A shortage of rental housing in the bustling Kendall Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Mass.—a hub of top-tier universities, research centers, and tech companies—prompted the development of Proto Kendall Square.
Boston Properties commissioned the 22-story, 280-unit apartment tower to help diversify the neighborhood’s office-centric property mix and expand its own multifamily portfolio. “We wanted to demonstrate the value of bringing high-quality rental property to a part of the city where we control a lot of commercial property,” said Boston Properties Project Manager Keir Evans.
Design architect FXCollaborative was tapped to develop the concept for a striking landmark on Ames Street, a minor access road that leads to two parking garages and a loading dock. Located within walking distance of dozens of tech employers and institutions, the site is served by the MBTA Red Line (known as the “Brain Train” for its role in transporting students to and from Harvard and MIT).
The Garage, a cozy space where residents can hook up an electric guitar, play video games on a big-screen TV, or just kick back and enjoy the kitschy pop culture artwork.
The new structure had to fit within a tight triangular parcel which was formed by razing part of an existing parking garage and narrowing the street to create a bike lane and improve the pedestrian experience.
The goal: “to create a building that had presence, but was respectful of its dense context,” said Gustavo Rodriguez, AIA, LEED AP, Partner and Design Director at FXCollaborative in New York. “We had to strike a delicate balance between providing a sense of openness and a sense of privacy, both for tenants and for the surrounding offices.”
See Also: Eight projects showcase the latest trends in student housing
The design firm specified precast panels and punched windows to give the façade varying levels of transparency at different sections of the structure, informed by the proximity of that section to adjacent office buildings. Larger windows at the corners provide residents with scenic views of the Charles River and Boston skyline. “The building is constantly at play as you move around it, opening and closing to balance privacy and access to natural light and air,” said Rodriguez.
A typical Proto apartment, 36 of which are classified as affordable. Unit amenities include Nest smart thermostats, ELFA closets, Thermofoil kitchen cabinets, keyless FOB entry, and operable windows.
At ground level, Proto features a modest pass-through lobby and four street-facing retail spaces occupied by a Mediterranean restaurant, coffee shop, florist, and bank.
The mix of the apartments is heavily studio (145 units) and one-bedroom units (90), appealing to the neighborhood’s sizable population of graduate students and millennial STEM workers. There are 43 two-bedroom units and a pair of three-bedroom apartments designed with families in mind. Thirteen percent of the units have been set aside to provide affordable housing.
DESIGNING FOR ‘THE SMARTEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD’
“Thinking about where the smartest people in the world want to live was a really interesting design challenge,” said Colleen Arria, Principal at Stantec Architecture’s Boston office, which served as architect of record and interior designer. “Because the site was so tight, we had to be incredibly smart about how we planned every square inch of space.”
As you might expect, Proto’s apartments and common spaces integrate high-tech amenities, from smart thermostats to blazing-fast WiFi.
But the design team also created several high-touch amenity spaces that provide opportunities for residents to interact.
Proto’s third-floor lounge serves as a communal living room for the micro-units on that floor. All residents enjoy 24-hour concierge and ButterflyMX entry system, a dedicated package room with Luxor management system, video gaming systems, a fireside lounge, a communal kitchen, a fitness center, a yoga and spin studio, and a pet spa with dog run.
The third level houses compact studio apartments and several lounge and co-working areas. It features a unique laundry lounge that doubles as a social space where residents can play board games or watch TV.
The fourth level has a large kitchen that opens to a communal living room area with a ping-pong table and outdoor terrace. Other amenities: a fitness center with a yoga and spin studio, a pet spa, and an adjacent dog run.
The fourth level also offers “The Garage,” a cozy multipurpose space reminiscent of a basement rec room suitable for a replay of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Initially envisioned as a storage area due to its low ceilings and lack of windows, the space was reconfigured into a casual hideaway where residents could express their creativity.
“As we’ve designed other urban residences for highly educated communities, we’ve found these folks appreciate having a place where they can express themselves—by playing instruments, crafting, or building models—in an environment where they can get messy and not disturb other people,” said Stantec’s Arria.
