Design
Touring KIPP Academy Boston
Last week, Katie Ferrier and I led a group of Arrowstreet designers on a tour of the new KIPP Academy Boston Charter School in Mattapan. As the project nears completion, school administrators are gearing up for the start of school, and we took a sneak peek at what the new facility will provide for KIPP students and the local community. After…
Workforce Housing and Innovation Tenants
BisNow’s “The Future of Cambridge: Innovation, Community Engineering and the Spread of the Kendall Square Phenomenon,” moderated by our old friend Rich McKinnon, was an interesting, insightful discussion between public (Tom Evans, the Executive Director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, and Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager of the City of Cambridge), and private (Alex Twining, CEO Twining Properties, and Lawrence…
Boston Public Library Book Mosaic
As part of our work at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library in Copley Square, our graphics team designed a mosaic featuring an interpretation of the City of Boston created entirely out of hardcover books. After developing a template to determine sizes, colors, and quantities, we sourced over 1000 books, which were purchased from a local used bookshop, or donated…
What is the Future of Downtown?
One of the best things about great cities is that they adapt and change. Rail yards become new neighborhoods, and industrial districts become lofts, offices, and shopping centers. The ability of the urban fabric to evolve with the rapidly changing ways we live and work is part of the reason people and businesses are returning to the city core. It…
Economical Design and Boston’s Housing Gap
If you live in the greater Boston area, you’re aware of Boston’s current housing crunch and just how expensive it is to live here; according to a report from real estate data firm Reis, Inc., the average rent in Greater Boston topped $2,000 in 2015. Development and construction in desirable, urban areas is expensive, and as a result, it is often…
Meet the Architect Giving Manhattan’s Retail Stores a Refreshing Look
This week the New York Post profiled Bob Lowe and his work with brokers and retail owners in New York. Bob creates detailed renderings that show prospective tenants the possibilities for a storefront. In the fast paced world of Fifth Avenue retail, allowing a tenant to see exactly what their branded space could look like at a specific location is a valuable…
Location, Location, Location
That’s the old punchline about real estate, but it’s especially true for retail. No matter how much we buy online, and no matter how many of us move back to the city, location and access remain paramount. Successful retailers, both urban and suburban, have always understood (and had) location. We are facing a future in which how things are delivered…
Where Is Retail Going Anyway?
Some say it’s going away. Some say it’s online. Others say it’s changing so fast that it’s impossible to know. While the role retail plays is changing, it remains a critical component of both the real estate industry and our public places. Even if it’s more convenient to buy certain things online, the social act of going downtown (or to…
Arrowstreet at Boston Design Week
Boston Design Week is coming, and we’re excited for the 11-day celebration of design in Boston. The event will be held March 30th – April 10th, and seeks to increase public awareness and appreciation of all aspects of design and bring new audiences to a wide array of design industries and organizations. We’re especially looking forward to a tour of the…
The Hallway as a Classroom
Hallways take up large amounts of usable space within a building, and given the inherent function of circulation as the means to move from one space to another, this is particularly true in a school building. At a time when real estate development and construction costs are soaring, owners are eager to find ways to maximize their space and are…