The NC State Physics Department needed to convert an existing Fox Hall storage room to a new physics lab classroom with a collaborative team-based setup.

The new design includes integral furnishings arranged for small team work, storage, screens, A/V, lectern, sink with eyewash, and a TA station. The classroom seats 24 students plus assistants.

The scope of this project included a needs assessment, programming, design, probable costing, construction documents, engineering, and construction. This physics lab is a part of our on-call work with NC State University.

The SAS Hall Recording Studio is a space designed to meet the unique needs of digital instruction. NC State’s Math Department needed to convert its existing reference library to a new TA conference room and recording studio. Spanning beyond traditional classroom boundaries, this studio serves as a hub for creating immersive online learning experiences and fostering remote collaboration among faculty and students.

We crafted the plan around what was optimal for the recording equipment to control lighting, video, reflections, sound, microphones, and wiring needs.  By prioritizing acoustic excellence and technology, the recording studio became a space where creativity can thrive and educational boundaries can be pushed. The studio's innovative design features:

• Black Box Design: The recording studio adopts an all-black appearance to minimize light reflections, creating an environment conducive to high-quality recordings and video production.

• Double-Walled Construction: Acoustic isolation is paramount for recording online courses effectively. To achieve this, the room features double-walled construction, ensuring minimal sound leakage and external interference.

• Specialized Equipment Integration: The Math Department's transition from a reference library to a technologically advanced recording studio required careful planning. We focused on integrating specialty light tables and advanced recording equipment seamlessly into the space, allowing professors to create engaging online courses with ease.

The scope of this project included a needs assessment, programming, design options, special equipment coordination, furniture layouts, acoustic design, probable costing, construction documents, engineering, public bidding, and construction. This recording studio is a part of our on-call work with NC State University.

A new professor in the NC State Chemistry Department was assembling a research group and needed working space that would meet their needs for group work, break area, and a conference room. The existing rooms made for a dark and cramped office suite that lacked natural light and had a lot of wasted circulation space. After fully assessing their needs, we were able to determine the best path forward to achieve maximum collaboration, thus enhancing the faculty and student’s experience and use of the upgraded space.

How can a new building reinforce positive growth and planning strategies while setting a higher standard for environmental stewardship not typically in this neighborhood?

This project serves as a catalyst for the future of a prominent cornerstone site in East Boston by introducing accessible and vibrant uses to reengage the pedestrian realm. The use mass timber is being leveraged for its construction speed, aesthetics, and carbon benefits to further establish the building as a model of urban environmental stewardship.

The wedge-shaped site is located adjacent to Day Square and Chelsea Street in East Boston, with the narrower end offering a cityscape view of the Boston skyline. With a future multi-family development planned across the square as well as the addition of a MBTA bus stop, we considered place-making opportunities on the ground level. A stepped roof and south-facing façade design maximizes access to exterior spaces, and also opens up more daylighting and desirable views.

Inspired by the rich history, scale, texture, and sense of permanence evident in the many the turn-of-the-century post and beam mill buildings throughout Boston, we proposed a brick clad building that encases contemporary mass timber framed spaces within metal and glass volumes emerging at the stepped rooftops. The stepped façade allows the massing of the project to conform to the wedge-shaped site and provide articulation assimilating to the context of bay- or bow-fronted buildings. These steps also opportunistically create alternating balconies and views of the Boston skyline from each unit.

H I G H L I G H T S

Mass Timber structural frame

Passive House

Transit-Oriented Development

Boston Mass Timber Accelerator Recipient

Can we reinvent the typical multifamily style building - wood construction over a podium - on a tight budget, all while paying homage to the neighborhood’s history?

Boston, Massachusetts | Peregrine Group, LLC | 64 rental units | 1,500 s.f. commercial space

Located along a major historic artery into Boston, this infill, transit-oriented development includes a five-story, 64-unit wood-framed apartment community over a concrete podium and a ground-floor commercial space. The tight sloping site required clever approaches to squeezing a slight subgrade parking garage under the post-tensioned concrete podium and accomplishing the developer’s density and budget goals.

