53h Harvard St Net Zero Development

Photography Credit: James Reed Photography

Developer: Dorchester Design Collaborative

​

HUE Architecture wanted to build their first development in the heart of the neighborhood that has given us so much. We have strong roots in the Dorchester community and most of our clients and projects come from or build in the surrounding streets.  So our goal was to build something beautiful and sustainable within the heart of the community.

​

Our proposal is a mixed used development that will house HUE Architecture's new office on the ground floor and two (3) bedroom/(2) bathroom apartments above. We began the journey as a purely modern design, but we received some strong pushback from neighborhood that hoped to see a more traditional New England Style.  The ultimate result is modern and traditional hybrid approach where we juxtapose the modern office façade on the ground floor with the traditional residential façade above. This approach allowed us to visually differentiate the commercial vs residential functionality while providing successful compromise with the community. 

 

The residential units have been energy modeled independently from the office space and they will achieve net zero level energy efficiency. We are proud to be one of the first Net-Zero developments in the area and we hope to use our office project as an example that beautiful and sustainable architecture can be built affordably.