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GrubStreet
GrubStreet
Boston, MA, United States
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Other Projects by Merge Architects
GrubStreet
Boston, MA, United States
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2022
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
$1M - 5M
The large interior fit-out for GrubStreet is shaped to enable this creative-writing nonprofit’s mission to “ensure writers of all backgrounds… share their stories” and act as a storytelling device itself, expressing the group’s creative, rigorous, and inclusive spirit. Like a story follows a plot structure, the programmatic layout here correlates to its two-level, cross-axial container with public spaces at grade and private areas above. The spatial narrative unfolds immediately off the sidewalk, where GrubStreet’s street-presence reads as inviting retail rather than stodgy institutional space. A cafe benefits from bright seating and signage while a bookstore with dark walls and simple shelves allows books to take center stage. Speaking of stages, a set of bookshelves - like the “secret room” variety in mystery novels - pivots to transform a portion of the bookstore into a presentation space. Additional shelves roll away and a pair of wooden wedges slides together to complete a circular stage for readings and panel discussions.
At the intersecting, midway point of the plan (or storyline), an existing stair and elevator are enlivened by color and illuminated signage to draw students and staff to writing spaces above. Surmounting the stair, in a lounge offering views over Boston Harbor is a subtle shrine to GrubStreet's prized typewriter. The historic storytelling medium anchors one end of the floor’s circulation axis, traced by a millwork wall. This ‘social street’ is carved by passages to classrooms and workspaces, individual nooks for composing, and group booths for brainstorming. At the end of the social street, opposite the typewriter, is a recording studio for a more contemporary storytelling method: the podcast. On the concrete wall opposite this media continuum are printed and painted plot diagrams to remind young authors to give structure to their voices.
Underpinned by this public to private structure, this space-as-story still demanded a voice. Merge responded by working hand-in-pen with ‘Grubbies’ to develop a language of shapes so that they might find familiarity, kinship, or aspects of themselves in the space. These motifs - arched openings and triangular booths, porthole windows and circular nooks - range in complexity, depth, and color to offer a diversity of architectural accommodations. The forms are realized in a palette of plywood, paint, and fabric that contrasts the building’s curtain wall exterior with inviting interior surfaces that connote home. Together, the variety of shapes and surfaces suggests that this story is open not only to interpretation but also intervention as its occupants grow into and through the space.
At the intersecting, midway point of the plan (or storyline), an existing stair and elevator are enlivened by color and illuminated signage to draw students and staff to writing spaces above. Surmounting the stair, in a lounge offering views over Boston Harbor is a subtle shrine to GrubStreet's prized typewriter. The historic storytelling medium anchors one end of the floor’s circulation axis, traced by a millwork wall. This ‘social street’ is carved by passages to classrooms and workspaces, individual nooks for composing, and group booths for brainstorming. At the end of the social street, opposite the typewriter, is a recording studio for a more contemporary storytelling method: the podcast. On the concrete wall opposite this media continuum are printed and painted plot diagrams to remind young authors to give structure to their voices.
Underpinned by this public to private structure, this space-as-story still demanded a voice. Merge responded by working hand-in-pen with ‘Grubbies’ to develop a language of shapes so that they might find familiarity, kinship, or aspects of themselves in the space. These motifs - arched openings and triangular booths, porthole windows and circular nooks - range in complexity, depth, and color to offer a diversity of architectural accommodations. The forms are realized in a palette of plywood, paint, and fabric that contrasts the building’s curtain wall exterior with inviting interior surfaces that connote home. Together, the variety of shapes and surfaces suggests that this story is open not only to interpretation but also intervention as its occupants grow into and through the space.
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