News
CBT: They’re Everywhere
January 6, 2011
| When you look at the largest new office developments in town—the $300M Liberty Mutual where foundation work starts next month and the $470M Atlantic Wharf due for completion in February—you're looking at CBT Architects? work. But they've got more going, from luxury residential in Abu Dhabi to affordable housing in Allston. |
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| We snapped the Liberty Mutual team: Andrew Steingiser,Matthew Francke, Monte French, Robert Brown, Steve Cockcroft, Evelyn Hadden, Chad Morig, and Jennifer Miller. Robert is the principal designing the 600k SF, 22-story tower. With only a one-acre site and a historic building to incorporate, CBT cantilevered the new structure over the old one to create the desired 25k SF floor plates. To finish the building in Q2 '13, they'll cut six months off the schedule by doing up/down construction: building up the steel frame and concrete core as they mine down four stories for foundation and parking. The tricky part is working on such a tight site without impeding operation of the Grille 23restaurant on the ground floor of the historic building. |
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| Charles Tseckares (the ?T? in CBT) and Eric Jahan (the "J" in Jahan) in collaboration with Carol R. Johnson Associates designed a $141M, 369-unit luxury condo/rental and retail complex, the Marasy, in Abu Dhabi. Eighteen months ofconstruction started in October on the low-rise complex overlooking an inlet to the Persian Gulf. Part of the 6.7-acre site was once an island used as a private yacht club, the rest was created by reclaiming land from the sea. The developer, ICT, wanted the building to look like glass curtain wall but didn't have the budget for that. The CBT team got a similar effect by using storefront glass as infill between concrete slabs. The technique is less expensive, protects from the hot sun, and still offers residents sweeping water views. |
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| Principal Christopher Hill with Andrew Wang and Andres Bernalexpect that demolition will start in March on the 470k SF, 340-unit Charlesview development they've designed for The Community Builders. The long-planned complex involves a complicated land swap between Harvard U. and the Charlesview Community Trust. Christopher says the big challenge was to make the new complex welcoming for the 213 relocated Charlesview residents and compatible with the surrounding Allston/Brighton streets. With lots of community input, the answer was to let the existing Charlesview residents choose from housing distributed throughout the site. Also, they designed small, clapboard buildings with pitched roofs on the perimeter to echo the structures in the neighborhood and a public tree-lined promenade to the Charles. We?d also like to thank CBT for its sponsorship of our Boston Multifamily Summit, this coming Tuesday. Would love to see you there! Sign up here. |
