61 North Beacon Street
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Located within the rapidly developing Boston Landing area with new construction going up all around the site, this building is a trailblazer for the area, showcasing how one can use an existing building to meet the demands of the neighborhood. The Volvo dealership originally took up four acres of land on its former site, but with smart programming, Volvo was able to consolidate into this existing building footprint. Changing the use of the building from industrial use to offices has prolonged the building’s lifespan, reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with new construction. The Boston Volvo Village project converted an underused former commercial block located at the edge of a residential neighborhood in Allston and created a dynamic new automobile showroom. This rehabilitation project maintained an important streetscape and preserved a historically significant Allston commercial building. The building retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association, with great significance at the local level – Boston’s Auto-Mile heritage. The rehabilitation of the property reversed decades of incongruent upgrades, deferred maintenance, and the under-utilization of its expansive open floor plan. This thoughtful renovation gives new life to the historic building and repositions the Volvo brand for an urban neighborhood. |
Photo Credit: Anthony Cristifulli Photograpy
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What Exactly Did We Do?
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Detrimental Modernizations
Photo Credit: Epsilon Associates
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There had been many detrimental “modernizations” to the building over the years. The original storefront windows had been infilled in with painted concrete block. The windows on the upper floors had been removed and infilled with metal panels with aluminum track sliding windows. The large arched window “eyebrows” on the top floor were similarly filled in and a grand stair, leading from the first floor up to the second floor had been walled off and repurposed as a closet for a tenant that was occupying the space. No evidence of the stairwell was visible from the second floor. While a few multi-light steel sash windows survived, the majority of the openings had been infilled with metal panels to allow for HVAC, utilities and venting.
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Demolition
Photo Credit: The Ciccolo Group
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On the north elevation, the concrete block elevator shaft, constructed in 1974, was removed, exposing the original façade. It was reconstructed as an interior shaft inside the building’s footprint. The 1995 addition was removed, restoring the original north façade. A vehicle entrance was reintroduced in its historic location on the ground floor of the north elevation. |
Building Envelope
Photo Credit: Epsilon Associates
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In the west elevation, vehicle and pedestrian safety concerns required the regrading of the entry drive and required the closing of the western vehicle entry and pedestrian entry points. The openings were infilled leaving a shallow remembrance recess on the wall where the openings were located.
Restored storefront openings on the south elevation have opened the street-level façade. The storefront at the southeast corner of the building is now opened so that the building’s secondary entrance on the east elevation is reoriented to provide an ADA-compliant entrance, as well as direct access to the surface parking area. This new entry serves as a lively and inviting entryway, while the original entry along North Beacon Street provides pedestrian access for those traveling west to east. |
The non-historic doors and transom of the principal North Beacon Street entrance were replaced with wooden doors and transom to better match the original entry. A new accessible ramp along the façade in the location of the raised landscape bed provides access to the new retail storefront.
Original Elements
Photo Credit: Epsilon Associates
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The monumental stair located between the first and second floors in the center of the floor had been hidden from first floor view by partition walls, and access completely sealed up on the second-floor plate. Demolition of the partition walls uncovered original newel posts embedded in the walls, and paint removal of the stair treads uncovered a wonderful terracotta inlaid nose detail that had been hidden by layers of paint.
The east and west stairwells and the freight elevator in the northeast corner, are original to the building. Both service stairwells consisted of a painted u-shaped cast stair and painted brick and original tube railings. Large windows provide light into the stairwells. They now feature exposed brick and bare concrete stairs, and the tube railings have been preserved with complementary infill mesh panels for code compliance. The original brick freight elevator shaft was retained and refurbished with new mechanicals. |
Original concrete ceilings are exposed on each floor and new bathrooms have been installed. The ground level and second floor have polished concrete floors. The second, third, and fourth floors feature exposed brick. The intent of the proposed project was to expose as many original elements as possible so that these character defining features function as prominent interior features throughout the building.
Site & Exterior
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Site improvements included additional landscaping along the north, south, and east elevations, plus the installation of pedestrian circulation paths. The existing parking area to the east was improved with new paving, granite curbing, brick paver showcase area, decorative fencing, and landscaping. Exterior brick was cleaned and repointed. Carefully chosen exterior lighting highlights the historic architectural elements at night, showcasing cast stone features, pilasters, plinths, pediments and cornices. |
Photo Credit: Anthony Christifulli Photography
Adaptive Reuse & Building Programming
Photo Credit: Epsilon Associates
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The restoration of 61 N. Beacon returns the building back to its original automotive use. As part of the adaptive reuse, the basement level of the building was cleared and designed to serve as a customer service drop-off which includes interior parking for servicing, a customer waiting area, retail parts counter, as well as service write-up offices. Most of the floor is preserved as open area with polished concrete floors. The first floor of the building is now an open showroom and sales floor, with a refurbished monumental stair providing direct access to the second floor. This floor also includes administrative offices, break room, additional waiting areas, and retail space.
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The second floor is an additional vehicle showroom space, wide open with exposed brick interior walls, polished concrete floors punctuated by the original mushroom columns. The third and fourth floors have been similarly opened up: designed as a “vanilla box”, for tenant office space, as is the retail storefront on the south-west corner.
Sustainability
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Contrary to popular belief, renovation of an existing building is far more sustainable long term than new construction. There is an immense amount of energy and CO2 locked into existing buildings - from the foundation, materials, the energy used to make new materials, transport those materials, etc. Reuse provides a savings in carbon dioxide compared to the energy used to destruct and haul away an existing structure and the construction of a brand new building.
In addition to the adaptive reuse of the structure, we installed a 94.8 kW DC solar array on the roof. The system encompasses 285 panels & will produce approximately 120 MWh of electricity per year. The system reduces CO2 emissions by 88.2 metric tons per year (97.2 tons.)
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Before Photos
After Photos
