Emerson College - Little Building Addition + Renovation | 80 Boylston St | Downtown

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The renovation of the Little Building reminds me of that one season of This Old House where they set out to renovate a barn, and started off by tearing-down the barn.

(I kid, I kid)
 
Off topic but that episode soured me on TOH for a long time. (I still think they are too quick to replace rather than restore)

I was upset about unskinning this building until someone upthread explained that it had to be done due to the way it was originally constructed. Still unsure about the glass boxes but I think they are at least reversible.
 
I grew up near that barn. It’s still there in good condition. The house built for the movie Housesitter nearby, not so much.

On topic: What is the point with keeping anything above the podium, given how far they have gone with the demolition?
 
RandomWalk said:
I grew up near that barn. It’s still there in good condition. The house built for the movie Housesitter nearby, not so much.

On topic: What is the point with keeping anything above the podium, given how far they have gone with the demolition?
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They basically have a gun to their head in terms of having predicated all their logistics around having 1,000+ students back sleeping in the 100% completed structure by whatever start of semester (spring '19? fall '19?) they have projected everything on. I have to assume that all seemingly radical/drastic steps that may be visible from here on in are taken with that mandate in mind.

I know that doesn't answer your specific question per se, but I have to assume that's the overriding imperative that drives everything we're seeing...
 
RandomWalk said:
I grew up near that barn. It’s still there in good condition. The house built for the movie Housesitter nearby, not so much.

On topic: What is the point with keeping anything above the podium, given how far they have gone with the demolition?
Click to expand...

The structure is sound and the existing configuration was workable enough. Structural steel has the longest lead time in both design & fabrication. Reusing the structure allows them to skip the structural design & not have to worry about fabricating & building new structure. This way they just come in and slap on a new facade & put up new steel stud walls inside, run MEPFP, gyp it up/do the finish work and you're done.

Also, what building/company is being redacted in that webcam next to this project?
 
Holy crap! I had no idea they were doing anything of this scale.
 
FK4 said:
Holy crap! I had no idea they were doing anything of this scale.
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It's not entirely clear Emerson did, either... how much of the denuded exposure indicates rotten steel that they thought they could preserve... until their "steel doctor" diagnosed it as beyond salvage?
 
DBM said:
It's not entirely clear Emerson did, either... how much of the denuded exposure indicates rotten steel that they thought they could preserve... until their "steel doctor" diagnosed it as beyond salvage?
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Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out when Emerson knew the building was a lost cause.

They put a lot of money into it fairly recently. Within the last decade they built an entire structure within the structure to fill-in light wells (not visible from the street) and built-out new study rooms in the reclaimed space.

Beyond that, the last full renovation wasn't that long ago.
 
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