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The Arrowstreet volleyball team -
Jessica Bessette shows off her powerful serve -
Team building exercises -
Cooldown stretching with the Arrowstreet volleyball team
Arrowstreet just rounded up competing in the architects’ volleyball league in Boston. A handful of AST’ers helped lead us to success this season, including Jason King (our heralded coach and inspirational pre-game speaker), Greg Triplett, Kate Bubriski, Victoria Wright, and myself, along with several spouses and friends. We put together a strong showing during the regular season with a 43-13 record, earning us a #3 seed in the playoffs. Sadly, our tournament hopes ended in the second round of the playoffs this year, but we have high hopes for next year: we anticipate the return of many strong, and now seasoned, players from this season’s squad. (Not to mention the strenuous off-season workouts Coach King surely has planned.) Thanks to all who played, it was fun!
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The groundbreaking team // Photo courtesy of JK Scanlan -
Opening spring 2014! // Photo courtesy of JK Scanlan
On April 4th, the Mirbeau Inn and Spa at The Pinehills in Plymouth, MA officially kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony. The event was hosted by Pinehills, LLC President John Judge and Managing Partner Tony Green. The well-attended gathering included Gary and Linda Dower, the principals of Mirbeau Hospitality Services, as well as several town and state officials including Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, and Rep. Tom Calter, D-Kingston, all of whom praised the arrival of this resort property to the area. As a part of the design team, it was a pleasure to see how warmly the Dowers and the project have been embraced by the Pinehills community…
I will be speaking this Thursday at Bisnow’s State of the Seaport District event. If you’re in the area, I look forward to seeing you there for a great discussion on this growing neighborhood. The event summary is below:
With millions of square feet of new projects on the horizon, the Seaport District is poised for even more growth in 2013. Come hear top experts discuss the state of the Seaport market: will vacancies stabilize, is rent growth anticipated to resume, what will be the fate of major projects on the horizon, and how will challenges in transportation affect Seaport real estate growth?
Through the wonders of time-lapse photography, you can now watch the construction of our recently completed Unum Worcester headquarters building in under two minutes. It’s interesting to note that there is as much activity in the background and adjacent streets as there is on the building itself. Special thanks to Mike Conlan and Pat Strangie for all their work in CA – each of them probably has a (very) brief cameo in this video!
Side note: the Unum project and the CitySquare development are the topic of this month’s ULI Member Lunch with Donald Birch – if you’re a member of ULI, we look forward to seeing you there.
[Part 4 of a series of posts from ICSC's RetailGreen conference. Posted in response to The Wall Street Journal's article "Malls Get Face-Lift to Pull In Shoppers", which stated that "the era of new-mall development in the U.S. is drawing to a close."]
Brad Hutensky, ICSC Chairman, gave an interesting talk about the state of the retail industry, and he debunked a common refrain of the last five years, that the internet is killing bricks and mortar stores. His evidence was compelling. First, in 2012, retailers have opened over 5,000 stores, not a small number. And for good reason, as customers still value the human experience and the instant gratification of a cash purchase. Moreover, twelve of the top 20 online sellers in sales revenue have physical stores, among them Apple and one of Arrowstreet’s clients, LL Bean…
Recently Jim Batchelor, Peter Belford, Meghan Perlow, and I attended the grand opening celebration for BioMed Realty’s new lobby at 301 Binney Street. This Arrowstreet-designed building opened in 2008, and a little over a year ago BioMed asked us to help them revamp the lobby to encourage more tenant interaction. The most admired feature of the new space is without a doubt the video wall, which loops a 53-minute video featuring numerous aquatic scenes. We’re also proud of the undulating metal ceiling panels that break up the space in a visually interesting way. Stay tuned for professional photography in the next few weeks!
[Part 3 of a series of posts from ICSC's RetailGreen conference.]
Last year, at ICSC’s RetailGreen conference, Don Moseley from Walmart gave an amazing 15 minute presentation on how codes differ from one municipality to another, and especially how they vary even more from the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Although it sounds wonky, Mr. Moseley used the specific example of how the prescribed number of plumbing fixtures can vary from code to code, with the delta being as much as 20 fixtures for the same size Walmart store. Same store footprint, same demands, totally different plumbing requirements. Importantly, when a retailer has thousands of locations across the world, it’s more difficult to plan, and it hits the bottom line in myriad ways.
