Origin of ThoughtCraft’s Reuse & Preservation Work
Design
Origin of ThoughtCraft’s Reuse & Preservation Work
As we celebrate National Preservation Month, we’d like to look back 17 years to when a 1960 Paul Rudolph building became the catalyst for ThoughtCraft’s adaptive reuse work. Our out-of-the-box thinking led to many future engagements and a subspecialty of work. Check out our old stop-animation video imagining various strategies for the reuse of the building.
In 2007, we submitted testimony to the Boston Landmarks Commission about its history and potential ways the developer may reuse it. In 2008, we began talking with the developer about preservation methods before the economy crashed.
The building, originally designed by architect Paul Rudolph for the offices of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), is the early predecessor of both high-tech modernism (think Renzo Piano’s Centre Pompidou in Paris) and brutalism (concrete buildings). It was to be replaced by New England’s tallest tower, designed by notable architect Renzo Piano. This lineage struck a chord with partner Jason Hart because he had studied Rudolph’s early work heavily in Florida and worked for both Renzo Piano and Kallmann McKinnell & Wood, (yes, the brutalist Boston City Hall architect).
The irony that Piano’s tower was supposed to replace a renowned predecessor’s work, whichundoubtedly informed his own, was inescapable. So, we decided to point this out. The building was slated for demolition in 2007, and our study was a provocation to rethink the frequent collision between preservation and development and the save it at all costs or tear it down outcomes. We questioned the very idea of preservation and its future.
A much smaller tower was eventually built next door, and the BCBS building was landmarked in March of 2024.
Our work did not go unnoticed. We befriended the New England preservation community and were invited to speak at several local and regional conferences about how preservation may better engage the future. We were asked to similarly assess other significant buildings around the country.
Few architects engage in both modern design and historic preservation. We find this intersection fascinating. Our approach goes beyond the physical building and into the who, why, how, and human stories that occurred over the lifespan of the building. We use this research to drive preservation and reuse strategies with an aim of strengthening the identity of a place by carrying history forward for future generations to see. At the end of the day, architecture requires people to make it come alive; an empty building is just that—empty.
Our current preservation and reuse work consists of old mill buildings, stores, homes, tobacco-drying barns, and corn cribs—each with a story to tell. Check some of it out below!