Urban Room.
location:
Boston, Massachusetts.
client:
Boston Center for the Arts.
with:
Jarrett Pelletier
date/status:
2006/competition.
key points:
investigation, design research, competition entry, performance and artists spaces, retractable roof structure, origami.
The BCA competition brief called for the unification of disparate existing architectural and programmatic elements on the full-block site.
‘Urban Room’ is a series of interventions:
Adaptable roof: folding canopies allow creation of different event environments by creating enclosures that are either covered or open to the sky.
Boardwalk platform: a variegated ground plane forms a backdrop/gathering space/proscenium providing space underneath for retail/box office on a prominent street corner and service access at the court of the existing gallery/ballet school building.
‘Open’ studios: glass boxes provide visual access for artists and patrons in the newly public artists’ courtyard.
The new boardwalk and artists’ courtyard form an attenuated threshold connecting BCA and the community while providing flexibility of use. The experience of these ‘urban rooms’ is intended to weave the elements of the BCA campus together to form an identity associated with both place and organization.