This year, Mr. Moseley showed what Walmart has been doing on their roofs…
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Arrowstreet and friends and family enjoy the Andover Inn -
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Mike and Lauren Haggerty at the Arrowstreet holiday party -
Bob Slattery and Linos Dounias at the Arrowstreet holiday party -
Arrowstreet families enjoy the holiday party -
The youngest members of the Arrowstreet family enjoy the holiday party
I always look forward to celebrating the year with my fellow Arrowstreeters and at our annual end of the year Holiday Party that I help plan. Joined by family and friends, we had the pleasure this year of getting together in style at the Andover Inn (where Arrowstreet recently completed renovations). Delicious food along with charming company made the evening one of a kind. This year instead of having our usual “arts & crafts” area for the kids, we selected (with their parents’ help!) a game or activity that we knew they would enjoy. It was so much fun watching them find and unwrap their entertaining gifts. The children also had an ice cream sundae bar that several of us were envying all night. As always, it was a wonderful way for the Arrowstreet family to bring the year to a close.
Starting February 1, Arrowstreet is hosting a Drawing Challenge. In this electronic age of non-stop emailing, texting, and media consumption, we’re challenging everybody who wants to participate to put down the phone and pick up a pencil.
We’re doing this in the office, and we’d like to invite any of our readers to join us!
Here are the basics…
Yesterday I attended the opening session of The Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles, and I wanted to share some early themes from the convention. Attendance at the conference is back up to 2,500 (similar to 2007), which some attendees see as a sign that optimism has returned to the market…
The New Year is a time to both reflect upon recent accomplishments and look forward to future triumphs. As we start 2013, we’re sharing some of our favorite moments of the past year.
We visited both KIPP Academy Lynn and Excel Academy Charter School on their first days of school and observed students’ reactions to the building we designed. It was uplifting to see how excited they were about entering the schools, despite the end of summer vacation…
[Part 2 of a series of posts from ICSC's RetailGreen conference.]
In a unique presentation at the ICSC RetailGreen conference, Professor Barry Kudrowitz of the University of Minnesota demonstrated “How Play and Humor Help Us Innovate.” My friend and fellow conference committee member Ed Doyle of Target discovered Mr. Kudrowitz at a company team-building retreat and was so impressed that he brought Mr. Kudrowitz to our conference. Now, this presentation was not directly about sustainability or retail development. Instead, it was about “innovation.” It was fantastic! Via a series of hands-on activities, Mr. Kudrowitz led the audience through mind-mapping exercises, word games, and even a game called “the bears and tigers”. The most interesting thing we learned was that more ideas equals better, more creative ideas…
[Part 1 of a series of posts from ICSC's RetailGreen conference.]
In the first General Session of the ICSC RetailGreen conference in Phoenix last month, I moderated a panel discussion called “Disrupt and Interrupt”. Since it was the beginning of the conference, we wanted to speak broadly about sustainability issues that retail developers encounter when planning projects and business initiatives. The panel consisted of Audi Banny of Estée Lauder, George Caraghiaur of Simon Property Group, Jim Hanna of Starbucks, and Riggs Kubiak of Honest Buildings. Some of my questions were pre-planned, but we had fun taking live questions through an email account and a scrolling twitter-feed which we projected above the stage. It all worked quite well. Audience members kept me well-stocked with comments and questions.
Yesterday morning I was part of a fascinating panel discussion on the critical issues associated with the development of charter school facilities. The workshop was sponsored by Build with Purpose, Nonprofit Finance Fund, and Boston Community Capital, who were recently jointly awarded a $3.3 million federal Credit Enhancement grant to support the development of high quality charter school facilities throughout the northeast. The panel featured experts in charter school finance, law, architecture, and real estate development in an interactive discussion about the process of developing new school facilities…
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Kristin Poch and Keri Drake spinning the prize wheel -
Arrowstreet'ers enjoying lunch before bowling -
Warming up the lanes -
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Anna Galemmo, Joel Dixon, and Amy Korte -
Matt Rice, Victoria Wright, and David Burn -
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It’s not easy coming up with a different theme to Arrowstreet’s annual Bowling Tournament each year, but somehow we continue to do it. This year we took a gamble with the Casino Bowl and decked out Lanes & Games with pillars of casino chips and an inflatable slot machine to set the scene. “Pit manager” Kathie greeted everyone arriving with lucky dice necklaces and casino chips while I as the “pit boss” invited everyone to try their luck playing a game of spin & win…
I will be a panelist at the Architecture Boston Expo this year for the “Designing for Food” workshop on November 16th at 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM. We look forward to a lively discussion about the challenges and opportunities of planning, designing, and operations for urban agriculture. The workshop abstract is below…
ICSC’s RetailGreen is the premier annual conference that gathers leaders in sustainability to focus on the retail development industry. Those of us on the programming committee have seen the conference grow, largely due to the interest shown by the developers and retailers in attending, and also because the program content is so strong. Along with highly technical workshops and “big-picture” roundtable discussions, we’ve had amazing keynote speakers. Last year, Jane Poynter spoke to the conference about living in Biosphere 2 for two years. This year, Woodrow Clark, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007, is speaking on climate change.
