Courtesy of Touloukian Touloukian Inc.

Architects: Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Client: James Wilcox
Structural Engineer: Richmond So
Landscape Architect: Bob Uhlig
General Contractor: Dave Quirk
Photographs: Ed Wonsek

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© Stephen Lee

Architects: Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
General Contractor: Fern Vanchon
Lighting Designer: Scott Richardson
Photographs: Stephen Lee

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© Stephen Lee Photography

Architects: Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
General Contractor: Mike Ahern
Structural Engineer: Uy Than Ly
Electrical Lighting Design: Paul Zaferiou
Photographs: Stephen Lee Photography

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© Chuck Choi

The Boston Society of Architects/AIA announced the winner of the 2010 Harleston Parker Medal as the Cambridge Public Library by William Rawn Associates Architects and Ann Beha Architects.  Each year, the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) and the City of Boston award the Harleston Parker Medal to “the single most beautiful” building or structure built in the Greater Boston area over the past 10 years.

More images of the winner after the break. read more »

Courtesy map-lab

The International Living Future Institute launched the Living City Design Competition in 2010, seeking designs for our cities in the year 2035. map-lab’s submission was ResilienCity. ResilienCity seeks to set the vision for the future of Boston’s Innovation District, a new neighborhood built on grey field and brownfield sites that will provide residences and workplaces for over 300,000 people.

We have reached the tipping point where we need to think of the whole, not the self. We have arrived at a time when we need to stop behaving selfishly and begin to explore how we can all come together as a community to create environments that are culturally enriching, healthier, and equitable. We come back to nature to do this. Additional images of map-lab’s submission and a continuing narrative can be seen after the break.

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© Timothy Hursley

The Wang Campus Center, Davis Garage and related Alumnae Valley projects encompass most of the western half of the Wellesley College campus. They include a 50,000 sqf Campus Center, the renovation of the Alumnae Valley landscape, a 565 car parking garage, a 20,000 sqf building for the Campus Trade Shops, a 4,000 sqf building for the campus police, the renovation and re-design of the campus chilled water plant, and the re-design of the Campus Central Utility Plant environs.

Architect: Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects
Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
Project Team: Mack Scogin, Merrill Elam, Timothy Harrison, Christopher Agosta, David Yocum, Kimberly Shoemake-Medlock, Jeffrey Collins, Jennifer Pindyck, Barnum Tiller, Christian Rice, Michael Wirsching, Jennifer Hurst, John Trefry, Stephen Trimble, Kevin Gotsch, Andrea Korber, Jane Lee, Ashley Moore, Margaret Fletcher, Brian Bell, Trey Lindsey, Sophia Greenbaum, Helen Han, Ted Paxton
Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Structural Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer: Arup
Civil Engineer: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin
General Contractor: Richard White Sons
Project Managers: Genesis Partners
Lighting Consultant: LAM Partners
Project Area: 74,000 sqf
Project Year: 2005
Photographer: Timothy Hursley

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© Michael Lavin Flower

Architects: Burr & McCallum Architects
Location: West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA
Project area: 4,600 sqf
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Michael Lavin Flower

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Courtesy of Rachely Rotem Studio & Phu Hoang Office

Fascinated with the theory of camouflage and interested in how, as a design concept, it could result in the transformation of space, Rachely Rotem Studio and Phu Hoang Office changed the recognizable figure of a barge in a city to an interactive atmospheric phenomenon they titled, ‘Lighter Than Air’. This proposal, which was for “The Barge” competition organized by SHIFTBoston, won first place and will be coming to the Fort Point Channel in Boston in September 2012. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of PRAUD

Boston based research and design firm, PRAUD, shared with us the West End Museum which is a community-based museum in Boston dedicated to documenting the history of the West End of Boston. The museum especially captures the immigrant era which dates approximately from 1880 to the West Ends destruction by eminent domain in 1958. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Rockwell Group

The new Ames Hotel is Rockwell Group’s first hotel project in Boston. The boutique hotel occupies the historic Ames Building, a historic office building which was built in the late 19th century, and was the tallest building in Boston when it was completed. The hotel sits along the Washington Mall at One Court Street and is located on the edge of the Financial District, the Downtown Crossing shopping district and Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Architect: Rockwell Group
Location: One Court Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Project Area: 70,000 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Courtesy of Rockwell Group

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© emily geoff

The first and only building in the United States designed by the 20th Century master architect Le Corbusier sits among some of the oldest buildings that date back to before the United States was organized.  Completed in 1963, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts is located on Harvard University’s campus.  Designed in conjunction with Chilean architect Guillermo Jullian de la Fuentes and Josep Lluis Sert – dean of Harvard’s GSD at the time, the Carpenter Center stands out among the traditional architectural styles of Harvard Yard as a combination of Le Corbusier’s earlier modernist works.

