and associated construction delays.

Phase 1 of Island Parkside Housing is taking shape.  Everyone is excited about this

transformative development.  Read more about it here.

141 Westville Ave – our affordable ‘micro-units’ project is also framed up and moving

toward completion.  Our amazing clients Vivian and Elisa Girard are building this with

their own four hands, and are also getting a garden going so that when folks move in,

there will be fresh strawberries waiting for them!

We are excited about a new home that we have designed in the farmlands of central Wisconsin.

It is nestled into a steep wooded site overlooking a bucolic valley.  The house is designed to

relate to the local farmhouse vernacular, while being highly energy efficient, open and light-filled.

Our rural Quebec home is inhabited and performing well, built to Passive House principles.

This is a work-in-progress, with interior details and exterior utility structures still underway.

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Our Fields Corner Compact Living Units in Dorchester got full zoning approval last September.  We are aiming for a fall construction start.Here is a great news clip  from NBC Boston that describes the housing problem and how this project addresses it.

Finishing up:

Belmont renovation (image below)                                                                          Quebec passive-house (images below and above)

New projects in the office:

• Working with IBA  in Boston South End to help them with masterplanning and new facilities design.

• Consulting with Ann Beha Architects to look at redeveloping Boston Public Library branch libraries to include affordable housing.

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We are also teaming with HighMark Land Design and Abacus Architects and Planners to design eighty newaffordable rental apartments on an ex-industrial site next to the Merrimack River.  This remarkable site will connect the hidden Ferrous Park to the adjacent housing and the rest of the city beyond.

Our Fields Corner (Dorchester) Compact Living Units project is now in zoning review and BPDA approval with the City of Boston.  This is the first project to be reviewed under the City’s Compact Living Units guidelines.

This will be a non-subsidized 100% affordable rental project with 14 units in a triple-decker like building.  Read more about it here.

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In Lawrence, our five new affordable homes are in progress. These houses will really transform this neighborhood in a positive way. Over 200 Lawrence residents are qualifying for the lottery to become first-time homeowners. Kudos to Lawrence Community Works for arranging the funding and support to make this project happen!

We have started BPDA’s Design Review for 141Westville. Located in the Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester; this project proposes 12 efficient Micro-Unit rentals in the footprint of a standard triple decker. Our client, a longtime neighborhood resident, is passionate about helping to fill the need for affordable, transit-oriented housing in Boston. We are developing the project under the newly adopted City of Boston Compact Living Pilot Policy. Please visit 141Westville website (link above) to read more about it!

An exciting new far-flung project is in the works – a high-performance (Passive House) home in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Because of the construction method, this home will require virtually no auxiliary heating.

When PV panels are installed on the roof, it will become a net generator of electricity.

See you soon!

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While in Somerville we have two residential renovation in the works. One is a  multi-family home being converted into an open floor plan single family home. We look forward to creating a fun open contemporary space here. While the other is on a smaller scale project with a new mudroom and bay renovation. While this is smaller we are just as exiting and we really look forward to building this space for the family.

This past March we collaborated with HighMark Land Design and entered into the Parks Avenue design competition. This looked at recreating Park Avenue  into a cohesive and muilt-use boulevard by adding new lanes for vehicles as well as bikes with a protected common space in the middle. Check out the competition.

In other news Nick Kuhl has just finished up his Masters thesis at the Boston Architectural College. His thesis touched on the rising water table in Boston; in anticipation he created a habitable bridge system spanning from Cambridge to Back Bay. We will miss Nick as he relocates to Colorado, which is much closer to the rocks that he likes to climb!

We welcome Rene Robinson to our team.  Rene is a Cambridge native who studied at the Boston Architectural College.

See you next month!

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It’s been a busy year in the office, with a whole range of projects!  Our lobby and office renovations for the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard campus have wrapped up, and they’re looking really great (if we may say so ourselves)!  Our ongoing relationship with RTH means that we’re already moving on to new projects with them, so expect to see more pictures from the campus over the coming year.