The mid-sized building is designed to bridge between the scale and proportion of the existing neighborhood three-story apartment building’s (known as triple-deckers) and the newly built larger scale multifamily developments. Determined to relate the building back to the neighborhood, our design unifies a collection of apartments, where, similarly to the neighborhood’s triple-deckers, each unit is visually expressed on the outside and within along the corridors. This results in a unique horizontal, cantilevered aesthetic, which is unexpected in wood-framed multifamily buildings. The staggering of the facade - analogous to the triple-decker - modulates the scale of the building by creating a sense of individuality and ownership within a dense context unlike most newly constructed multifamily buildings.

H I G H L I G H T S

• Innovative facade articulation and assembly methods for exterior materials

• Minimal Exterior Load-Bearing Walls

• Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)

• Post-tensioned Concrete Podium

C O L L A B O R A T O R S

Peregrine Group | L.A. Fuess Structural Engineers | Consulting Engineering Services | Lewis Lighting Design | Pare Corporation | Birchwood Design Group | Kalin Associates | Hawk Visuals | Bald Hill Builders | Foard Panel | John Horner Photography | Robert Umenhofer Photography - unit interior only

The Oxford offers a new reflection of place by assimilating into the vibrant downtown Lynn context. Its design, reminiscent of early 20th-century masonry buildings with stacked windows and inspired by the city’s renowned graffiti murals, creates a bridge between the past, present, and future of urban living. This mixed-use project brings life and vibrancy to the neighborhood with its artfully layered facades that shift in color, tone and reflectivity as the daylight changes. Supporting the apartments above, the ground floor facades pinch inward to accentuate the building entrances and expand the public realm for the retail uses.

The building features a striking 7-story mural on its party wall, while the other three façades have been thoughtfully designed with fenestration, beveled accent panels, and wall cladding that echo the texture, pattern, and color of the surrounding context. This approach not only pays homage to the area’s character but also sets a new standard for modern housing.

In response to the increased appreciation for private outdoor spaces during the pandemic, each of the thirty dwelling units is equipped with oversized windows and at least one full-height door with a sidelight, leading to a private balcony. This design maximizes daylight and ventilation, making the units feel warm, spacious, and connected to the outdoors. Additionally, this feature enhances the living experience, making the interior life more visible and animating the exterior with interactions among neighbors enjoying the urban views.

H I G H L I G H T S

Floor Area Ratio of 5.5

Residential floor plate efficiency is 92%

Balconies with full height glass door and sidelight for each unit

Thoughtfully designed and documented, repeatable facade design elements minimized change orders

Highly efficient building envelope using European style, tilt-turn windows to maximize daylight and ventilation

Boasts world-class graffiti art with a 7-story mural and smaller murals throughout

5-over-1 podium construction with Roof Deck and Penthouse with work bar

Pet washing station and refrigerated food delivery storage

Pinched in ground floor retail to accentuate entrances and give more sidewalk space to the public

How can we increase access to private and communal outdoor space in a post-pandemic world?

This project redefines the ubiquitous bay and balcony pair found throughout this neighborhood’s triple-decker homes. We aim to create indoor living space and a private outdoor balcony for each unit that connects to nature.

The project site is embedded in the Codman Square neighborhood of Dorchester among a variety of apartment buildings and two- to three-family structures. Our design responds to the double wide lot by breaking down the massing into two sections and aligns the front façade to assimilate with surrounding building widths and setbacks. A transparent lobby and bicycle room mark entry at the ground floor while concealing the parking. Tenants will have access to a common rear yard on the southwest side of the building to host gatherings and interact with their neighbors.

Unlike the typical configuration, we have geometrically linked the bay and balcony in each unit as a solid and void pair. This articulation of the façade allows each unit to be legible on the exterior while controlling the scale and proportion of the building. The units will be spacious with significant daylighting and will include one-bed, two-bed, and three-bed units each with a private balcony.

How can a new building mediate between an existing smaller scale neighborhood and future development of a larger scale?

This project finds the middle ground between the past, present, and future of the neighborhood. Anchoring a corner site, the building massing responds to distinctly different edges by mediating scales, views, and levels of traffic and noise to create a distinctive landmark.

The site is located at the corner of a heavily trafficked thoroughfare and a neighborhood street where low-rise townhouses and apartment buildings have recently been developed. Soon, larger scaled mid- and high-rise residential, hotel, and commercial buildings will be constructed with our site at the tip of the future development iceberg.

