131 Oliver Street / Krueck Sexton Partners
131 Oliver Street / Krueck Sexton Partners
Text description provided by the architects. Three historic 19th-century buildings form the corner of Oliver and Purchase Streets in Boston’s Financial District. Slowly erased over a century of use, there was an opportunity to re-connect the development to its history of place through a new lobby and common space that re-envisioned the underutilized space, forming a stronger connection between the historic buildings and the more contemporary towers, and recall a memory of the original structure.
Inpainting techniques from art conservation informed the approach to reintegrate the three original buildings by adding related but recognizably new insertions that allude to the original construction while remaining distinct.
A choreographed experience leads one from the ground to the sixth-floor amenities, ultimately framing views of Boston, its seaport, and the adjacent greenway. The tenant common space is a key feature of the project, a co-working space and social lounge, available to all tenants of the building. Views of the roof garden allow seasonal changes to become part of the interior experience.
Access to the rooftop garden is celebrated through a universally accessible ramp tracing a three-foot elevation difference around a garden planter, a verdant passage to the garden. The roof perimeter is continuously planted, negating access to the roof edge except at three lookout points framing views of the context, heightening the experience of being at the building’s edge. From the street, the lookouts are abstract planes of glass reflecting the sky. At night they are beacons to the neighborhood.
