It is rare as an architect, to be able to make such a significant impact on a City that you love.  We appreciate the opportunity of working alongside Northside Development Company in strengthening this significant urban block in New Haven.

Within the historic nine square grid in New Haven sits the 800 block of Chapel Street (just east of the New Haven Green).  The corner site, 808 Chapel Street, is surrounded by a blue tarp fence.  Two lots west, 848 Chapel Street, is a paved parking lot that extends a full city block to Center Street.  The two-story building in between these sites, 832 Chapel Street, has a vacated second floor space in need of occupancy and a façade in need of an updated urban design.  The combination of these three adjacent properties has led to a deterioration of the urban fabric as shown in the existing picture below.

Last week was an exciting and eventful week for Kenneth Boroson Architects and RMS Companies.  Two of the projects we have teamed together on, Parkside City Crossing in New Haven, CT and Stratus on Hudson in Yonkers, NY, celebrated ceremonial ribbon cuttings.  Ground was also informally broken on the next phase of the City Crossing project on Congress Avenue in New Haven.  These three projects combined create a total of 274 rental apartments in newly constructed buildings.

Hill to Downtown PlanAt the beginning of 2018, Kenneth Boroson Architects was retained by the NHP Foundation and the West River Self Help Investment Plan (WRSHIP-New Haven) to design a new multi-family development located within a transit-oriented development zone.  A proposed streetscape view along Legion Avenue is shown above.  This area was cleared in the 1950’s for a new highway that never ended up being built.  Since then, this cleared zone cut off the link between the West River, Dwight, and Hill neighborhoods spanning from Ella T. Grasso Boulevard all the way to the expressway.  In recent years, new development has gradually started to reconnect these neighborhoods, including the work currently being done as part of New Haven’s Downtown Crossing and Hill to Downtown Plan.

Earlier this year we had the privilege of conducting a program at our DISTRICT project on James Street in New Haven as part of an event being sponsored by AIA Connecticut.  We gave a presentation on the design and then led a tour through the building.  Project highlights, design features, and other interesting anecdotes were discussed with those in attendance. 

Kenneth Boroson Architects is excited to announce that construction has commenced on the new multi-family development we designed for the City of Meriden at 11 Crown Street.  Haynes Construction is hard at work at the former Record Journal Site.  Along with our team members The Michaels Organization and Torti Gallas and Partners, our office is delighted to see this project moving forward.

We are pleased to announce that the apartments within the Park 215 mixed use building we designed for Charter Oak Communities in Stamford, CT have been ENERGY STAR certified as part of the ENERGY STAR Multifamily High-Rise program administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  The units earned this distinction through their energy efficient design and construction.

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.

In 2003, a private community center at the heart of New Haven’s Dixwell community, known as “Q House”, closed its doors due to lack of financial support. Located on the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street, Q House stood as a fundamental anchor of the neighborhood for 79 years. Before its closing, Q House was brimming with life, providing recreational facilities and a haven for tens of thousands of Dixwell residents. For years afterwards, the reverberating loss of the beloved Q House continued, leaving the Dixwell community without a place to call their own.