East Boston lofts have an industrial flair
The Marginal Street Lofts have a modern industrial look.
Though the Marginal Street Lofts building seems to fit right into its East Boston neighborhood, that was not always the case.
“The site is tight,’’ Elizabeth Whittaker, principal architect at Merge Architects, told Boston.com. “We had to get in nine units and the frontage is narrow. So the tricky thing was how do you get nine units in that all have front-facing water views?’’
Not only did Merge want the units to have waterfront views, the building was also restricted by other buildings on all sides.
“It was a super complex puzzle to think about design,’’ Whittaker said. “We couldn’t go one inch over 32 feet 5 inches because it would block abutters behind us. We were sandwiched in from the top and had setbacks on the sides.’’
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Look inside the Marginal Street Lofts:
The nine apartments, which have been completely built and are filled to capacity, won a Residential Architect design award.
Residential Architect said:
“For this nine-unit, 11,500-square-foot East Boston residential building, Merge Architects turned planning and zoning restrictions into an opportunity to build atypical dwellings clad in industrial materials.’’
Whittaker explained that every apartment has access to either a patio, a balcony, or a roof deck and there are a total of nine parking spaces.
But it doesn’t look like a normal apartment building.
“The concept behind the façade was the building was flanked by architecture of the shipyard with industrial aesthetic,’’ Whittaker said. “We gravitated toward more shipyard aesthetic and its industrial material of stainless steel mesh that we sewed on to the giant frames onto the façade of building that created identity for the unit.’’
Whittaker seemed most excited about it being a modern building in Boston.
“We are excited about how wonderful it was to work with the neighborhood association,’’ she said. “We were thrilled they supported contemporary architecture in city that needs it so desperately. We hope it’s a catalyst for contemporary buildings.’’
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