232 Webster Street — Jonathan Windsor

Initial Concept Sketches

Elevations

A custom brick screen facade provides privacy from the street while allowing ample sunlight year round. During the day, both volumes maintain a monolithic appearance. During the evening, backlighting provides a more translucent appearance.

Section

Concel & Reveal

To maintain privacy, the front facade incorporates a variety of elements to conceal the more personal program and reveal the semi-public architectural office. The rear facade, however, reveals itself to the garden.

Webster St. Approach

Entry

Gallery Model

Gallery

The main gallery space extends through all three floors and features a custom bookshelf and louver system. Where the gallery meets an interior wall, this system acts as a series of bookshelves. Where the gallery extends to the exterior, this same system acts as a series of louvers to provide ample daylight while simultaneously protecting the artwork from potential light damage.

Gallery Model

Music Room

Architecture Office

Kitchen

Throughout the home, elements from the gallery display system wrap into other rooms to create bookshelves and in this case, kitchen cabinetry.

Great Room

This double height great room contains the kitchen, living, and dining areas. Four sliding doors open to the garden to create an indoor-outdoor living experience.

Garden Model

Garden

Gallery Model

Gallery from above

South Terrace

The south terrace, located above the architectural office, provides panoramic views of the Boston Harbor.

North Terrace

The larger north terrace provides Dean and Charles with an additional outdoor entertaining space where they can host a variety of parties and community events.

Master Bedroom

En Suite

232 Webster Street
Single Family Residence
Spring 2017

Charles Waters, an architect and designer, and his husband Dean, a photographer and screen writer, both share a passion for the arts and photography and over the past twenty seven years of marriage have spent their time traveling around the globe, amassing a large collection of international artwork, furniture, souvenirs, photographs, and other various items. Now that their two children have graduated college and are no longer living at home, Dean and Charles have decided to design a build their new and final residence in East Boston where they can live, entertain, work, and showcase their impressive international collection. While both Charles and Dean are only a few years from retirement, they both have requested home offices in which they would meet with clients. Charles, Founder and Principal of Waters Design Group, needs an office space and workshop where he can practice architecture and meet with his potential business clients and Dean has requested a workspace where he can focus on his writing and producing, as well as an artists loft where the two of them can create new pieces of art. As active members of the community, they often find themselves hosting social events throughout the year and want this home to showcase the love they share and the memories they've made to every single visitor.

As I have explored during our Urbanism studio, East Boston is one of the most historically interesting landscape in New England and continues to develop to this day. At a larger scale, one of the main reasons I chose this site in East Boston is because of the potential of the nearby waterfront. While downtown Boston has developed almost 70% of its waterfront and provided residents with a variety of public spaces along the water, East Boston has much greater room for development, having developed only 22% of its waterfront. This site sits just across from the Downtown Boston area and has great potential to provide residents of East Boston with similar experiences to the Boston Harbor Walk. Because of its proximity to the harbor, this property has breathtaking vies to the south.

On a smaller scale, this site also provides different levels of privacy. Because it is located on a pivot point on Webster Street, depending on the design, it could be either highly visible from all ends of the street or completely secluded and private. Its southern orientation would not only provide views of the waterfront, but is also optimal for daylighting for the types of workspaces that both clients have requested. The narrow shape of the site also invites us to build up to meet the surrounding context of three story residences while still allowing enough ground area for an outdoor living or entertaining space. For the clients themselves, this is an ideal place to settle down into a quieter, more secluded life. While they are not living directly in the city, it is only a short walk to the Blue Line which brings them downtown in one stop. It is also a very short drive and from the airport for their constant international travel.