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Common Boston Call for Volunteers

4/27/2017

Common Boston is accepting volunteers through May 15, 2017.

The Urban Culture Institute is Community Partner and proud co-sponsor of Common Boston, the annual architecture and design festival of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA, a program of the BSA Foundation. Common Boston will provide free, open access to buildings throughout Boston's diverse neighborhoods during the weekend of June 3 and 4. By doing so, the public will be inspired to discover why design matters, and learn the stories of Greater Boston's many dynamic communities. Since 2006, Common Boston has hosted over 250+ events for thousands of attendees in 35 greater Boston neighborhoods.

Please help make Common Boston possible, and volunteer your time during the festival weekend! Meet interesting people,
go behind the scenes of some of the city’s greatest places, and become more involved in your community.
The 2017 Common Boston Festival includes over 50 sites.

Among the 2017 site partners are Arnold Arboretum | Ayer Mansion | BNN Charles J. Beard ll Media Center | Bolling Building | Boston Architectural College | Boston Harbor Distillery | Boston Nature and Wildlife Center | Boston Public Market | BPL: Central Library in Copley Square | BPL: East Boston | BPL: Honan Allston | BPL: Hyde Park | BPL: Jamaica Plain | BPL: Mattapan Branch | Cambridge City Hall | Carpenter Center for Visual Arts | Church of the Covenant | Community Boat Building | The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art | Cooper Frost Austin House | DHS: Capt. Lemuel Clap House | DHS: James Blake House | DHS: William Clapp House | District Hall | Eliot Burying Ground | Eliot School of Fine Arts | Emerald Necklace Conservancy | Ether Dome and the Bulfinch Building | Eustis Street Firehouse | Fenway Victory Gardens | First Baptist Church of Boston | First Church of Roxbury Meetinghouse | Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site | Grain Wood Shop | Hibernian Hall | Kendall Square Roof Garden | L Street Power Station | Loring-Greenough House | Lunder Arts Center, Lesley University | Metropolitan Waterworks Museum | MIT List Art Center | The Museum of African American History | Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex | Old North Church | Otis House, Historic New England | Shrine of Our Lady of Good Voyage | Paul S. Russell, MD Russell Museum of Medical History & Innovation | Saint Peter's Episcopal Church | South Street Farm (Groundwork Somerville) | Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture | Trinity Church | Union Press | YMCA of Greater Boston | Y2Y | ZUMIX

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ARTitecture Exhibition at Wentworth Institute of Technology

4/8/2017

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ARTitecture: Multipurpose Academic Building Art-In-Architecture Project Proposals
Exhibition at the Guarracino Family Gallery
Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons
Wentworth Institute of Technology | Beatty Hall
550 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115

Exhibition open to the public April 7 – 20, 2017
Mon-Thu 7-11 | Fri 7-6 | Sat 8-6 | Sun 11-10

ARTitecture is an exhibition of art-in-architecture project proposals for the new Multipurpose Academic Building to be constructed on the campus of Wentworth Institute of Technology. Eighteen graduate and senior architecture students analyzed the design of the new building, developed by the Boston firm Leers Weinzapfel, and conceived
complementing public art features. The assignment was to develop a schematic proposal for an innovative, transformative, permanent art-in-architecture project at an individual or multiple sites within or surrounding Wentworth’s new Multipurpose Academic Building. Concepts could encompass the following:

Interior or exterior
Consider ongoing, temporary programming or changing uses
Non-functional or functional 3D elements
Seating and/or public furnishings
Facade elements
Architectural glass
Lighting design
Paving, flooring
Murals, e.g. mosaic, tile

Summary of general criteria for the project:

Celebrate the Wentworth community and technology with an innovative art-in-architecture installation
Design will offer a sense of place
Appropriateness for the campus and site, including scale and safety
Low maintenance, permanent materials
Adhere to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines as appropriate

On view are project descriptions, schematic drawings and renderings as well as basic maquettes feature projects by Lamia AlMuhanna, Ali Alquadi, Fabiana Casale Hernandez, Sabine DeShazo, Sam Fernandes, Alec Foucault, Carla Gautier-Castro, Merna Haddad, Gizelle Hourani, Madison Lopes, Crystal Montas, Dan Pham, Brian Sandford, Micaila Sheridan, Cristina Sidoli Tronchi, Katya Stassen, Seantel Trombly and Brandon Werner. The proposals are on view in the Guarracino Family Gallery at the Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons from April 7 through 20, 2107. The public is invited to a breakfast reception on Tuesday, April 11 from 9 to 10 a.m. with the ARTitecture seminar students and faculty, Christina Lanzl.

Many thanks to Wentworth's Department of Architecture, the Douglas D. Schumann Library & Learning Commons, the Divistion of Technology Services and many others for supporting the project.

Summary of Project Context
Wentworth proposes to construct a Multipurpose Academic Building ("MpA Building" or the "Project"). The Project is designed to meet the next evolution in the collegiate study of several engineering disciplines by providing modern academic space for Wentworth's existing student body and to enhance the campus experience in a new "state-of-the-art" building.

At approximately 64 feet in height and approximately 69,000 gross square feet, the MpA Building will contain laboratories, student learning and group meeting space, offices, and support/storage space on floors two through four, and a first-floor maker space, manufacturing, and gathering space intended to invite the campus population to experience first-hand displays of Wentworth's engineering capabilities and teachings. The MpA Building will accommodate Wentworth's transition from providing engineering technology programs to engineering and innovation programs, such as a new biological engineering program. This transition requires new and different teaching and learning spaces and configurations that will promote more collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches to the curriculum. The Project, which is a response to the evolution of engineering education at Wentworth, is intended to meet the needs of the existing student body, and is not driven by, or expected to result in, a measurable increase in enrollment.
Source: Wentworth EPNF, Jan. 2017

Multipurpose Academic Building/MpA Art-In-Architecture PROPOSALS
Lamia AlMuhanna: Looking Into Someone's Eyes
MpA Lobby Façade along The Pike
Ali Alquadi: Touches the Earth Lightly
MpA Façade, Parker Street
Fabiana Casale Hernandez: Intertwined
The Pike at MpA and Lobby
Sabine DeShazo: Digital Wrap
MpA Quad-side, South Corner
Sam Fernandes: Reinventing the Pike
The Pike, Huntington Avenue to Parker Street
Alec Foucault: Shifting Light
MpA Vestibule
Carla Gautier-Castro: Pike Unfolded
MpA along The Pike
Merna Haddad: On the Power of Knowledge
MpA First Floor Lobby
Gizelle Hourani: An Inspired Path
The Pike at MpA
Madison Lopes: Diversity, Integrity and Interaction
MpA Main Entrance, Parker Street
Crystal Montas: Under the Forest's Light
MpA Glass Facades
Dan Pham: Flicker
The Pike at MpA
Brian Sandford: Contact Light (or An Effort in Defense of Gravity), MpA Interior Atriums/Staircases
Micaila Sheridan: Showcasing the Space
MpA Lobby Façade along The Pike
Cristina Sidoli Tronchi: Path of Lights
MpA First Floor Lobby
Katya Stassen: Making Waves
MpA and The Pike
Seantel Trombly: Moving Path
MpA Lobby Façade along The Pike
Brandon Werner: Egosyntonometrics
The Pike at MpA

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Common Boston Call for Volunteers

ARTitecture Exhibition at Wentworth Institute of Technology

Urban Culture Institute

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