Our design responds by presenting itself as a large continuous façade to the thoroughfare while smoothly rounding the corner to the neighborhood street with a stepped façade composed of serrated panels to reflect and dissipate sound. with residentially scaled windows and balconies The balconies are pulled inboard and flanked by the stepped façade to increase privacy and reduce the impact of traffic noise.

We are leveraging a mass timber structural frame for its construction speed, aesthetics, and carbon benefits. It also allows for a lower floor to floor height where we can achieve 7 floors under the high-rise height threshold.

How can we increase rentable square footage and building efficiency by eliminating redundancy in standard building egress?

On several of our feasibility studies for multifamily housing, we have employed an interlocking stair system to increase rentable square footage. Typically, two separate egress stairs are constructed in a multifamily building. By simplifying this and constructing two stairs in the same footprint, we can increase the rentable or sellable square footage and increase the building’s efficiency. In Massachusetts, the building code allows an Interlocking stair to act as two separate means of egress as long the building is not a high rise and the fire rating is maintained between the two stairs. The entry doors to the stair must also be separated by 1/3 the overall diagonal of the building, assuming the building is protected with automatic sprinklers (2015 IBC: 1107.1.1)

This system is often used in New York City on very tight infill sites for high rise construction. New York City building code is more generous in allowing the use of an interlocking stair. They are permitted in high rise construction of R-2 occupancies as long as the shaft and separation are constructed of 2 hour rated masonry, and the entry doors are separated by 15’ minimum (NYCBC 1015.2.1).

In terms of cost, from our experience in the Boston area a conventional stair costs approximately $400-500/ tread, while an interlocking stair costs approximately $350-$450/ tread. Landings for both systems cost approximately $1,000 dollars, and for an interlocking stair system, there are less landings. There is some extra cost in the interlocking stair for a 2 hour rated shaft wall separating the stairs. However, if steel and concrete construction is used and the landings are cantilevered, this could help to reduce the cost of a custom stair landing. We believe the cost of two typical switchback stairs versus one interlocking stair would be closely priced depending on the construction methods. Therefore, for a very similar construction cost, we can gain valuable square footage that can be rented or sold, increasing revenue and profit.

C O L L A B O R A T O R S

Hastings Consulting

H-Co Properties approached us with a list of desired outcomes for their office renovation: enhance workflow function and efficiency, create community, define a cohesive brand identity, and represent professionalism. They are a growing group of on-the-move brokers with clientele in both single and multifamily markets.

Our approach created a flexible semi-open office layout with distinct support and work areas. The materials used are uniquely assembled, but warm and familiar to residential clientele. A custom wood fin ceiling unifies the workspace, baffles light and sound, and gives a visual identity to the office. Sustainable strategies and locally sourced materials were used. The kitchenette holds employee mail and a copy area to enhance community interactions in a centralized gathering spot. Flexibility for individual working styles are taken into account in formal seated desks, standing desks, informal soft seating, and the kitchen island. Smaller details such as color, texture, and consistent assembly techniques are used to create visual unity in every inch of this small office.

C O L L A B O R A T OR S

Optima Engineering | AG Builders | Keith Isaacs Photography | Jonathan Davis Lighting / Glass

How can we create a sense of discovery in the space of living?

This home is conceived around the ideas of movement, light, and Zen. The retired owners desired an accessible home with changing experiences, one that would make them move throughout the whole house during the day. To achieve this, the functions of the home are divided into four pavilions: sleeping, living, auto / storage, and working / recreation.

The pavilions, clad with charred wood siding, are linked with a connector hall clad in white panels. This change in materials, while moving between daily routines, provides a heighten awareness of transition, allowing time to connect back to the landscape which weaves in and out between the pavilions of the home. The experience of the crafted site and natural forest are amplified.

Filling in the last empty lot on the street, the 9 unit multifamily project assimilates into the neighborhood by taking cues from the adjacent buildings.

The 3.5 story building slopes back to mimic a mansard roof which helps alleviate the height differential it has with the surrounding buildings. Large windows on the front façade imitate the density and rhythm of the streetscape while including Juliet balconies for residents to enjoy.

By taking cues from the surrounding context, the new build fits seamlessly into the neighborhood while enhancing the streetscape. The rear façade includes balconies wrapped by a privacy screen which mitigates the limited space that exists in the rear yard. Adjusting the frequency of the wooden slats prevents views where they would be most critical in front of neighbor’s windows and decks.

