PERSPECTIVES
With game-changing projects completed and underway in Boston’s developing neighborhoods including Dorchester, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, South Boston and along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, we have released our predictions for the biggest architecture and design trends on the city’s horizon in 2016 and beyond. This year, we expect Boston professionals and residents alike to see continuing transformational trends in the development arena, including:
RISE OF THE BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODSAs the downtown center, Seaport, and South Boston fill up with mega-developments, several communities will see the ripple effects. Very transformative developments are hitting their streets. We are talking about large sites which have been vacant and neglected for years, thus their impacts will catalyze areas far beyond what a downtown development could do.
FOOD & HOUSINGIf the first trend materializes, we expect to see a wave of restaurants and grocery stores forming behind those transformed sites. Elected officials have worked hard to empower restaurant entrepreneurs with more accessible beverage licensing and these businesses need traffic (foot, bike, car), which is hopefully coming along with more housing. Supporting local is no longer a trend, it has become a paradigm shift, translating into an economic initiator and stabilizing factor to support these neighborhood developments.
ARTS & CREATIVE EXPRESSION BOILING OVERWhat was that thing painted on the Hancock? What about that net hanging over the Greenway? Understand it or not- whatever is going on has created more conversation about the best uses of our public space. It’s almost radical out there. Architects are really trying to explore this sea change.
MILLENIAL NEEDS & WANTSThey want an exciting place to work. We’ve all grown out of the world of cubicles and enclosed offices. Nobody is surprised to see new collaborative work spaces, but there will be several new concepts fusing work spaces with other uses – like art exhibition, fitness, event spaces, cafes, maker spaces. Say goodbye to dull, vanilla boxes and welcome to workplaces that get people excited to show up and are not bound by the constraints of a space, but influencing the broader urban experience.
CHANGING NONPROFIT LANDSCAPEIt seems like every non-profit needs help finding space. We mean schools, homeless shelters, rehab centers, training facilities. It’s not all rosy for a lot of kids, families, and struggling individuals. Look (or hope) for several inspiring examples to come on line exploiting the fervor associated with the food industry, through food trucks and production incubators.
The RODE designed multi-family residence on 115 Florida Street in Dorchester was featured in the Boston Herald. Learn more about the project and our collaboration with Developer Dan Mangiacotti here.
photo by Matt Stone
This week brought a big win Dorchester Brewing Company. The Zoning Board of Appeal approved plans allowing the company to open the 25,000-square-foot facility at 1250 Mass Ave. near the South Bay shopping center (the former site of sheet metal contractor M.A. Peacard Co.)
Plans designed by RODE Architects, along with the brewing team and its consultants continue to be in the works. The design consists of a large tasting room for the general public, brewery observation and a new grain silo which highlights the buildings new identity.
Original article can be read here.
This week’s Boston Business Journal cover story discusses the rise of RODE designed Dot Block, a proposed 475,000-square-foot mixed-use development including residential, retail, parking and a pedestrian-only promenade on a 4.75-acre parcel along the 1200 block of Dorchester Avenue. If all goes according to plan, Dot Block would essentially create a new neighborhood spread throughout an entire city block, and some in Greater Boston’s real estate community are heralding the proposal as “the future of development.”
BBJ Real Estate Editor Catherine Carlock chatted about the project on NECN. Watch the video to hear more about the project.
Yesterday we lost our dear friend and neighbor, Joe Chaisson. We wish to offer our deepest respect and condolences to his wife Carol, the Chaisson family, and all of his friends and neighbors.
In many ways, RODE Architects grew out of the desire to do something better for our neighbors in Savin Hill. We were first witness to the community process by watching Joe Chaisson’s intense engagement in the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association. Laughable at times, there was no easy passage through Joe at the planning board. His approval was never guaranteed. As years passed- we came to understand and accept this scrutiny as something bigger than just toying with developers and billboard vendors.
He loved his neighbors. The community was his family. At his bench dedication, in one of the blizzards of 2015, he said “I was taught to never do anything just for a thank you.” Well, we DO thank you, Joe. We promise to follow your example.
-Kevin Deabler and Eric Robinson
