The designers worked with The Possible Zone (TPZ), to transform a 36,000 SF building into their Innovation Center. At the entrepreneurship/work-based learning program for Boston high school students, teens develop social-emotional learning and technical skills, professional identities, and networks needed for future success. TPZ envisions this building as a hub where students, entrepreneurs, and local businesses can ideate and prototype on site.
The existing building comprised two connected but spatially separate parts: an 1890s masonry, timber, and iron structure, built as a brewery, and a 1990s steel and concrete addition. Post-renovation, these parts house seven teaching studios with integral makerlabs, a large makerspace with state-of-the-art equipment, staff and community workspaces, and flexible assembly space for programming, community meetings, and larger functions.
The design uncovers the original building’s structural and material logics while also breaking down the separation inherent in this two-part building to create visible, open, and welcoming spaces where diverse users commingle and collaborate. The design uses two internal stairs (one new and one retrofitted), large flexible partitions and openings, and material continuities to create visual connection between users and programs.
Team:
Architects: Utile
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing / Fire Protection Engineering: BLW
Structural Engineering: SGH
Lighting Design: Lam Partners
Acoustics, AV Design: Acentech Code
Consulting: Code Red
Landscape Design / Civil Engineering: Langan
Furniture Design: Workflow
Photographer: Chuck Choi
Materials Used:
Patcraft: Dichroic Square, Dichroic Facet
Forbo: Marmoleum Fresco
Kahrs: Oak Tapa, Canvas Collection
Clayhaus: Signal
Mosa: Global Collection
Inscape: Aria Aluminum Storefront System
Belux: VT02
Coronet: U
By TPZ Students: “Acorn Fixtures”
Artemide: Tolomeo
MASH Studios
Kerf: Peg Wall
Scandinavian Spaces: Ahus Lounge, Anagram
Humanscale: World Chair
Segis: Dragonfly
Montisa: Hendrix Table
DWR: Vala