How can we efficiently create a custom metal exterior on a tight budget?

The exterior of the Taylor-Metcalf Residence in San Diego is clad in a weathered steel skin with unique patterns and perforations. By customizing the cladding for the home, ThoughtCraft needed to rethink the typical delivery process and coordinate its execution. To keep the costs down, fabrication of the panels was streamlined by utilizing both analog and automation processes. This allowed for efficient collaboration with hands-on clients Joe Metcalf and Traci Taylor, simplified cutting of steel sheets by Waterjet West, and straightforward installation by Brian Vincent of Vincent Design and K-Co.

The façade has 212 metal panels, many of which are unique due to the shape of the existing home and the custom perforation patterns. This made it imperative to streamline the production of the panels to save on labor costs and to keep from cutting each panel individually by hand. Once the field verifications of the wood framing were gathered, ThoughtCraft produced a layout drawing depicting all of the panels on the façade, and coded these panels so they could be easily tagged and identified in the field. Field cut pieces were strategically located and oversized so they could be trimmed later to adjust to any imperfections in the framing. These layouts were then imported into a nesting automation software to pack them as tight as possible on the 5x10 steel sheets. The result was over 90% efficiency in material use. The files exported from the nesting software allowed for the solid panels to be easily cut to profile on a shear, and the perforated panels were produced with a waterjet machine. ThoughtCraft’s involvement helped save on material cost and reduction of material waste, therefore allowing for a beautiful custom weathered steel skin on a tight budget.

C O L L A B O R A T OR S

Ian Mellor | Vincent Designs, Inc. | Studio 512 | K-Co | Waterjet West, Inc. | Arise Design

UNC engaged us to provide a vision for an underutilized second floor space on campus. The office suite is intended as a hub of activity for students, faculty, and visitors. We proposed to engage people at the building entry by opening the lobby stairway, unifying the floors with two-story glass and wood stand board, and adding multiple points of engagement with seating and displays. As people ascend the stairway and enter the room they’re greeted with an open gathering area used for TED-like talks and chance interactions. The second half of the space becomes a collaborative work area with flexible workstations and conferencing technologies.

H I G H L I G H T S

• Sustainable materials and systems used throughout

Can we live on the edge?

The drama of this property happens at the edge of the hillside as it quickly falls away. Imagined like a rock outcropping on the hillside, this home’s simple form is rich with natural light and captivating views. The roof tilts with the slope of the hillside to accentuate the land.

Inside, this tilt draws the eye to the nature outside and organizes the double-height living at the edge, a second floor loft, and a grand master suite. The exterior of the home is wrapped in corrugated and perforated metal to accentuate the solidity of a rock outcropping. Wood accents warm the entry and lower floor areas where walls can be touched. The home features an open floor plan, a large window wall, and concrete floors. Wood cabinetry and accent walls warm the modern interior.

Awarded the project based on our innovative approach to historic properties, ThoughtCraft is working with the Town and its’ citizens to craft a vision for three historic properties.

They include a pre-civil war farmstead, a tobacco era homestead, and a turn-of-the century general store with warehouses. Through research and many interviews we’ve uncovered and documented the rich history of each property that tells the story of Cary from 1820 to 1960. Cary is not laden with historic properties like some of the surrounding towns. As such, the redevelopment of these properties will serve to preserve and educate future generations of its rich history, while providing new uses and amenities for citizens to enjoy.

How can we make cement board siding, now found everywhere, appear to be a more elegant and special product?

We are constantly rethinking how we use materials. Buildings are composed of wood, glass, concrete, fiber cement board, plastics, composites, metals and many other materials today. We all have associations with materials from our own experiences. Materials can make a space feel warm or cold, light or dark, or tell us we’re in a home or a hospital. They are the background to our daily routines and memories. The same material can appear refined and elegant, or mundane and ubiquitous depending on how it’s used.

One such ubiquitous material is fiber cement board, now used on most residential and multifamily construction because of its very low cost, ease of installation, and low maintenance. There are many different manufactures such as Hardie, Nichiha, CBF Silbonit, but they all feel like paper mache and have the look of flat painted drywall.

