Giving Thanks
This year has been one of Winter Street’s most successful years to date…because of that we are very grateful for the people and opportunities that have been afforded to us to help make that happen.  We are also excited to continue to share with you our big ides for the future and look forward to an even more promising 2010.  In this time of thanksgiving, here are some of the the things we are most grateful for: We are thankful for our talented and passionate employees, you are the heart of our firm and have helped shape our future. We are thankful for all of our projects, small and large, each one has helped us make this a successful year.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Perspectives in completing a project
(by Kathryn Giardi, LEED AP) A few weeks ago I went to the 62nd meeting at 641-643 Huntington Avenue in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area to attend the weekly meeting for the Harvard Medical School’s newest LEED™ Gold office renovation project. I walked in the front door and was greeted by a woman in dress pants and a nice blouse. She asked me who I was there to see and all of a sudden it hit me, this building was no longer ours. The Principal-in-Charge, Brian and I had spent every Tuesday morning each week for over a year walking through the building in its many stages of construction, surrounded by subcontractors that had been asking us questi

Technology, Tools + Toys in the Transformative Workplace
(By: Paul Durand, AIA)   Increased economic pressure and logarithmic advances in technology are evolving business processes at a fantastic, and to some, an alarming rate. It’s all very exciting to us as architects. Creation and collaboration, and using new tools are key elements to business success. That, in tandem with sustainable practices, has the workplace becoming a mor

Change is Good (and Green)
Like most people and firms, we at Winter Street Architects try to consistently advocate for sustainability and develop our “green” culture.  We took the first step in this journey back in 2000 when we saved the historic Newmark building on Essex Street and revitalized it for office and retail space. Since then we have adopted an aggressive recycling and waste reduction plan, promote bike-riding and car-sharing, and employ “green cleaning” professionals.  But today marks our biggest change yet – decreasing our energy consumption and improving efficiency by upgrading our HVAC systems.   With these new units, we anticipate improving our

Supporting Change through Design: Transformative Work Environments
(By: Mary Beth Di Figlia, AIA) A transformative work environment, I believe, aims us toward a different condition, a new way of inhabiting a place of work and a new way of communicating with each other. It is one which recognizes that what we’ve done even just a few years ago is not appropriate to replicate because so many current influencers were not part of the criteria which gave rise to that solution. A transformative w