The Revitalist

We are thrilled to report that Washington Mills has taken its first deposit on an apartment. Looks like they are going to be quite popular, so make an appointment today to see the model units and get one of your own.

Two mill fires this week in western mass highlight some of the risks of working with these old buildings.

Strathmore Mill, from jnoc's Flickr set

In Turners Fall, part of Montague, the Strathmore paper mill burned on last Sunday. Only one of the 11 buildings in the complex was completely destroyed, but most of these others were damaged by smoke or water. The site is occupied by a paper manufacturing facility, which is planning to reopen. We are familiar with the site because we have been talking to a fellow who was planning to purchase the mill and rehab it into a film and photography school. Of course now, the redevelopment plans are back to the drawing board. The site had a lot of potential, and we hope that this isn't the end of rehab plans for it.

Faceplate Mill fire, Chicopee

A mill building, part of the former Faceplate textile company, burned in Chicopee yesterday. The building had been vacant for several years, and the firefighters worked hard to keep it from spreading to the rest of the mill complex.

It's an odd coincidence to have two major mill fires so close together in one week. It a tough thing to keep these buildings current with fire protection, especially when they are vacant.

A new redevelopment in Hyde Park will offer market rate artist studios, something relatively rare on the market these days. Long-time Boston developer Harold Brown, The Hamilton Company, is rehabbing part of Westinghouse Plaza, formerly a shop for manufacturing industrial fans, into the Lofts at Westinghouse. The 62 units will have live/work studios ranging from 967-1,161 sf, selling at $200,000-$245,000, and 640 sf, live-only units for $165,000. These studios will add to the growing artist community in Hyde Park, largely represented by the Hyde Park Art Association. Heidi Burbidge, from the BRA's Artist Space Initiative says, "We're excited about it because this is the first time we'll really see what the demand is for market-rate artist space."

We'll be watching closely. We're considering artist space in a few of our projects, and it will be interesting to see how the market rate stuff fares. From what we've heard, price is the driving factor when it comes to artist studios. It's tough to rehab a building in Boston and keep costs low enough for the artists, but these prices should attract a lot of attention.

 

 

Apartment Therapy has released the winners of the Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest 2007. People with teeny, tiny apartments that have been designed within an inch of their lives submit photos and videos of their not-so-humble abodes, hoping to win gift certificates from DWR and internet fame. The contest really showcases what a little ingenuity and minimalism can do. I find it surprising how often these tiny spaces feature bold and bright colors and really make them work.

Submitted by "London Urchin," this 300 sq ft loft studio in London is the big winner. This shot shows you pretty much the whole thing, but there is a sleeping loft and floor to ceiling windows for lots of light. Apparently he went with a "jewelry box" theme by putting in lots of cubbies, hidden drawers and sliding doors.

The first runner up is "Laura's Fresh Start Studio." The 293.5 sq ft (I guess that .5 is a big deal) apartment includes some beautiful, bold colors. The resident says that she gets along in her tiny space by not having any stuff, having sold it all to move to CA and start anew.

Taking third place is an ultra-mod, 518 sq ft studio in NYC. Victor & Soeun opted for clean white as the theme to contract the gritty metropolis. The translucent box that supports their sleeping loft also screens the home office from the rest of the apartment.

Now that New England has warmed up, people all around are talking about all the gardening they are planning to do. If you're one of them, you might check out TerraCycle, who has taken recycling to a whole new plateau (via Springwise). The company produces plant food, fertizilers and other products made primarily from worm poop and packaged in reused bottles. The company was started by two Princeton students who developed a way to recycle organic waste from the Princeton cafeterias, use worms to "reprocess" it and convert it into liquid fertilizer. They then launched the Bottle Brigade program to collect used soda bottles from schools and recycling centers and use them as packaging for their product.

If you're taking a road trip or a plane flight for the holiday weekend, you might load last week's Smart City Radio onto your iPod and have some deep thoughts on Urban Redevelopment (The Revitalist will be listening too). The show features interviews with Eve Picker of No Wall Productions in Pittsburgh and Jeanne Goodman of Jamaica Plain Cohousing.

Happy Memorial Day! 

NY Times' profile of Interface CEO Ray Anderson demonstrates that going green can be easy is you take the time to sweat the small stuff. Anderson's carpet manufacturing company, producer of the decorator favorite FLOR tiles, has made some big moves to green their production, like siphoning methane out of the local landfill to use in power generation instead of natural gas, but they have also made big gains by focusing on small changes, like recycling their scraps and reusing cardboard boxes again and again. Anderson feels that the company is making an ethical choice to go green, but he's not denying that there are economic benefits in operating savings and increased customer loyalty.

Sample layout of mixed colors

Zooty Tooth, a designer favorite

 Of course, I suspect that loyalty has a lot to do with the emphasis that the company has put into design. Their FLOR line of carpet tiles have been featured in countless design magazines and come in a dizzying array of colors and textures. The website features design advice and creative ideas in a section called the FLOR Boards.

For some hell is other people's noises. And for those people, New York City must be the ninth circle. The NY Times regales us with stories of these auditory neurotics (I'm not alone!) and their endless quest for peace and quiet.

"In searching for a new apartment, he confounded brokers, he said, by rejecting sweeping city views or abundant light because he could discern the sound of the place’s elevator or the whir of rooftop equipment." 

NPR had some nice wrap up on Bike to Work Week. If you missed out on the two-wheel experience this past week, you can live vicariously through these rides in Washington, DC and in Boston.

The idea of building empty nester condos near universities and marketing them to alumni has been taken to the next level. Colleges and universities across the country are building cemeteries and columbaria (for the storage of urns) for alumni who would prefer to be buried at their alma mater (via CEOs for Cities). It seems to have started with a few small memorials created by alums with a lifelong connection to their school. At some schools it seems to be just another a fundraising tool, with urns and caskets being offered for sale with the school seal or colors on them. Cemetery consultant Mel Malkoff says, "People look back on their college years and say, 'Those were the best days of my life.' Why not spend eternity there?"

I can imagine that a carefully designed memorial wall can be a lovely addition to a campus, but some of these projects come off sounding a little ghoulish. I guess ultimately, death is a life stage around which a variety of services are marketed – some will be tasteful and respectful and some will just be tacky.