We are currently working on a very cool small project. The project is a Recreation Center addition to an existing Mental Health Hospital for the VA facility in Brockton MA. At a little less than 5,000 GSF, the project is primarily a single open floor plan with the primary space opening onto the exterior activities lawn and patio. The challenge with this project was determining how to create areas for both quiet reading and computer activities as well as areas for users to watch loud television and video gaming activities in a single, unified space, which is necessary for security purposes.
Compounding this programmatic challenge is the site, which snakes between parking lots and existing mechanical equipment and includes a cross slope grade change between the Mental Health outdoor space and a parking / loading dock 1 floor below.
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.