The BSA Space is now complete! The staff move-in happened seamlessly earlier this week and we are on track for a January opening. Check out some images below –
The stair and wing just got their final coat of green paint. Check it out below –
Friday, November 18, 2011
2:30-4:30 pm
BSA Space Construction Site at Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress Street
Aspiring architects going through the IDP process and looking to fulfill the “Training Area 13 – Construction Phase – Observation” requirement are encouraged to participate in this program. Tour the BSA’s new home-to-be with our architects from Howeler + Yoon to review and discuss the project relative to the drawings, discuss issues related to the site and how design decisions were made, and the interaction between design and construction industry were encouraged.
This program is free, but space is limited. Register at rsvp@architects.org by Monday, November 14. If you have any questions contact Jen Potter at jpotter@architects.org.
The all steel monumental stair has just been installed in the BSA Space. The stair was flawlessly craned into place by our construction team at Commodore Builders.
Below are some photos of the installation –
Construction of the BSA Space is well underway. We anticipate that major construction will be completed by mid-November.
Below are some images of the new space during construction –
Above: Architect Eric Howeler surveys the newly cut stair opening from the first floor of the new BSA Space.
Above: The opening from the second floor.
Above: An image of the steel stair during fabrication in Grand Rapids, MI.
Above: Conference pods beginning to take shape on the second floor of the new space.
Boston’s architecture students showed off great work at the BSA Membership Enrichment Committee‘s Student Design Showcase, held at Atlantic Wharf on the evening of Thursday, September 29. About 70 people gathered to congratulate the honorees, who submitted studio projects earlier this summer.
Committee chair Christina Crawford AIA gave a brief introduction, announcing a broader initiative by the committee: to provide students with outlets for their work, and opportunities to build their networks. Students from all the area’s NAAB-accredited universities mingled, discussed their work and made connections with one another, many of the area’s brightest young professors and instructors, and members of the BSA community.
The New York Times cites the BSA as an organization making strides to connect design and the public in the article Building Architects’ Centers to Capture Public Attention.
BSA Space is big, even big enough for Texas—or Texas-sized ideas, at least.
The first BSA outdoor exhibit at Atlantic Wharf brings inspiration from Marfa and Big Bend, Texas in the form of site-specific installations.
Rob Trumbour AIA is the co-founder of Artforming and an assistant professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology. This fall, he leads a studio called Mapping Big Bend in which students experience the landscapes that inspired installation artist Donald Judd (founder of the Chinati Foundation), armed with observation methodologies of landforms artist Robert Smithson (popularly known for his project Spiral Jetty). Before departing, they will observe design/fabrication facilities in New York City.
Students will measure, map, absorb, reflect and bring their experiences back to Atlantic Wharf, where they will create site-specific installations on the plaza near the Harborwalk this December.
Above: Big Bend National Park, Texas. Courtesy of the National Park Service.
Committees are at the heart of BSA activity. They advance thinking on design, technology, practice, policy and other aspects of the building industry, and a large percentage of BSA Space is dedicated to them.
The most striking committee facilities are the pods (pictured above). Two gallery-white geometric structures are embedded within the main gallery, providing ample surface area for two-dimensional exhibits on their exteriors. Glass walls face the passage between them, animating the center with committee activity without disrupting the galleries. The larger of the two is similar in capacity to the 5th floor of The Architects Building, and the other is about half that size.
Past the pods, a retractable glass wall allows lectures and events to spill into the galleries from another large boardroom-style meeting room into the gallery. Across the atrium, a third large meeting space similar to the 5th floor of The Architects Building can merge with the Atlantic Wharf multimedia room, and has access to a deck overlooking Fort Point Channel.
All four meeting spaces have kitchen access.
With so many meeting rooms, elegant wayfinding is in order. The design team is hard at work completing another distinctive element of the design of BSA Space: signage.
Rendering courtesy of Höweler + Yoon Architecture.
Architects, designers, civic leaders and design aficionados will come together in sunny galleries overlooking the Fort Point Channel at BSA Space. Exhibits will inspire, challenge and provoke dialogue about architecture and the built environment as members and visitors attend meetings, openings and events. About 5,700 square feet of gallery space includes a variety of exhibit areas, lots of wall surface, lighting variation and room for everything from projections to models and suspended objects. Threaded throughout is a brilliantly colored ceiling element, which house lighting and other services and unite the galleries, stair and concierge space.
These main second-floor galleries are open to Waterfront Square below, a large public space that welcomes visitors to Atlantic Wharf. The BSA will curate this space as well, which currently exhibits works from the CyberArts festival.
Embedded within the galleries are sculptural elements that double as venues for humming committee activity: the pods.
Top image: a rendering of the galleries. Above: a floor plan showing the ceiling element and stair indicated in green. Both images courtesy of Höweler + Yoon Architects.
BSA Space 