More on the Carpenter Center after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, © daderot

Home to one of the most influential architects of the 20^th Century, the Gropius House was the residence of Walter Gropius and his family during his tenure at Harvard University during the mid 1900s. Completed in 1938, the Gropius House was the first commissioned project in the United States for the famed architect.  Located in Lincoln, Massachusetts the house is a hybrid of traditional New England aesthetic and the modernist teachings of the Bauhaus.

More on the Gropius House after the break. read more »

Photographs courtesy of Yushiro Okamoto

As a part of MIT’s 150th anniversary celebration, a student competition was held for a installation to become part of the festivities. Yushiro Okamoto‘s winning proposal, ICEWALL, has recently been completed and has been submitted to share with us here at ArchDaily. Follow after the break to browse through a large collection of photographs of the project.
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Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, © Daniel Schwen

As part of an international competition to design Boston’s City Hall in 1962, three Columbia University professors, Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles, diverted from the typical sleek, glass and steel structures that were being requested by popular demand.  Rather than basing their design on the material aesthetics, their goal was to accentuate the governmental buildings connection to the public realm.

Completed in 1968, the Brutalist style city hall bridges the public and private sectors of government through a gradient of reveal and exposure that allows the public to become integrated, either physically or visually, into the daily affairs of the governmental process.

More on the Boston City Hall after the break. read more »

© Greg Premru Photography

Architects: Andrew Cohen Architects
Location: Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA
Landscape Architect: Scott Carman
General Contractor: Jonathan Merz
Structural Engineer: Richmond So Engineers, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Dave Crispin
Photographs: Greg Premru Photography

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Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, © daderot

Eero Saarinen is one of the most respected architects of the 20^th Century, often regarded as a master of his craft.  Known for his dynamic and fluid forms, his design for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s chapel takes on a different typology than his previous works.  Completed in 1955, the MIT Chapel is a simple cylindrical volume that has a complex and mystical quality within.  Saarinen’s simple design is overshadowed by the interior form and light that were meant to awaken spirituality in the visitor.

The non-denominational chapel is intended to be more than just a religious building, rather it’s meant to be a place of solitude and escape that induces a process of reflections.  Located at the heart of MITs campus, the chapel’s cylindrical form breaks the rigidity of the campus’s orthogonal grid.

More on the MIT Chapel after the break. read more »

Courtesy Höweler + Yoon Architecture

The Boston Society of Architects plans to move from its current location on 52 Broad Street to a new space at Atlantic Wharf, as part of a major transformation of the 1867 institution. As part of an open design competition, the BSA selected Höweler + Yoon Architecture’s proposal entitled: Slipstream Public Exchange. Images of the proposal, a fly through video and an architects description after the break.
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© Jeff Goldberg/Esto

Students at Smith College—the largest liberal arts institution for women in the country—are assigned to houses, many of them Victorian-era structures complete with living rooms. Meant to foster a collegial environment, while successful, they also create isolated communities. Broadening the opportunity for social interaction, the Smith College Campus Center serves as a mediating body, the only building at Smith available to all students, faculty, and staff.

Follow the break for more photographs and drawings of this Weiss/Manfredi project.

