District Hall
Hacin + Associates
Boston
Boston is full of co-working centers, incubators, and labs, but most are housed within one of the city's 50 institutions of higher education, cloaked with exclusivity or even anonymity simply by association. Others are part of a particular company, perhaps relegated to the corner of a lobby or makeshift space.
District Hall, the result of a public-private partnership, belongs to everyone, and it's a smash hit, not just an idealistic showpiece for the city. The bright, airy 12,000-square-foot building on the South Boston waterfront, across from Diller, Scofidio + Renfro's Institute of Contemporary Art, is an innovation center unaffiliated with any corporation or academy. In 2014, it hosted 550 events'from hack-a-thons to investor office hours'attended by more than 30,000 people.
Envisioned as the beating heart of former mayor Thomas Menino's 1,000-acre Innovation District, District Hall was largely financed by Boston Global Investors (BGI) in partnership with Morgan Stanley, and is the first building in BGI's development of the surrounding Seaport Square. The one-story structure contains a restaurant and caf', a flexible auditorium that holds 250 seats, a lounge, and a series of classrooms and 'pods.' Designed by Boston-based Hacin + Associates, the project is said to be the first freestanding city-sponsored innovation center of its kind in the country.
When the city decided that its Innovation District needed a hub, it asked the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) to run the program. This was a logical choice: CIC, founded in 1999, runs the world's largest start-up space, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, housing over 600 companies at a time and providing them with everything from office space to a copy machine. CIC agreed to take on District Hall, running it as a nonprofit because 'it feels like a movement, not an asset,' says CIC founder and CEO Timothy Rowe. 'There probably isn't anyone involved in thinking about the future of the city who hasn't been to District Hall,' he says. 'It showed up and everyone said, 'Where were you all my life?''
To accommodate a range of spaces and quickly changing needs, Hacin + Associates drew on its work designing restaurants, retail, and the Boston offices for the design consultancy IDEO. 'We didn't come to it with preconceived notions of what it should be,' says principal David Hacin. Drawing on the historic harbor site, where cargo ships were met by trains to disperse goods throughout the country, 'I was sort of taken by that idea that this was a threshold,' says Hacin. 'Ideas would be born here that would be shared across the world.' Hacin designed District Hall as two roughly rectangular volumes. The eastern volume contains the auditorium, restaurant, and caf' in its figural, silver-toned, corrugated-metal and glass shed. In a series of boxcar-like structures, the western volume houses the pods, workspaces, and lounge. An angular corridor connects the two and can be programmed for exhibitions or events. Many of the walls of the center are covered in a whiteboard surface for capturing inspiration on the fly.
As a nonprofit, District Hall makes its spaces available free or at a reduced cost for many organizations and events. In 2014, it gave away $1 million's worth of space rentals, or 71 percent of all its rentals, as in-kind support to the local innovation community. 'We want to make people understand that their futures may lie in building new businesses, and that, through that, you can start to shift the DNA of the city,' says Rowe.
Architects:
Hacin + Associates
112 Shawmut Avenue
Boston, MA 02118
617.426.0077
617.426.0645
Gross square footage: 12,000 square feet
Project cost: $7 million
Completion Date: October 2013
PeopleClient: Boston Global Investors Owner: City of Boston Architect: Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit: Architect of record: Hacin + Associates Associate architect(s), if applicable: n/a Interior designer: Hacin + Associates Engineers: Structural Engineering: Civil Engineering: Geotechnical Engineering: Specification Consultant: Commissioning Agent: Consultant(s): Lighting: Acoustical: Other: Sponsor: Idea Paint General contractor: Gather Restaurant Contractor (within District Hall) Photographer(s): | ProductsStructural system Manufacturer of any structural components unique to this project: Diamond, Iron Works Inc. (109 Blanchard St, Lawrence, MA) Exterior cladding Metal/glass curtain wall: Kawneer 1600 UT Rainscreen: Reynobond – Metal Panel “Rainscreen” EIFS, ACM, or other: Reynobond – Metal Panel “Rainscreen” Moisture barrier: Carlisle, CCW-705 Curtain wall: Kawneer 1600 UT Roofing Metal: Firestone Standing Seam Windows Glazing Skylights: Ipswich Bay Glass Doors Metal doors: Hollow metal insulated doors Special doors: Cornell Iron works (garage doors in assembly space) Hardware Closers: LCN Closers Exit devices: Von Duprin Pulls: Ives Security devices: Salto Networked Locking System Interior finishes Suspension grid: Armstrong Ceiling System Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: Custom P-lam millwork by Design Fabricators (Cranston, RI) Paints and stains: Benjamin Moore low VOC paint Paneling: Custom OSB panels by Design Fabricators (Cranston, RI) Plastic laminate: on cabinetry millwork Solid surfacing: Dupont Special surfacing: Fire slate concrete countertops at Gather bar and Brew café countertops Floor and wall tile: Daltile (used in restrooms) Special interior finishes unique to this project: IdeaPaint Furnishings Reception furniture: Haworth Furniture throughout Chairs: Emeco (restaurant) Tables: Custom by American Chair & Seating Lighting Downlights: Zumtobel Lighting Task lighting: Cooper Industries Exterior: Philips, Beta Dimming System or other lighting controls: Crestron Dimmer Plumbing Energy Energy management or building automation system: By owner/client |
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