Project narrative: The ICA/Watershed rests in the heart of the East Boston Shipyard, connecting residential neighborhoods, recreational activity, and industrial enterprise, and strengthening a once-fragmented edge of the urban waterfront. Employing rugged materials, the project holds temporary exhibitions that represent the diversity of the global art community as well as the surrounding neighborhood, elevating the installations’ impact and expressing the ethos of accessibility and welcome essential to its vision. Transforming an abandoned industrial building into a vibrant cultural asset, The Watershed becomes a beacon for art and community, embracing its previously underserved neighbors, and celebrating its new use while honoring its origins.
Project location: Boston, Massachusetts
Firm name: AW-ARCH
Completion: 2018
Project type: Museum Programming
Project information: New construction, Addition, Adaptive reuse, Renovation/restoration
Size: 15,000 sf
Client: ICA Boston
Jury comments: The jury was impressed with this project’s ability to transform an industrial site into a cultural destination on a modest budget. The restrained material palette, natural lighting strategy, and display of the historic character of the objects and adjacent buildings result in a successful project. The defining exterior elements, the large hangar doors and translucent cladding, express that the project is open and free to all.
Images/Photographer(s): Florian Holzherr; AW–ARCH
General Contractor: Stack + Co.
Project or Construction Manager: Stack + Co.
Interiors: AW–ARCH
Civil Engineer: Samiotes Consultants, Inc.
Structural: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Mechanical: SED Associates Corp.
Electrical: SED Associates Corp.
Plumbing: SED Associates Corp.
Lighting: Lam Partners Inc.
Rendering: AW–ARCH
Consultants: Geotechnical Engineer: Haley & Aldrich; Code Consultant: Building, Fire & Access, Inc. (BF&A); Specification Writer: Paul DiBona Specifications LLC
