Studio
Pumpkin Carving & Decorating Contest
October is one of my favorite months with the feel of the crisp air and sound of leaves crunching under my feet. This October we started off the month at Arrowstreet with a new seasonal sweet treat of pumpkin spice coffee and ended it on Halloween with our annual Pumpkin Carving and Decorating Contest. We had 14 entries this year including a Star Wars Death Star pumpkin, Mr. Pumpkinhead, Cinderella’s Pumpkin Coach, and The Solomon R. Pumpkinheim Museum—just to name a few…
Drones and the Built Environment
We here at Arrowstreet are pleased to add a new piece of technology to our arsenal – the architectural drone! I’ll leave the debate about the military, police states, and Amazon.com for a different forum, but we are excited at the potential for this new equipment.
Volunteering at Brooke Mattapan Charter School
Last Tuesday, I participated in a Green Apple Day of Service event with my colleagues, Will Su and Katie Ferrier. The Green Apple Day of Service (GADOS) began in 2012 as a chance for schools, organizations, and communities to participate in a day-long service project aimed at creating healthy, safe, and productive learning environments. GADOS projects occur around the globe on a day in September every year. This year, the Massachusetts chapter of the USGBC helped organize events and raise money to provide grants to projects; Arrowstreet provided grants to support four local GADOS projects. Find out more on the Green Apple website…
Our Studio’s Functional Art
As part of our furniture acquisition for our new office, we decided to incorporate a bit of our culture, our sketches, and our connection to a special client…all while creating functional, one-of-a-kind furniture for our kitchen café…
Photography Contest Winners
Over the past few months, Arrowstreet has been holding an in-house photography contest, and our finale party was last Friday night. Initiated by Principal Sean Selby, the contest was another way to encourage everyone to explore our new neighborhood, allow the entire staff an outlet for their creativity, and throw in a little friendly competition for some prizes.
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.
Arrowstreet Mini-Golf
This past Wednesday night saw the return of mini-golf to Arrowstreet, with friends and family joining us to play a round of 9-holes around our new office space while enjoying drinks and Chinese food. Our staff volunteers signed-up solo or as teams to design one of the eight possible “holes” designated on our office map, with the 9th hole being played on a Wii in our Voodoo Lounge. Each team had a $15 construction budget, and as in their day-to-day work, creative, green design was encouraged. Competition was fierce as each team was eager to take the bragging rights that go along with the coveted title of Best Hole.
Renewable Now Radio Guest
To learn more about Arrowstreet’s sustainable work, tune in to WARP AM 1320 (if you’re in RI, CT, or southern MA you can stream live on the internet) to hear my radio interview with Jack Gregg. He co-hosts and reviews green business efforts with creator Peter Arpin – the show’s focus is on green business, organizations, scientists, and entrepreneurs. The date and time of the show will be posted as soon as it’s available. Stay tuned!
Take 1: Our Studio in the Movies
As a follow-up to my previous blog post, I snapped some photos of the action taking place in our studio over the weekend. You can see how the European movie crew transformed our media space (aka, The Voodoo Lounge) into the protagonist’s private office. The movie, which is set in NYC, is an adaptation of a novel by British writer Katie Fforde titled Blood Brothers and will air on German TV.
Welcome to The Dark Side of the Moon
When reading a recent article on DesignBoom, I was reminded of an in-house competition held at the new Arrowstreet studio to name our conference rooms. The article covers how the Spanish graphic design studio, Tata&Friends, created a series of posters called Rock Band Icons, which graphically represent famous rock bands with black line symbols on a bright yellow background. Viewers are invited to see if they can name the band based on cleverly grouped pictograms…