Insight
Join Us at the 2015 HELP Conference
This year’s Hotel Equity and Lenders Perspectives (HELP) Conference will be held on April 13-14 at the Seaport Hotel. Arrowstreet is a proud sponsor of the HELP Conference—a two-day, interactive event dedicated to providing timely and accurate information on the lodging industry.
Planning for Resilience in East Boston
Last week, I was invited to attend a grant planning orientation hosted by The Kresge Foundation in Berkeley, California. Recently, East Boston was selected to receive a planning grant for climate resilience in low-income communities around the country. The grant was awarded to Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) in East Boston and was supported by the Urban Land Institute. As…
“Living with Water” Design Charrette at ABX
Yesterday at ABX, the “Living with Water” Design Charrette was held to kick off a companion Design Challenge for the Boston design community. Mayor Marty Walsh was on hand to announce the competition and to emphasize the city’s commitment to finding solutions to climate change and rising sea levels in our coastal communities. Hosted on the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the charrette invited designers, community leaders, and government officials to reflect on the new policies implemented in New York City and to consider what we here in Boston can learn from them.
BSA Forum on Sustainable Public Policy
As a member of the BSA Committee for the Advancement of Sustainability, I had the good fortune to help plan the Forum on Sustainable Public Policy last June. The summary of this event is available now to view and download on the BSA website, here. The intent of the forum was to share with community leaders, citizens, and practitioners the current public and private sector policies that foster and promote sustainable endeavors including buildings, infrastructure, transportation, and planning…
LEED Project Showcase with USGBC – Part II
The USGBC MA Chapter’s 2014 LEED Project Showcase was a great success. More than 150 people representing all aspects of the green building industry including designers, engineers, contractors, owners, and policy makers came out for the event in celebration of the past year’s achievements in green building. It was an amazing night to share our collective talents and wisdom as we continue to make Massachusetts the #1 most energy efficient state in the country.
Healthy Places – Part 2
Last blog post, I talked about the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the dichotomy between Richard Meier’s building and Robert Irwin’s garden. Rather than choosing the traditional figure-ground relationship between building and landscape, Irwin’s garden poses a very different relationship that has, reportedly, engendered some conflict between Meier and Irwin.
PACE Bill Update
I wanted to give an update on my previous post: Property Assessed Clean Energy. PACE is a way for property owners to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The PACE bill, now retitled Senate Bill No. 2255, has been voted in favor by the MA state Senate and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. It is…
The Evolution of Kendall Square
Kendall Square is a very different place than it once was. While some may say that its less of a true downtown (like Central or Harvard Square) than it could have been, it has certainly been an economic and tax engine for the City of Cambridge. It also gets a little better every year, with added housing and retail and other interesting uses (although some of us still miss a bit of the grit and grime and, in particular, the old F&T diner)…
1550 Main Street Lauded by BOMA Mid-Atlantic
1550 Main Street, designed by Arrowstreet, was awarded The Outstanding Building of the Year distinction by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) for the second consecutive year in a row. The former federal office building, owned MassDevelopment, was renovated as part of a strategy to help revitalize downtown Springfield, MA. Working together with MassDevelopment and the City of Springfield, Arrowstreet designed a comprehensive package of exterior and interior building renovations to convert the building into Class-A commercial offices with ground floor retail uses. In addition, Arrowstreet redesigned the central plaza to improve circulation and its position as a meeting place on Main Street.
Daylight Hour
Arrowstreet participated in Daylight Hour today by joining thousands of other organizations in turning off the lights in their day-lit office spaces for one hour from noon-1:00. With the beautiful sunny weather in Boston today we went even further and kept the lights off all day in most of the office. Arrowstreet has a highly energy efficient LED lighting system that uses 42% less power than typical offices. But when there is ample daylight in our open studio we want to take advantage of turning of the electric lighting system and saving even more energy.