FROM WEEDS TO RENAISSANCE

Extract from the Editorial on the Boston Globe, July 09 2012

Ou latest project--the Melnea Hotel and Residences at Parcel 9 Roxbury is in the news again. The July 09 2012  editorial on the Boston Globe highlights the importance of our proposal in the revitalization of the Dudley Square neighborhood. To read the rest of the Boston Globe editorial, please [CLICK HERE]

Neighborhood revitalization is a core value  that we hold dear to. We strongly believe that good design and responsible development can vastly improve the quality of life for inner-city residents. 

We could not agree more to the statement made by the Chairman of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee, Darnell Williams, that inner city projects need to be commercially dynamic. It needs to more than mega-institutional projects. The vitality and energy of neighborhoods have to extend beyond the 9-5 schedule. We are confident that our proposal for a hotel, retail spaces and residential buildings will be crucial in providing the spark for neighborhood activities around the clock. 

Without a doubt, the upcoming Melnea Cass Boulevard developments are signs of greater things to come for the Roxbury neighborhood.

UPDATES ON E+ HOMES: 226-232 HIGHLAND STREET

226-232 Highland St: Front View

226-232 Highland St: Back View

Our project at 226-232 Highland Street is in the news! Matt Casey from the Beacon Hill Patch did a nice write up on the Boston Energy Plus Green Housing Program. For the complete article, please [CLICK HERE]


Urbanica Design and Development is one of 3 winning firms that will create sustainable and energy efficient homes in the Roxbury area.Our design partner is Interface Studio Architects, from Philadelphia and they made their name designing and building the 100K house a few years ago.

The project is conceived as a replicable prototype of efficient and sustainable residential construction for the city of Boston. The building consists of four three‐bedroom townhouses, approximately 1,750sf each. Sited on a currently vacant parcel in a vibrant urban neighborhood.

The houses’ form and orientation serve to maximize natural daylight and solar gain for the photo‐voltaic array that will generate more electricity than is needed. Our approach includes two major strategies for energy reduction: first, a super insulated envelope minimizes heat transfer without relying on mechanical conditioning techniques; second, a feedback mechanism provides information and prompts to users in the house regarding their energy‐related activity.

The project, in spite of its technological advancements, is inexpensive and simple in its construction, allowing transfer and easy replication in whole or part of its strategies to new and existing units in the region.

Stay tuned for more updates on this project as we moves closer to breaking ground in a couple of months!

PARCEL 9 FEATURED ON THE BOSTON GLOBE

Extract from Boston Globe Business Page, May 29 2012

The excitement surrounding Parcel 9 is fast rising in the cit;  the project was featured on Boston Globe on May 29, 2012 with Casey Ross of the Boston Globe writing " For decades, Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury has been no more than a high-traffic passageway to other parts of Boston. But under new plans approved by Boston regulators, Melnea Cass is due for a dramatic change that will result in new shops and restaurants, a supermarket, a hotel, and dozens of homes."


Parcel 9 will be one of two key projects that will  spur the development of the area. Kamran Zahedi, principal of Urbanica, feels strongly that “the neighborhood needs activities that strengthen the culture that’s already there. We’re not trying to bring the South End to Roxbury. Roxbury is going to take its own shape based on its landscape and demography.”


There are high hopes for Parcel 9 and Parcel 10 to spur an economic revitalization in the Roxbury/ Dudley Square areas. Urbanica is proud to be part of this renaissance of area.


To read the rest of the article, CLICK HERE

PARCEL 9: IMPORTANT MILESTONE ACHIEVED!

Melnea Hotel and Residences - View on Melnea Cass Boulevard   |   Rendering : NADAAA

Our next exciting project, Parcel 9 Melnea Cass Hotel and Residences has achieved an important milestone!

On May 15, Boston Redvelopment Authority granted "Tentative Designation" to Melnea Partners for the redevelopment of Parcel 9 in the South End/ Lower Roxbury Section of the city of Boston. Parcel 9 is an approximately 57,238 square foot (±1.31 acre) vacant parcel bounded by Washington Street to the east, Melnea Cass Boulevard to the south, Ball Street to the north and Shawmut Avenue to the west.

The Development Team has proposed a combined-use building for Parcel 9 including a hotel, ground floor commercial, restaurant and community space, mixed income housing, and underground parking. Stay tune for more exciting developments on the project as we move forward with design development and financing.

691 RESIDENCES COMPLETED

691 Residences - View from Massachusetts Avenue   |   Photo Credit: Chang Zhang

OCCUPANCY GRANTED!


For the past few years, Urbanica has worked closely with Studio Luz, the South End Landmarks District Commission and the Boston Redevelopment Authourity in developing an exceptionally sensitive and contemporary building on 691 Massachusetts Avenue.


691 residences  is one of the last new-built developments in South End, Boston, with approximately 45,000 sq ft of space including the basement garage.There are 40 residential units, ranging from 550sf to 1800sf with unit types including studio, one bedroom, one bedroom plus and two bedrooms residences. There are also 30 deeded parking spaces. This property fills a long vacant gap in a line of historic brownstones along Massachusetts Avenue.  Urbanica’s unique vertically-integrated structure allowed an assurance of quality and efficiency of cost and time by coordinating the project from in-house design of core and shell to partnering on the façade with Studio Luz Architects and through development, marketing, and construction. This project is exemplary of Urbanica’s commitment to the revitalization of underutilized parcels in up-and-coming urban neighborhoods.Our firm is extremely proud of the project and the close cooperation we had with the neighborhood and city. 

Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, Robert Campbell has aptly put it, 691 residences "fit so beautifully into its historic neigborhood ... it is fresh, inventive, confident and contemporary ... a model of how to build in a historic district". To read the complete architecture review on the Boston Globe (November 06, 2011), please go HERE