This edition of the Phius Project Spotlight Series highlights the Old Colony Phase Three C project in Boston, Massachusetts.
Our monthly Project Spotlights highlight the cutting-edge work being done by Phius professionals and provide examples of successful design and construction strategies. We feature projects of various sizes, typologies, and climate zones, offering you a peek behind the curtain of each. The Project Spotlight series appears in e-blasts to our mailing list (be sure to join if you haven’t already) as well as right here in the Klingenblog.
Our October Project Spotlight is: The Homes at Anne M Lynch at Old Colony Phase Three C in Boston, Massachusetts!
The award-winning project was part of the first of two Phius project tours being held in conjunction with the Phius Pro Forum. There are still spots available for the second tour, which is scheduled for Oct. 20 in Providence, Rhode Island. Learn more here.
Completed in Spring of 2022, Old Colony Phase 3C is the latest phase of a decade-long redevelopment of the Old Colony public housing complex, originally built in 1940 as one of the country's oldest federal public housing developments. The original housing complex was the single largest property in the Boston Housing Authority’s portfolio and the most distressed with aging infrastructure and high energy consumption. The sustainable multi-building campus design is the result of broad stakeholder participation, which reimagined the historic public housing community and laid out a strategic vision to create an entirely affordable housing community and to weave Old Colony back into the fabric of the South Boston neighborhood. Existing superblocks have been broken down and replaced with new neighborhood scale blocks to incorporate pedestrian-friendly streets and open spaces with view corridors to the adjacent park and waterfront.
Each successive phase further advanced the sustainable design aspirations of the overall project, and when the project began early schematic design near the end of summer 2018, a commitment was made to have Old Colony Phase 3C be the development's first Phius certified building. Having replaced the 250 existing units within the Phase 3 site area with the first three buildings of Phase 3, Phase 3C presented the opportunity to provide a new type of fully affordable housing for the community and city. Envisioned as a completely affordable apartment community for senior residents and those with disabilities, the building creates 55 highly efficient, comfortable, resilient, and accommodating units, which allow members of the community to age in place and continue to live within their community.
The building's design is rooted in the context of the site. The building is a simple L-shape, preserving the continuity of the street wall on both Rev. Burke St. and Mercer St. The form and siting of the building not only provide excellent solar exposure, but also allow for an ample landscaped courtyard. Community and building amenity program spaces are intentionally located along Rev. Burke St., creating a connection with the Tierney Learning Center across the street, which functions as the heart of the community. The simple and regular outer shell of the building is peeled away and subtracted from, revealing an interesting, more compositional, inner volume. These strategic design decisions create the opportunity for solar shading and hierarchy in the building’s architectural design.
All images credit to Ed Wonsek