We’ve also wrapped up a major renovation of a private home in Newton, significantly improving their living space both indoors and out, in collaboration with our friends at HighMark Land Design.  We’re currently working on a new contemporary house in Newton, and a number of renovations in the Cambridge and Somerville area, as seen in the early sketch renders for a renovated apartment in Cambridge.

The micro-unit project in Dorchester that we’ve previously mentioned is currently building out a prototype unit to show the local community, so expect to see some photos of that soon.  Meanwhile, we’re collaborating with another local firm on a distillery in New Mexico and looking forward to some site visits for that!

See you next month, and happy holidays!

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On the institutional side, the lobbies and office renovations we’ve been working on for a Boston affordable housing campus are coming along, and we’re pretty excited about them!  We’re getting started on further renovations in other buildings on the campus as well.

In the South End, construction is getting ready to kick off on a 30-unit affordable housing renovation, bringing some light and life into a collection of dated units.  Also in the Boston affordable housing world, we’re working with a private developer on a micro-unit development in Dorchester.

In Newton, we’re continuing our urban infill practice, adding on a new unit to an existing house.  The new unit will feature green home design features like continuous exterior insulation, LED lighting, and high efficiency mini-splits for cooling.  We’re also very excited about the very modern aesthetic that the owners are interested in, expect to see some really great minimalist trim details and a stylish stair case coming out of this project!

See you next month!

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Our first showcase project for this month is a renovation of some of the administrative and community spaces for a Boston affordable housing campus that we’ve worked with extensively.  Construction Documents have been released to the contractor, and we’ve been generating renderings and isometric images to help the community pick finish colors and furniture layouts.  We know how important it is for community groups to build consensus for their projects, so on projects like this, our scope of services often includes running charettes or providing presentation graphics for community meetings.

In Newton, we are continuing our work of helping homeowners develop new infill housing on existing lots.  Our client owns a small house on a large lot in Newton, and is looking to expand their space in order to accomodate a growing family or in-laws (or both), with the option to rent out a unit in the future.  We’re working closely with the homeowner to create a contemporary home design that fits well with the neighborhood, and follows Feng Shui guidelines, which are important to the client.

See you next month!

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In Cambridge, we’re working on some fun and intricate interior renovations on one of our projects, and Bill produced a

delightful section sketch to showcase this home design.  Our other Cambridge house project has made it through historic and zoning, so we’ll be moving forward with that one soon!

In Newton, we’ve just begun pre-design and feasibility studies for a homeowner looking to add a second unit to their property.  We’ve done several projects like this over the years, so if you’re a Boston area homeowner looking to add a thoughtfully designed, energy efficient contemporary addition to your property, give us a call.  We work closely with local realtors to maximize your investment, and can work with you to decide between multiple development scenarios.

See you next month!

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The larger open office space is still a work in progress.

Our new Somerville office before move in.

We missed a month there, but for good reason – we’ve moved!  The Boehm Architecture office is now in Somerville!  See our Contact Us page for the full address of the new office.  We have oved into a shared office space managed by the fine folks of Centrepoint Architects in the Taza Chocolate factory building.  Our corner of the office is almost fully set up, and the rest of the space is coming along nicely.

Models and books in the new Somerville office.

Max at work in the new Somerville office.

Our Jamaica Plain kitchen addition is coming along nicely as well, we’re really excited about how the combination of red cedar and blue porch ceiling came out.  We also have two green home designs in the works – one in Newton and one in Cambridge.  The Cambridge home has required close communication with the Cambridge Historic Commission and neighborhood groups, and we’re very excited about the things taking shape there!

See you next month!

Proposal sketch for a historic Cambridge green home design.

Proposal sketch for a Newton kitchen addition.

Exposed red cedar structure on a Boston green home addition.

Exterior view of a Boston green home addition.

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