Social, Technical, and Environmental Impact Advancement Commendation
Project name: 199 Boylston Street Residences
Project overview: Formerly a vacant lot, this eight-unit housing project is set out to be both a pleasurable place to live, and an urban park experience. Sited as a bookend to a public park, the regulatory review process prompted a modern contextual edge to its urban open space.
Mindful of the urban condition, the new townhouses are setback from the property to align with the adjacent housing context scale, and blend into the foreground of the park’s mature trees. Utilizing masonry earth tones, beveled recess openings, and textured brick patterns, the park-facing building emulates its landscape context. Materials include board formed concrete, and two different standard color bricks in both norman and modular sizes that are projected in different planes. The street facade includes painted cement flush panels with recessed entries and decks in order to respect a property easement that does not allow any projections. Clear sealed hemlock wood punctuates each façade in order to create private space within a public setting.
Integrated within its context through form, texture, and materiality, the outcome both improves the quality of residential living and also our civic response to its urban fabric. We believe that design can influence the way people live and respond to their environment, yet also be a catalyst for making things around it better. The project is projected to be LEED Silver.
Project location: Brookline, Massachusetts
Firm name: Touloukian Touloukian Inc.
Architect of Record: Theodore Touloukian, FAIA, NCARB
Completion: 2022
Jury comments: This project is carefully executed and works to reestablish an urban edge along a community park. It offers a clear distinction between its public and private facades, appropriately developing careful detailing and higher quality resources on its primary frontage. Compositionally, it develops a formal language of solids and voids that creates visual texture along its street frontage. The thoughtful use of masonry detailing along the parkfront is commendable and a reminder of the importance of human-scale, long-lasting building materials.
Images/Photographer(s): Anton Grassl; Carlos Guzman General Contractor: Intelligent Design & Build Planning: Touloukian Touloukian Inc. Civil Engineer: BSC Group Specifications: Touloukian Touloukian Inc. Structural: Souza True & Partners, Inc. Mechanical: MacRitchie Engineering Inc. Electrical: MacRitchie Engineering Inc. Plumbing: MacRitchie Engineering Inc. Interiors: Touloukian Touloukian Inc. Landscaping: Weston & Sampson Lighting: Lumen Studio (now Green International)