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Cutting the ribbon -
Friends of the school assembled in the new gathering space -
Friends of the school assembled in the new gathering space -
Filing in to the new gathering space -
In the new gathering space -
Completed school entrance addition
October 3rd was a great day at Excel Academy Charter School’s East Boston campus. I attended their ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the completion of the project and, while it was drizzling and dreary outside, the sun was clearly shining in their newly completed addition. Packed full of students, faculty, board members, and public officials, energy and excitement filled the room…
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Michael Conlan shows us how it's done -
Sean Selby and Jason King strategizing. -
Kristin Poch investigates the bowling ball options -
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Claes Andreasen with perfect form! -
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This summer at AST introduced a new weekly tradition of heading over to Sacco’s Bowl Haven for flatbread pizza, socializing, and candlepin bowling. It’s been a great way for the firm to blow off steam and engage in some (healthy) competition. Results this year showed an even spread week to week of close games and high intensity. Competition was fierce; for four consecutive weeks, both teams alternated the lead by less than a half pin difference! On the final week, both teams bowled their best at the championship match between teams AH and IZ. After a careful tally of
USGBC MA is organizing several activities in the Boston area for the first annual Green Apple Day of Service this Saturday, September 29th. “Where we learn matters” is the theme of this national day of service, organized by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Sign up for one of the activities on the Green Apple website or organize your own, and be sure to let others know about these activities.
When we received a call from our long-time community involvement contact Susan Walsh that the Somerville Homeless Coalition was in great need of food, the Arrowstreet crew launched a summer food donation drive. Our team donated a wide variety of nutritious and delicious non-perishable food, which we then packed into reusable shopping bags and donated to the Somerville Homeless Coalition’s Project Soup. Project Soup, New England’s first free dinner program, helps provide monthly groceries to elderly and disabled people in Somerville and Cambridge. We are all glad to help this wonderful local charity in its mission to serve those in need in our community.
I’ll be speaking at the Southern New England APA (SNEAPA) Planning Conference in Hartford next Friday with co-speakers Kenneth Buckland of The Cecil Group and Laura Wernick of HMFH Architects. The session abstract is below…
Arrowstreet Principal Scott Pollack recently moderated a panel of real estate giants at Bisnow’s Annual Retail Summit. Terry Brown, CEO of Edens, joined Barry Rodenstein, SVP of Brixmor; Michael Jammen, Principal of UrbanMeritage; Ed Mitchell of Legal Seafood; and Steven Kelly of Timberline Construction to discuss the current state of retail development. Panelists agreed that deals are happening, but financing is only available for “A” or “B” locations. Top developers and retailers are building quality projects while they shed their “C” properties and locations. In many cases, deals take longer than in the past. Michael Jammen, who works exclusively
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Jim Batchelor with Pamela Norton, Jeff Lockwood, and Tim Stoll -
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The first panel of the morning discussed the business side of the life sciences industry
Recently, a small delegation of Arrowstreet architects attended the Bisnow Life Sciences Summit. Jim Batchelor, our President and CEO, moderated one of two panels, which included recognized industry experts from a variety of perspectives who spoke on the strength of the Life Sciences industry in the Cambridge area and in Massachusetts. The panels included Tim Stoll of BioMed Realty Trust, Jeff Lockwood of Novartis, Pamela Norton of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Chuck Pappalardo of Suffolk Construction Company, Peter Calkins of Forest City Boston, and Robert Beal of The Beal Companies. The discussion was inspiring, and affirmed many of the experiences we’ve had at Arrowstreet in recent years working with life sciences planning expert Dan Winny and our clients designing lab and office spaces. Both panels also provided a very optimistic perspective about today and long term expectations for the growth and development of this key industry in Massachusetts…
I have been invited to moderate the upcoming Bisnow Life Sciences Summit, taking place on Friday, July 27th, 7-10 AM, at the Boston Marriott Cambridge. Join the leaders of the life sciences community as we discuss one of Boston’s hottest real estate sectors. I look forward to seeing you there.