The City of New Haven has embarked on a 30-year plan to unlock the potential of the gateway district between downtown New Haven and the Hill neighborhood. As the first major step in redevelopment, a team led by development firm RMS Companies was sought to create a mixed-use building on four underutilized plots adjacent to Amistad Park.  RMS selected Kenneth Boroson Architects to design a 4-story building on the site which formerly held the Prince Annex School and surface parking lots.

Located a short distance from the New Haven Green, Mid Block Development’s new project at 842-848 Chapel Street recently earned site plan approval from the City Plan Commission.  Our office has designed this new mixed use and multi-family building to feature 120 apartments, two levels of internal parking, resident amenity spaces, and commercial shell space.  The new seven story building has frontage on both Chapel and Center Streets in downtown New Haven.

Construction was recently completed on Rippowam Corporation’s new Park 215 mixed use and mixed income development in Stamford, CT that our office designed.  Viking Construction completed the work on this multi-family housing and commercial building in 21 months.  There has been high demand for the apartments and residents started moving in at the end of August.  More than half of the commercial space has been leased and these medical care providers are now open for business as well.  This project provides a prominent cornerstone for the Vita Health and Wellness District and completes the multi-phase Vidal Court revitalization initiative.

Rockview 2, which will consist of 78 new townhouse style residential units, has just been approved to move forward by the New Haven City Plan Commission. The commissioners unanimously approved the site plan and inland wetland application. Rockview 2 is the fourth phase of the West Rock project which encompasses two complete neighborhoods (Brookside and Rockview). The project is split into six phases.  The former development consisted of 1940’s brick “barracks-style” buildings and was demolished due to its state of disrepair and the presence of mold and other environmental hazards.

For many years now, one of the most bandied about terms in the design and construction industries has been sustainability.  From design professionals to specialty contractors to product vendors to recently adopted building codes to third party certification agencies to public and private clients, the word sustainability has been on the tip of everyone’s tongues.  But what does it all mean?  

At the end of 2015, our office was awarded an exciting project to create the new DISTRICT complex at the former CT Transit bus depot on James Street in New Haven. The primary goals of the project are to create a new campus for business and technology innovation in a portion of the existing building and to redevelop the site to become a vibrant contributor to a developing neighborhood.

Both! The balanced integration of artistic sensibility and scientific methodology as it applies to designing buildings and their environments is essential to creating great architecture.

The design of what will be the State of Connecticut’s largest public preschool has involved collaboration at the highest level.  The final and crowning project of the City of New Haven’s 20-year, 1.6 billion-dollar school reconstruction program, is the only early childhood learning school in the city’s portfolio.  While other school construction projects have had the opportunity to incorporate lessons learned from past projects, the new Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School, starting from “scratch,” has required extensive design collaboration to make sure we get it right the first time.