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…

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Update from CitySquare

At Arrowstreet, many of our complex projects develop over a long period of time.  Our work on CitySquare in Worcester, which is taking shape now with the development of a public garage, housing and hotel, began in 2004.  As the master planner and architect for the 20-acre revitalization project, our involvement has continued through the latest phases with the design…

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Exploring Possibilities at Back Bay Station

As part of our work exploring options for renovating Back Bay Station for Boston Properties, we went on site with a lift operator, structural engineer, and preservation expert to determine how to best restore the wood arches. Originally built and opened in the 1980s, Back Bay Station will be undergoing a transformation in the coming years to modernize it and…

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Adaptive Migration in Urban Planning

Last week, I attended the 3rd annual ACCO Rising Seas Summit, which brought more than 300 professionals together to highlight the interrelationships between sea level rise, climate change, and extreme events. One topic discussed that is particularly interesting was adaptive migration, which looks at the affects an influx of new residents would have on an outside community if they were…

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Jordan Zimmermann presenting at ABX 2015

How resilient is East Boston? The Urban Land Institute (ULI) in conjunction with Neighborhood of Affordable Housing with the financial support of the Kresge Foundation, have conducted a Technical Assistance Program (TAP) to study the impacts that climate change has on transportation, utilities, and planning. Find out what they learned from Arrowstreet’s Jordan Zimmermann, along with Michelle Landers, Phil Giffee,…

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Edward Mazria at the BSA

Monday night, I attended a talk by Edward Mazria hosted by the Boston Society of Architects. Mazria is the founder of Architecture 2030, an organization which has created a path to reduce carbon emissions so that we do not reach the point of no return on climate change. Architecture 2030 promotes solutions to climate change through the design of the…

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ULI Boston TAP at ABX

At today’s Arrowstreet Update, our bi-weekly office meeting, Associate Jordan Zimmermann presented the work she has been doing with the ULI Boston TAP (technical assistance panel) program in East Boston. Through the Kresge Foundation, NOAH (Neighborhood of Affordable Housing, East Boston), received a $100,000 grant to fund this research. The TAP had several goals to assist NOAH, including identifying community…

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Collaboration Brings Ideas to Life

The following is Part III in a series on the Logan Airport Central Parking Expansion. Find Part I and Part II here.  In the design and construction of the facade at the Logan Garage, our partnership with Extech allowed us to develop and fabricate a system that would have been difficult (if not impossible) without their collaboration. Throughout the design…

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