Throughout the residential community, Proto’s modern, upscale design aesthetic incorporates comfy furniture and an abundance of exposed concrete. Other design elements pay homage to Kendall Square’s rich history—its early connections to NASA, ongoing leadership in the biotech industry, and historic role as a global center of research and innovation. A custom-made rug is emblazoned with excerpts from President John F. Kennedy’s legendary speech on the national role of space exploration.
“The design is really steeped in this idea of science, science fiction, and fantasy—with nods to pop culture icons from Star Wars to David Bowie,” said Timothy Reagen, LEED AP BD+C, Designer/Manager at Stantec. “To us, these elements just resonated with the idea of exploration into the infinite possibilities that science has to offer.”
Built at a cost of $108.7 million, Proto Kendall Square opened in June 2018 and achieved 97% occupancy in its first year of operation.
“It’s garnering the highest per-square-foot rent in the city right now, with a lease renewal rate of over 50%, which is reassuring that the environment that we created is successful and well recieved by residents," said Evans.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Triangular tower targets travelers
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners is designing a new mixed-use high-rise for the Chinese city of Dalian, located on the Yellow Sea coast. Developed by Hong Kong-based China Resources Land Limited, the tower will have almost 1.1 million sf, which includes a 377-room Grand Hyatt hotel, 84 apartments, three restaurants, banquet space, and a spa and fitness center.
| Aug 11, 2010
Brooklyn's tallest building reaches 514 feet
With the Brooklyner now topped off, the 514-foot-high apartment tower is Brooklyn's tallest building. Designed by New York-based Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel Architects and developed by The Clarett Group, the soaring 51-story tower is constructed of cast-in-place concrete and clad with window walls and decorative metal panels.
| Aug 11, 2010
RMJM unveils design details for $1B green development in Turkey
RMJM has unveiled the design for the $1 billion Varyap Meridian development it is master planning in Istanbul, Turkey's Atasehir district, a new residential and business district. Set on a highly visible site that features panoramic views stretching from the Bosporus Strait in the west to the Sea of Marmara to the south, the 372,000-square-meter development includes a 60-story tower, 1,500 resi...
| Aug 11, 2010
'Feebate' program to reward green buildings in Portland, Ore.
Officials in Portland, Ore., have proposed a green building incentive program that would be the first of its kind in the U.S. Under the program, new commercial buildings, 20,000 sf or larger, that meet Oregon's state building code would be assessed a fee by the city of up to $3.46/sf. The fee would be waived for buildings that achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
Colonnade fixes setback problem in Brooklyn condo project
The New York firm Scarano Architects was brought in by the developers of Olive Park condominiums in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to bring the facility up to code after frame out was completed. The architects designed colonnades along the building's perimeter to create the 15-foot setback required by the New York City Planning Commission.
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
| Aug 11, 2010
Recycled Pavers Elevate Rooftop Patio
The new three-story building at 3015 16th Street in Minot, N.D., houses the headquarters of building owner Investors Real Estate Trust (IRET), as well as ground-floor retail space and 71 rental apartments. The 215,000-sf mixed-use building occupies most of the small site, while parking takes up the remainder.
| Aug 11, 2010
Housing America's Heroes 7 Trends in the Design of Homes for the Military
Take a stroll through a new residential housing development at many U.S. military posts, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell it apart from a newer middle-class neighborhood in Anywhere, USA. And that's just the way the service branches want it. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have all embarked on major housing upgrade programs in the past decade, creating a military housing construction boom.
| Aug 11, 2010
Loft Condo Conversion That's Outside the Box
Few people would have taken a look at a century-old cigar box factory with crumbling masonry and rotted wood beams and envisioned stylish loft condos, but Miles Development Partners did just that. And they made that vision a reality at Box Factory Lofts in historic Ybor City, Fla. Once the largest cigar box plant in the world, the Tampa Box Company produced boxes of many shapes and sizes, spec...
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
