Whenever I start a new project, it’s all about the ‘macro’. What’s the feel of the space? Who’s the end user? Is it colorful? Understated? From there I start to pull together concept images, and let the leadership team of the project start to think more of the space as an overall feel and impression, and not get bogged down with ‘can that sofa have tufting?’

Above are three palettes that were put together for the Babson Executive Education  Center in Wellesley, MA:

Palette 1 focused on nature and its ‘cool’ tones, inspired by spring leaves, babbling brooks, and river rock.

Palette 2 focused on nature and its ‘warm’ tones, where I drew inspiration from the Berkshires and the Massachusetts countryside in general, looking at warm stacked stone, and rustic wood accents. Apple red and autumnal leaf coloring was the focus here.

Palette 3 was a return back to the city of Boston, playing off the green and blues, but in a more dramatic and contemporary method. The city itself was the inspiration for finishes, focusing on gray tiles and stainless steel accents.

The use of mobile devices to make purchases is still a small fraction of the total sales in the e-commerce world. But it’s rising. Per the New York Times, “last year, people spent $25 billion on purchases made from phones and tablets,” and that’s an increase of 81 percent over the previous year. I was curious how that affected my retail clients, so I reached out to them. This post is the second in a short series of responses. My questions were: how does mobile spending affect your retail business? What about show-rooming? How do you either fight it or work with it?

Magic Beans is a Boston-based baby-gear and toy store with five locations in and around Boston. Sheri Gurock, the owner of Magic Beans, believes that as online shopping grows, the occasions that merit a trip to a physical store will take on more significance. For Magic Beans, having a baby certainly is one of those life cycle events that leads to a special shopping trip, and these expectant parents need the extra help and service found in Sheri’s stores. Furthermore, mobile shopping will have the ability to enhance the shopping experience, since, as Sheri says, “customers have access to a lot more intelligence about the products in the store.” Showrooming is a problem for non-premium brands, and not necessarily for better products. She continues, “as long as stores like ours provide a great experience and have products in stock and ready to sell, we should be able to compete.”

I agree, and it’s why at Arrowstreet, we do everything we can to create exciting retail spaces that help our clients do what they do best: serve their customers in the physical world. Here’s what we did in their Prudential Center store.

(For Part 1 of this series, click here.)

While the plan requires demolition of load bearing walls to create proper flow and visual connection through the space, we were able to save on construction cost by utilizing the existing building’s framework for the space. The client – and the school! – are as excited about this creative solution as we are.

The core academic classrooms in the building were all outfitted with operable windows and ceiling mounted paddle fans.  In addition to these very basic user controls, the ventilation system provides dehumidified air to the classrooms, versus full air conditioning.  While the rooftop units that provide the dehumidified air function in a very similar manner to air conditioning units, they can be much smaller and use much less energy than if full air conditioning were to be provided.

In addition to the low-energy approach taken in the classrooms, the main lobby/cafeteria space in the school was another opportunity to deploy a passive design approach.  The cafeteria space links together the entire school from both a cultural and spatial perspective.  Being as such, it has a vertical connection through the building that functions as a natural “chimney” for passive stack effect convective air currents.  To capitalize on this reality, we added motorized louvers below a skylight well at the top of this space, and provided operable windows down low within the cafeteria.  As budgetary concerns were at the forefront of all decisions made, there is no elaborate system to control these venting devices – instead both the motorized louvers and windows can opened by the school staff when the climate dictates.

The passive venting system in the cafeteria is supplemented by the plentiful breezes that strike the school on its hilltop site, low speed ceiling fans, and a radiant floor.  The totality of these strategies help to create a school that can be well tuned to the exterior environment using a substantially lower amount of energy than a school that relied exclusively on active HVAC systems for climate control.

A full-sized, labelled PDF diagram of both the cafeteria and classroom strategies is located here.

One program that the university established is Ten Sustainable Actions which challenges the campus community to address one action each month. Schools or organizations on campus can compete to outdo each other to meet the sustainable goal. Another BU program is greening of the campus food services. BU has four of the thirteen 4-star Certified Green Restaurants in the country. In addition to programs that look at campus operations the university has looked at planning and infrastructure programs. For existing buildings, the revolving loan fund allows buildings to make energy efficiency upgrades and payback the loan through the energy savings that are achieved with the upgraded systems. For newly constructed buildings BU utilizes the LEED certification system to assess the green design.

The BU programs are universal and can be applied to any university, institution or corporate campus. I look at these programs and think what can be learned from them that I can bring to Arrowstreet and the architecture that we design. We can understand how the layout and size of spaces has impacted the ability to implement these programs. For example making sure there are spaces to facilitate recycling programs or multi-function spaces for collaborative environments. We can also study the way individual buildings work with a large campus network and what it is that makes certain buildings perform better.

To learn more about BU’s efforts, visit http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/.

The largest tenant in the project, a Wegman’s grocery store, is just preparing to start their own build-out; they have their own trailer on site.  The vast lower level that they will be occupying is impressive without anything in it right now. The fitness club tenant is installing a lap pool on the level above the major grocery store space, an interesting structural challenge.  The remaining tenants are mixed between stores, restaurants, and medical offices.