Boston, MA, USA
Emerson College Little Building Reimaging by Ross Cameron of Elkus Manfredi Architects is the preservation and restoration of a historic building in Boston dating back to 1917 by Clarence Blackall, which by increasing student housing for the college also relieves pressure on Boston’s housing market.
The reinvigorated Little Building is a uniquely creative 21st-century response to complex preservation challenges.
For its modern approach to preservation, Emerson College Little Building Reimaging has recently been awarded a 2022 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The project addresses the building’s failing façade and recaptures its modern Renaissance Gothic glory, increases the bed count, improves student life spaces, and implements current life safety codes—all while first respecting the historic fabric, upholding an aggressive schedule, and maintaining a reasonable budget.
Most distinctive are the novel strategies employed in the preservation of its façade that involved the utilization of aerospace laser scanning technology, digital modeling of complex Gothic geometries, and direct designer-to-fabricator communication of each component.
Following the College’s acquisition of the building, existing façade failures prompted investigative demolition that revealed a situation far worse than imagined: not only had water infiltration irreparably damaged the cast stone, it had also begun to corrode the steel, compromising structural integrity.
The design team’s hybrid strategy of preservation and rehabilitation combines established techniques for conservation of the lower levels and replacement in kind of the upper levels’ cast stone, guided by the physical evidence of the extant pieces.
The project reflects the College’s significant commitment to housing students on campus and reducing pressures on the housing market, a goal of two Boston mayors.
In addition, the team’s post-completion study of the environmental impact of saving as much of the steel superstructure and façade as possible, versus simply demolishing and building new.
This approach demonstrates a strong case for the use of Embodied Carbon reductions as a driver for the preservation and adaptive reuse of the built environment.
Project: Emerson College Little Building Reimaging
Architects: Elkus Manfredi Architects
Lead Architect: Ross Cameron
Original Architect: Clarence Blackall (1917)
General Contractor: Suffolk Construction Company
Client: Emerson College
Photographers: Robert Benson
