an object because the labor is to build it is essentially free. And in a world of global climate change, with expensive fuel and therefore expensive transportation, the ability to make things closer to where they will be used makes more and more financial sense…
ICSC Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas
Arrowstreet has attended the annual International Council of Shopping Centers Real Estate Convention (RECon) for over 20 years. With all of the major shopping center developers, real estate brokers and retailers present, the convention is THE place to be for anybody in retail real estate development. Some years, more than 40,000 people descend upon Las Vegas to plan projects, broker deals, and network. This year, the convention ran from May 19 through May 22. We were there and the mood in the convention hall was enthusiastic…