Hacin + Associates [architecture + design in boston]

We use this blog to post quick updates about people and projects, and to share thoughts, ideas, and photos. For more information about Hacin + Associates including a full portfolio, visit our website at www.hacin.com.

Driving piles at the Boston Innovation Center

Piles are done. Next to come: concrete and steel.

 

Boston Innovation Center breaks ground in the Innovation District

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Boston Innovation Center, designed by local architecture firm Hacin + Associates, took place today [despite the chilly rain!] in Boston’s newly designated Innovation District.

According to Mayor Menino's speech at the event today, the Boston Innovation Center is the first freestanding city-sponsored innovation center of its kind in the country. Located in the heart of Seaport Square, it will serve as an anchor in this emerging district, a natural gathering place adjacent to an MBTA Silver Line station, a Hubway bike-sharing location, and parking. The Boston Innovation Center will be the first project built for Boston Global Investors’ 23-acre waterfront development, Seaport Square.


The 12,000 SF facility will provide space for promising companies and executives to meet and exchange ideas, and to host business and social events. It will include a restaurant that will be open to the public; a flexible assembly space with a capacity of 250 seats; a gathering space with lounge seating and worktables; and several flex spaces called “pods”, meant to support a variety of uses including meetings, classes, and exhibitions. The building is the result of a partnership between the City of Boston, Boston Global Investors, and the Cambridge Innovation Center. The facility will be operated by the Cambridge Innovation Center, an organization that supports start-up ventures in Kendall Square.

Of the unusual partnerships that are making this building a possibility, David Hacin says, “This building represents a remarkable collaboration, both public and private interests working together to build a better Boston. We hope the innovation center will be a symbol not only for the Innovation District but for the future of our city.”

Innovation City

During the process of guest-editing the 'Change' issue of ArchitectureBoston magazine, we focused on an idea of change which is positive, proactive and forward-looking. And as we examined our city and our field, we found that--despite Boston’s pessimistic tendencies--optimism has never been so necessary and well-deserved.

Boston was recently named the top innovation city in the world according to the Innovation Cities Index, which is based on a city’s cultural assets, human infrastructure, and networked markets. Surprised? So were we, at first--but in fact, Boston is an incubator of technology startups, a hub of cutting-edge medical research, and a proving ground for experimentation in education and even theater, all set in a political environment that has a history of groundbreaking policies with national implications [read "Why Boston" for more on this topic].

So last night we gathered leaders of some of these world-changing industries to as what they think about innovation, in the hopes that we designers can learn more about how our work can continue to push Boston’s innovation economy forward.

The Innovation City panel discussion was hosted by Sasaki Associates, Hacin + Associates, and the Boston Society of Architects. In conjunction with the event, we produced Innovation City—a video that asks what an Innovation City is, and what kind of environment is necessary to foster the collaboration and experimentation on which innovation thrives. The video kicked off the panel, but we also hope that it will help catalyze a continued conversation throughout the Boston community. Please watch, share, and send your comments and ideas to innovate@sasaki.com!

[Special thanks to Field Five for their wonderful work on the Innovation City video!]

 

Inform + Inspire: 'Rear Window' Timelapse

Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 'Rear Window' is a film that comes to mind constantly while working on projects in the dense Boston neighborhoods of Back Bay and Beacon Hill. Associate Matthew Manke recently stumbled across a brilliant project by Jeff Desom feauturing the film. The clever remix takes footage from the original masterpiece and combines it into a single, super wide-angle time-lapse panorama which captures the entire view depicted from Jeffries' window.

Filmmaker Jeff Desom describes his work during an interview with Elvis D'Silva for the blog 'One Small Window':

"The project was commissioned by a Luxembourg venue which has this extremely wide screen above their bar. They let me do whatever I wanted as long as it would loop seemlessly and cover the entire width. I immediately thought about doing some sort of panorama. When looking for a scene my mind kept floating around the buildings in 'Rear Window.' I always loved the art direction in that film. You just wish you could have hung around the studio lot at the time. Eventually I was overwhelmed by the urge to see what the set must have looked like as a whole."

For more info, read the rest of Elvis D'Silva's interview here.

 

Boston Innovation Center featured in Boston Globe

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino unveiled plans on Tuesday for the Boston Innovation Center located in the Seaport Square- also known as the Innovation District. The center will provide the surrounding community with a space to foster collaboration, learning, and the sharing of ideas. You can find the full Boston Globe article here.

"The Boston Innovation Center has been conceived as a flexible and collaborative workspace and meeting environment for the emerging innovation community in Boston's Seaport. The eventual new restaurant opens directly to the new public parks and activity along the waterfront and creates a new and unique destination for people to engage with this rapidly changing area. The building's dynamic form, industrial materiality, and state-of-the-art graphic displays recall the industrial history of the harbor's past and the promise of Boston's future." 

-David Hacin

Check out a NECN feature on the Boston Innovation Center here. More to follow...