Atelier 505
Boston Center for the Arts
The Atelier 505 mixed-use development contains theater and arts facilities to expand the Boston Center for the Arts, commercial and retail spaces, and over 100 residences. The new building treats the entire city block as a conceptual unit divided into many buildings orchestrated relative to one another with the BCA's Cyclorama dome as the architectural centerpiece.
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Client: Ron Druker, CEO The Druker Company
Location: Boston, MA
Year: 2004
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ULI Award for Excellence | Urban Land Institute | 2008
Design Excellence in Housing Citation | Boston Society of Architects | 2006
Creating Space
The new building mass steps back from the face of the Cyclorama along Tremont Street, exposing the building's copper dome to the street. This stepping back also creates a triangular public plaza, animated by landscaping, paving patterns, café seating, shopfronts, display windows and lobby entrances. This plaza is a simple stage-like surface for activities that spill from the building.
Transitions in Scale
The architecture reinforces this activity by its mix of program and by its activation of the street, with multiple entrances to retail, housing and public functions. The new construction is designed to read as several volumes, rather than as a single monolithic building, in order to allow for transitions in scale and to echo the nature of the South End fabric.
“The pavilion, plaza building, and townhouse-scale elements [of Atelier 505] constitute a particularly successful, well-integrated solution to this difficult, tight site…The site plan is particularly intelligent, the masonry fabric is innovatively used, and the entire project reflects a clear understanding of the urban condition and fine execution of a very good program.”
- Jury Comments, Housing Citation, 2006 BSA Design Awards
Related Media
Atelier 505 Project Story Stories