2011: Year in Review

As 2011 draws to a close, I’ve been thinking about how to characterize this year.  It’s been a good year for Studio G:  we’ve been constantly busy on a variety of projects; we’ve engaged clients in fruitful and enjoyable collaborations; we’ve hired a new staff member who fit seamlessly into our studio; we’ve continued to build our design expertise in sustainability and 21^st century learning environments; and we’ve begun integrating Building Informational Modeling into our projects. 

Diversity rather than specialization

For the past 3 years, we have been in the most competitive period I have experienced in the 20 years since starting my own design studio.  It forces me to reflect on why we win the projects we do, and lose some I think we should have won.  Sometimes it is because another firm has a longer list of a certain type of building.  I could wish we had the longest list of each type of project.  However, from the start, we have resisted being pigeon-holed into a single specialization. 

We have eschewed the notion that we were “child care architects” or “housing architects” preferring instead a practice that is deep in its understanding of people’s spatial needs in a variety of settings, and broad in its portfolio of completed projects. Not only do we bring fresh thinking to each design, and research each new type of building, but we apply to each project what we’ve learned from other, often different types, of buildings. We like to repeat building types, but appreciate that variety in our projects prevents us from getting stale. 

Highlights of our diverse 2011 projects:

·         270 Centre Street residents moved into healthy, sustainable dwelling units, and the new restaurant, laundry and hair salon will all be operating by early 2012 in prime commercial space at the nexus of Hyde and Jackson Squares.

·         MIT Technology Children’s Center at North Court was designed and construction completed 

·         Beverly Housing Authority completed renovations we designed of their offices and the common spaces of Upton Place

·         Ebenezer Baptist Church, an historic landmark in Boston’s South End, finished the renovations we designed of  their social hall, offices and kitchen

·         Somerville Community Corp. completed construction of the new natural play yard we designed for St. Polycarps mixed use development

·         Construction began of the new 400-student Sturgis Public Charter High School in Hyannis

·         We designed a new intergenerational child care center, now under construction, for Jewish Community Centers of the North Shore in Aviv Centers for Living-Woodbridge in Peabody

·         The Town of Rockland selected Studio G to design the new Rockland Senior Center, and secured funding to complete bid documents by spring, 2012

·         We completed studies for DCAM of the Eastern Mass. Women’s Correctional Facility, Shattuck Hospital Personnel Building, and Dukes County Sheriff’s Department

·         We developed a master plan for Innovation Academy Charter School’s 200-acre site in Tyngsborough

·         BLS Youth CAN; Jim Hunt, Boston’s Chief of Environment and Energy; and I presented at the annual Les Respirations Conference outside Paris:  Jim on the city’s sustainability efforts, Youth CAN on their organizing work; and I on the design of The Shared Green Roof @ BLS

Design for the public good
An annual reflection demands a look at the broader context, which is not nearly so positive. The design and construction industry remains deflated, despite obvious need for design and construction services for the public good:

·         1300 households applying for 30 affordable housing units at our 270 Centre Street project is just one indication of the demand for affordable housing, yet little is being built for lack of funding

·         Every public school I visit needs renovation, if not replacement; there is widespread agreement that education is key to a prosperous future, yet funding is unavailable to address the facility needs

·         Our urban and regional infrastructure is in desperate need of maintenance, and public transit in need of expansion, but funding is not available

The list of needs goes on, and the explanation of why they are unmet is always the same:  lack of money. Yet there is plenty of money in the economy; it just isn’t directed to meet these needs.  Starving the public sector of funds, popular among conservatives, is a short-sighted and ill-conceived strategy: it affects poor people first and hardest, but ultimately short-changes us all. 

We can only hope that 2012 will bring a longer perspective and more progressive approach to meeting the needs of our communities in the 21^st century.