PERSPECTIVES

South Boston-based developer, City Point Capital, is hoping to tap into the potential of Dorchester’s Port Norfolk peninsula, with plans to build what would be the first significant commercial development this corner of the city has seen in years.

City Point Capital is working with RODE Architects to develop and design a complex that would include an estimated 100 condos, a boutique hotel and restaurant, marina slips, and a home for the boat business, now run by Florida-based MarineMax. The precise sizes of the proposed buildings are still in flux. City Point Capital and RODE Architects still want to meet with community members before submitting formal plans to the Boston Planning & Development Agency this summer.

What intrigues Kevin Deabler, RODE Architects Principal, most about the site is the opportunity it provides to draw more people to Dorchester’s waterfront. Deabler said he expects the new buildings would be set back more from the water than the existing ones, so visitors could walk along the shoreline. The development, he said, could easily dovetail with a new state park that opened up nearby on old industrial land next to the Lower Neponset River bike trail.

Excerpts from Boston Globe:  Big plans for ‘hidden gem’ on Dorchester waterfront by Jon Chesto

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RODE designed Jamaica Plain condos sell within a month!

Mangiacotti Design + Development wrapped construction of 48 Forbes Street in Jamaica Plain’s Hyde Square area earlier this year.

The 2,561-square-foot modern townhouse, which features a 20-foot partial wall of glass and includes a two-car (heated) garage, is part of a three-unit development that RODE Architects designed.

The 3-BR, 2.5-BA spread dropped in January for $1,295,000 through Arborview Realty.

It just closed for $1,280,000.

Original article can be found at Curbed Boston.

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The BSA Foundation assembled a team of designers to produce renderings and other visualizations to illustrate potential development along the Fairmount Indigo corridor as part of a project for the Boston Foundation. The work grew from the Boston Planning and Development Agency (formerly BRA) comprehensive planning study and other neighborhood documents already complete.

RODE architect Katie Cressall joined the Fairmount Corridor Visioning Team to specifically address the Blue Hill Station. The process included engaging the community at the Design for Equity Panel at ABX, a charrette with CDC staff, and a community forum with neighbors in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. It presented a great opportunity to learn more about community development in our neighborhoods, as well as the ways in which the community influences urban design.

Through her focus on the Bill Hill station in Mattapan Katie learned about some of the neighborhood’s main concerns. She created visual renderings to help support and stimulate conversations with community leaders and others - translating the planning study and its dense planner/architect lingo into an image that families, business owners, and other community members could easily understand and that encouraged everyone be a part of the project.

Katie helped to develop the before and after view shown below, which depicts a concept for the new Blue Hill Train Station, as well as the urban infill scale that the city is encouraging. The process of working closely with the community, as well as with other architects and planners was very inspiring and will continue to impact how she collaborates at RODE.

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The Zoning Board of Appeals has approved plans to construct a new seven-story residential building and new buildings for Congregation Kadimah-Toras Moshe and the Daughters of Israel Mikvah at 101-105 Washington Street in Brighton. The firm is working with Brookline Development Corporation and the two congregations on a collaborative redevelopment of these under-utilized parcels, ensuring the longevity of two venerable neighborhood institutions while providing much-needed multi-family housing in one of Boston’s diverse and growing neighborhoods.

Principal Eric Robinson sees this project as an exciting model for building in neighborhoods: "We can meet the demands for new housing, for bringing new people into our city, while supporting and enriching the communities that are already here. We can achieve both. This is a true development with a mission.”

See more at Boston City Biz List

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On January 22, 2017 two members of the RODE team, Katie Cressall and Ben Wan, were honored with first prize for their entry in the AIANH Emerging Professionals Design Competition (formerly the AIANH Intern/Young Architect Design Competition) at its33rd AIANH Awards Banquet at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford, NH. The competition provides a platform for interns and young architectural professionals to demonstrate their design skills as a means to "gain recognition and assist a community with their design challenges.”

This year’s competition challenged entrants to develop a design revolved around a hot-button topic of revitalizing the recently closed Rockingham Park in Salem, NH, into a small scale “inner city” or “lifestyle center”, which have started gaining popularity around the country outside of major cities.

In selecting Katie and Ben as the winning team, the jurors shared feedback on the success of their design saying, “overall, the jury found this submission to be quite strong. While the competition was open to interpretation on what community building, or buildings, the submitters wanted to incorporate, this team went above and beyond. Their project, dubbed the “Civic Mile”, introduces a number of community spaces, such as a library, performing arts building, child and elder care, and an art studio, among others. The number of building forms introduced were treated as one cohesive idea, and the way in which the team both integrated them into the site, and connected them to the surrounding area was elegantly done, and would be a great addition to any growing city."

For more information about Katie and Ben's winning project head to the AIA New Hampshire site.

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