Hayden Building Reborn: Boston Biz Journal: bostonherald.com/business/real_…
Posted in During the course of our flash market studies the Boston Redevelopment Authority asked us to formally respond to an RFP that addressed the larger identity of the district including vendor carts, streetscape, paving, graphics, and wayfinding. We assembled ideas and a team that included urban planner Nathalie Beauvais, Studio 2112 Landscape Architects, Bluerock Graphic Design, Urban Marketing Collaborative, Nitsch Civil Engineering, and Fennessy Cost Consulting.
Partner Jason Hart has been added to the Triangle Modernist Houses archive of North Carolina modernist architects. View his profile here.
CUBE will host 10 Min. Architect – a free design clinic, Sat. Feb. 2nd, 9-11:30 at 3CUPS in Chapel Hill, NC fb.me/1vItuukg3
Partner Jason Hart has been appointed to the Community Design Commission for Chapel Hill, NC.
Our efforts helped stall the demolition process for Neutra’s Cyclorama in Gettysburg, but it seems that the battle… fb.me/zxnXam8V
In all of our projects, we seek out the inherent qualities of the project site and context and strive to enhance the awareness of those qualities through our architecture. When our projects involve an existing building, our approach is no different. Rather than beginning with land topography as we would with an empty site, we consider the existing building as another type of topography. For our conversion of H.H. Richardson’s Hayden Building in Boston’s Chinatown, we interpreted the building and studied its newly defined relationship with the urban context. We made use of multiple resources to better understand the historical context of the building. A thorough analysis of the Richardson archives at Harvard University provided an insightful view into the mind of the architect. Another invaluable resource was the Stonehurst Residence in Waltham, MA which is one of only a few remaining residential projects by Richardson. We also took advantage of many of the historical societies that offered information about the building, the City of Boston, and its neighborhoods.
The research not only uncovered a bit of the Hayden Building’s eclectic past, but it also revealed Richardson’s design tactics that would ultimately serve as a precedent for our work: The Activated Edge, Sequence of Thresholds, and the Horizontal Datum.
Left: Historical photo courtesy of Historic New England | Right: 1814 & 1883 Historical Sanborn Map images
A ‘playhouse’ to be used by both the parents and the kids. The structure rises from the land through terraces that provide a unique experience in the trees.
1) Plan with the Local Climate:
Planning your home with the local climate in mind will reduce the time and energy required of your heating and cooling system in addition to providing a more pleasant living experience. Be sure the layout of your home, the placement of windows, and the size of overhangs are designed to take advantage of prevailing breezes and changing sun conditions throughout the year. When the weather is nice you can turn your air conditioner off, open the windows, and enjoy the day.
2) Insulation, Insulation, Insulation:
Insulation slows the time it takes for heat to transfer through walls and roofs. The more you have, the longer your house Read More…
1) Temperature is Free Money:
Set your water heater thermostat to 120 degrees year-round to save energy. For winter, set your heating & cooling system thermostat to 68 degrees or below; for summer, 74 degrees or higher. Keep your system off and windows open when it’s nice outside. Contrary to popular belief, the thermostat is not reflective of the temperature coming out of the air vents. The thermostat is the target temperature for the air inside the home, and setting it higher or lower will not speed it up. Find your comfort zone and leave it be for maximum efficiency.
2) Watts Matter (But So Does Color and Brightness):
Some fluorescent lights can make your living room look like a hospital room. But Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) have come a long way in recent years; they use half the energy and can even match the warm light of incandescent bulbs. To save even more energy Read More…