Architects: Weiss/Manfredi
Location: Smith College Campus, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
Design Partners: Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi
Project Manager: Tae-Young Yoon
Project Architects: Armando Petruccelli and Kian Goh
Project Team: Michael Blasberg, Lauren Crahan, Stephanie Maignan, Chris Payne, Jason Ro, and Yehre Suh
Structural Engineering Consultant: Weidlinger Associates Consulting Engineers
MEPFP Engineering Consultant: Jaros, Baum, and Bolles Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architecture Consultant: Towers|Golde Landscape Architects and Site Planners
Lighting Design Consultant: Renfro Design Group, Inc.
Civil Engineering Consultant: Fuss & O’Neill
Curtain Wall Consultant: R. A. Heintges Architects Consultants
AV/Acoustics/IT Consultant: Shen Milsom & Wilke
Food Service Consultant: Cini-Little International
Cost Estimator: AMIS Inc.
Waterproofing Consultant: James Gainfort
Construction Manager: Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, Inc.
Client: Smith College
Project Area: 60,000 sqf
Photographs: Jeff Goldberg

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Courtesy of Craig Newick

Located in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the site for this project is an existing 1960’s modern house with a 1980’s complementary addition, including a pool at the outset. Designed by Newick Architects, the design for the Firestone Pavilion needed to serve multiple functions as a car port and pool enclosure fence. The architecture pre-dated the current owner, who asked the architects to reinvent these spaces from the English trellis and dovecotes that originally maintained these spaces.

A 2010 AIA Connecticut Design Award recipient for Architecture: The Encompassing Art, the jury praised the Firestone Pavilion, “The sensitive handling of intersecting walls, beams and planes and the abstract sculptural quality of enclosures, such that it reminded us of a composition by the sculptor Donald Judd.”

Follow the break for more photographs and drawings of the pavilion.

Architects: Newick Architects
Location: Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA
Structural Engineer: Michael Horton and Associates
Base Structure Contractor: Pearson Systems
Architectural Metals Fabricator: Lift Design and Fabrication
Glazing Contractor: Town & Country Glass
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Craig Newick

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© Nigel Young, Foster + Partners

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) recently unveiled their new Art of Americas Wing designed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares of Boston.  The carefully designed wing, contributed to the restored and augmented visitors experience, that reinstates the original formal axis of the Musuem and its relationship to the linear Back Bay Fens park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1877.  The new wing hosts 53 new galleries including the Art of the Americas collections, and consolidates the Museum’s five great collections into a more cohesive and understandable whole.

Norman Foster  commented that, “The MFA is more than a great cultural institution – it is the catalyst for the rejuvenation of an entire neighbourhood in Boston. Over time the Museum had lost its connection to the Back Bay Fens and the beautiful landscape of Frederick Law Olmsted’s ‘Emerald Necklace’. In restoring Lowell’s original plan and in opening up and reasserting the grand Fenway entrance, we have rediscovered this link. At the same time, we have drawn the landscape deep into the heart of the building and along Huntington Avenue. The result is a more legible museum that will create new connections between the park, the Museum and the local community.”

More details about the new Art of Americas Wing after the break.

Architects: Foster + Partners
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Foster + Partners Project Team: Norman Foster, Spencer de Grey, Michael Jones, Kate Murphy, John Small, William Castagna, Benedicte Artault, Robin Blanchard, Jan Coghlan, Chris Connell, Aaron Davis, Gennaro di Dato, James Edwards, Dagmar Eisenach, Morgan Fleming, Kristin Fox, Herbert Gsottbauer, Anthony Guma, Sean Hanna, Rie Haslov, Judith Kernt, Ismael Juan Khan, Kohelika Kohli, Abel Maciel, Peter Matcham, Pablo Menendez Paz, Aidan Monaghan, Yat Lun Ng, Mathis Osterhage, Silvia Paredes, Carol Patterson, Michael Pelken, Michael Richter, Katherine Ridley, Il Hoon Roh, Ingrid Sölken, Kinna Stallard, Matthew Stokes, Diego Suarez, Jane Tiley, Alexis Williams, Oliver Wong, Richard Yates
Architect of Record: CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc
Design Structural Engineers: Buro Happold
Structural Engineers of Record: Weidlinger Associates
Design MEP Engineers: Buro Happold
MEP Engineers of Record: WSP Flack + Kurtz
Landscape Architect: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd.
Civil Engineers: Nitsch Engineering Inc
Construction Management: George B.H. Macomber Company (Pre-Construction Services), Skanska USA Building Inc (Enabling Contractor), John Moriarty & Associates (General Contractor)
Client: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Project Area: 193,325 sqf (new construction)
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Nigel Young, Foster + Parners

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