PATTERNING: In the Canyon house project, we tested various patterning techniques to break down the standard size and find more appealing proportions and effects. We assimilated patterns to the surrounding landscape to visually blend the material, taking on a more organic appearance. A number of rules were developed in the patterning sequencing, and the addition of color reinforced the organic appearance on the hillside.

STEPPING: In the Balakrishnan project we became more interested in creating visual depth in the material. We tested various ways to offset wood furring behind the fiber cement board for a more elegant effect. Accent landscape lighting can be inserted between panels to accentuate and give function to what otherwise is a blank wall. Careful detailing and execution is critical to the final product.

Re-presenting materials like fiber cement board in ways we don’t typically associate them elevates their appearance and function, while still having the low cost benefits.

How can we create a campus feel with the design of a large single office building?

This six-story corporate headquarters is situated on a plinth nestled within a native hillside landscape and the first of a multi-building campus. The building is paired with the parking structure to create an internal pedestrian street between the two and articulated to amplify interactions within the space. Building facades directly respond to the unique site conditions and distant views. They are composed of natural stone, metal panels and low-iron glass to maximize interior daylighting. With significant exposure to the adjacent interstate, the building reveals the interior spaces symbolizing the openness of the company and their service.

Chris Johns served as the Project Manager and Designer for this project while working for ARCHITECTS hanna gabriel wells.

H I G H L I G H T S

• LEED Gold Certified

• Class-A Office

• Structural Glazing With Glass Fins

How can we simplify the space of living with an indoor/outdoor experience?

The home creates a central living space within the landscape. With floor to ceiling glass either side, the central room may be fully opened to the meadow for inside-outside living. This is analogous to the southern vernacular dog-trot home that allows both natural cooling and a central gathering space.

The two-story home is laid on an east-west axis to maximize the benefits of passive solar throughout the year. Tall pines inspired the vertical exterior siding. Movement through the home is choreographed to views and natural light. “The windows have become our art, it’s peaceful and designed around us.” – Lisa Balakrishnan

How do we create urban furniture with a collective identity while maximizing flexibility for arrangements and vendors?

As citizens work to take back their urban communities, planning departments have been playing catch- up. Shopping kiosks, parklets, push carts, food trucks, guerilla gardening, yarn bombing, and all manner of tactical urbanism have begun to proliferate urban centers. While often welcomed, this proliferation has begun to breakdown the visual coherence of city districts, edges, nodes and other elements that define identity. In response, planning departments have started embracing tactical urbanism as an instigator for renewing street life as well as attempting to write some rules to retain identity and strengthen what Kevin Lynch termed in 1960 as “The Image of the City.”

In 2011 CUBE was approached by the lease holder of a fruit and flower stand located at the prominent corner of the Old South Meeting House (a National Landmark). We were asked to design a semi- permanent structure that addressed security issues for the market as well as respected the historic nature of the building it sits aside. This led to a larger study of the many such vendors in Boston’s Downtown Crossing district, and invited conversations with the Boston Redevelopment Authority which had been struggling with the loss of a cohesive identity in the district. After speaking with the many food and retail vendor cart owners in the area, we begin to define a modular and moveable kiosk that both held identity in its form and graphics for the city, and allowed vendors to customize and graft onto for their own needs. The kiosks could be presented individually or linked in many configurations to form a full market.

One such ubiquitous material is fiber cement board, now used on most residential and multifamily construction because of its very low cost, ease of installation, and low maintenance. There are many different manufactures such as Hardie, Nichiha, CBF Silbonit, but they all feel like paper mache and have the look of flat painted drywall.

PATTERNING: In the Canyon house project, we tested various patterning techniques to break down the standard size and find more appealing proportions and effects. We assimilated patterns to the surrounding landscape to visually blend the material, taking on a more organic appearance. A number of rules were developed in the patterning sequencing, and the addition of color reinforced the organic appearance on the hillside.

STEPPING: In the Balakrishnan project we became more interested in creating visual depth in the material. We tested various ways to offset wood furring behind the fiber cement board for a more elegant effect. Accent landscape lighting can be inserted between panels to accentuate and give function to what otherwise is a blank wall. Careful detailing and execution is critical to the final product.

Re-presenting materials like fiber cement board in ways we don’t typically associate them elevates their appearance and function, while still having the low cost benefits.