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| AB Lofts by Urbanica from Washington Street |
AB Lofts by Urbanica project at Washington Street is a proposed
mixed use building in Dudley Square, Roxbury, MA. The proposed building
consists of 24 rental apartment units (23,930 square feet +/-), a 1,650 square feet
+/- ground floor commercial space and 13 off-street parking spots.
The building is five stories
in height. The ground floor commercial space is envisioned as an active
community event space that will be curated by a local community partner,
Discover Roxbury in collaboration with Urbanica, to highlight the rich and
diverse cultural heritage of Dudley Square and the Roxbury neighborhood.
DUDLEY SQUARE, BOSTON
Spurred by the construction
of the new Boston Public Schools Headquarters at the historic Ferdinand
Building as well as other public-private development projects in the area like
Bartlett Yard, Parcel 3, 9 and 10, Dudley Square is quickly emerging into a
thriving commercial center of Roxbury.
Roxbury, called the
geographic heart of Boston and the Dudley Square area and situated less than two
miles from downtown Boston, is one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods in
terms of culture, language, religion, and socio-economic backgrounds. This
dynamic, urban hub has long been the historic center of African-American culture
in the Commonwealth.
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| Site Plan |
URBAN HUB
Dudley Square is also a
multi-modal transportation hub, with an abundance of public transit services
like 16 bus lines and the Rapid Transit Silver line, connecting the area to
Downtown Boston, Logan International Airport, and other neighboring towns
including Cambridge and Brookline. The commercial space planned for AB Lofts will
be well connected to a wider network of economic and cultural activities within
the region.
URBAN RENAISSANCE
Our proposed project will
bring vital energy and activity to the street level by providing a venue for
community programming that will be curated by a local community group, Discover
Roxbury in collaboration with Urbanica.
The ground floor open plan layout will be designed as a
flexible event space for exhibitions, meetings, workshops or performances. The
ground floor commercial space will also include storage, administrative offices,
and common amenities for the building’s tenants. The space will be ideal for
fostering interaction within the community and a catalyst for greater
grassroots endeavors and sustainable economic development in the neighborhood.
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| Adapting to Local Context and Scale |
CONTEXT AND DESIGN
The AB Lofts Building by Urbanica looks to the scale and texture
of the local context for its design inspiration. The immediate building context
is made up of a mix of single-story industrial buildings and some mid-sized institutional
uses such as the former Dillaway School (present Schoolhouse Kenilworth
Williams Apartments).
Based on the historic Bromley Atlas map from 1899, the pre-existing
building was a rectangular 4-quadrant type building situated within the larger
of the two plots [Plots 0903168000 and 0903169000]. AB Lofts follow closely the
planning of the pre-existing building.
The AB Lofts building also reflects the dimension and vertical
proportion of an end wing of the former school building. Though the overall
massing of the building is cubic, the proposed building is broken into two
smaller scaled wings to achieve this look. In addition to reflecting the
overall massing of the former school building, the AB Lofts Building window
pattern and exterior color reinterprets the existing façade material palette.
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| Activating the Street Level with art and cultural use |
CATALYST FOR CHANGE
The other main design influence for our project comes from
the mix of industrial and residential buildings that characterizes the
neighborhood. We interpret this program mix as having the potential for an
emerging arts district. In fact, many successful arts districts begin as
industrial areas which are later adapted to new uses.
Artists and creative professionals are drawn to buildings
with large, open spaces at relatively affordable costs. This part of Roxbury
seems poised to undergo this kind of transformation by drawing upon the rich
cultural and artistic heritage of the area.
To this end, we envision the AB Lofts Building as a catalyst
to a rapidly redeveloping area. Though our proposed building is not large, as
one the first of many more buildings to come, it can set the stage for future development
with its progressive, contextually-driven design and its functional
programming. Moreover, the building will be a model for energy-efficient design
and will be LEED-certifiable. Following Urbanica’s track record of creating
quality buildings, the building construction techniques and materials will be
of good quality and take advantage of the good building practices that Urbanica
learnt from the E+ (Energy positive) building prototype by minimizing energy
consumption and using sustainable and green techniques.
The AB Lofts Building consists of four floors of open, loft-style
residential units sitting on top of an inviting, transparent commercial base.
The ground floor space will be occupied with a community-oriented arts and
cultural space for the neighborhood, curated by Discover Roxbury in
collaboration with Urbanica.
