Arrowstreet: Winner of World Design Awards 2024. Situated at the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Culbert Street in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, 1471 Blue Hill Avenue is a transit-oriented residential development offering 41 all-affordable apartment units, a community retail space, and residential amenities. Arrowstreet designed the five-story building to relate to the urban scale, taking advantage of an extreme grade change across the site to step the building down to the neighboring residences. The building stitches together the urban fabric, carefully negotiating the scale change between the commercial buildings along Blue Hill Avenue and the residential neighborhood. The massing and form of the building were shaped by a desire to preserve trees on the site, maintaining a green “ribbon” that wraps the site and connects the urban tree canopy up to Hunt Almont Park, an important feature in an area of the city that has been disproportionately impacted by urban heat islands.

The landscape design elevates the once vacant and underutilized site into a park-like amenity for the community, featuring a public pocket park and a rooftop community garden for residents. The project also features exterior spaces reserved for community art and a community retail space, which will be programmed in conjunction with the neighborhood. The development also includes plans to improve a city-owned parcel of land at the corner of Blue Hill Ave. and Culbert Street, transforming a paved parking area into a landscaped area containing native plantings and accessibility upgrades.

The design team carefully studied the site’s history and crafted the design to honor the people and culture of the surrounding area. Early in the design process the project engaged with many civic, community, and advocacy groups to help inform the design, and that community dialogue is still ongoing. The result is affordable housing that strengthens the surrounding community.

The Blue Hill Avenue project sets a new standard for sustainable design in affordable housing. The building is all-electric, zero-net carbon, and pursuing passive house certification. The project features a highly insulated envelope, triple-paned windows, and efficient building systems. The project is designed to be LEED Silver Certifiable, incorporating healthy materials, and providing amenities such as indoor bike rooms, electric car charging, and access to both bike and car-sharing services.

The building has been designed with a Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) facade on the south and east exposures, turning the facade into a functioning solar array. In combination with the rooftop solar, initial estimates indicate that on-site energy generation will cover over 40% of electricity usage per year. The remaining electricity required will be purchased from green sources, making this building zero-net carbon. We believe that affordable housing should be sustainable housing, and we’re thrilled to exemplify both principles through this project.

Project Details:-
Firm
Arrowstreet

Architect
Amy Korte

Project Name
Blue Hill

Project Category
Residential Concept 

Team
Amy Korte, David Bois, Dan Ricardelli, Christine DiLallo, Diana Khalifeh, Jun Ho Han, Yung Eun Yang

Project Location
Mattapan

Country
United States

Photography ©Credit
Arrowstreet

An award-winning, Boston-based architecture and design firm, Arrowstreet continuously evolves, challenging ourselves to reimagine typical building typologies. Our projects strive to enhance the quality of the built environment, and to create positive climate impacts for future generations. Comprised of architects, interior designers, planners, experience designers, and data scientists who bring diverse perspectives to each project, we leverage our staff’s deep knowledge and creativity to solve complex building challenges across various sectors and types, including urban mixed-use, retail, academic, hospitality, housing, resiliency, and sustainability. Our interdisciplinary practice thrives on innovation, fostering a dynamic and forward-thinking environment for our team and clients. (100/100)

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