Project Spotlight: Hayden Building
Articles, design
Project Spotlight: Hayden Building
Old buildings are essentially 3-D evidence of the human experience. At ThoughtCraft, we believe that each historic renovation we take on is its own treasure chest of stories and ideas to uncover. As we respond to the original building—its bones, vibe, history, and more—we take care to preserve what was as we align it with what is. To do so, our team must do three things at once: retain the structure, update it with new elements, and work to bring its human stories to the forefront. This is something we had the great pleasure of undertaking with our Hayden Building project.
Our adaptive reuse of the Hayden Building in Boston is one of many historic renovations that our team has been able to accomplish. This was an especially thrilling opportunity because the Hayden Building is a Nationally Registered Historic Site that was originally designed by the prominent American architect, H. H. Richardson, built-in 1875 around the time his famous Trinity Church was also being constructed. This meant that conceptually, reviving this building was a great responsibility. The Hayden Building defines the beginning of Richardson’s rethinking of how to articulate larger commercial buildings; it’s also a sketch for his Marshall Field in Chicago, which became a template for early skyscraper designs. So there’s some great history, and some great stories, to account for there.
But there are also fascinating stories to uncover throughout the building’s existence. Because of its age, the building had seen many uses and iterations. It was first used by commercial tenants at the end of the 19th century, most of whom owned clothing and hat shops. Later in the 1960s, the building became the focus of adult entertainment; this was during the neighborhood’s turn into the city’s red-light district, the Combat Zone. In 1985, 110 years after its creation, the building was gutted by a fire.
You might be wondering: How exactly did we tackle a renovation of this scale and importance? The first and most simple answer to that is: thoughtfully. Because of the significant damage from the fire and neglect in the years that followed, this project proved a major (albeit exciting) challenge. It needed to transform from a cool-but-dilapidated relic to a functional building that would accommodate multifamily housing and retail. Our team had to plan for the repair of the stone and masonry within the building’s shell—not to mention redoing its floor and roof framing systems. The lateral steel bracing added after the fire also needed modification as well to accommodate the building’s new use.
All of these changes—and countless others—were done after in-depth research of its original conception by Richardson, and the many iterations the building saw after him. We were lucky to work with Historic Boston Inc., our client collaborator, throughout this process. Their former and current staff were pivotal in helping unearth some old stories and resources, and their openness to our team’s approach to preservation proved incredibly motivating.
There were many aesthetic and functional choices our team made to preserve, yet revitalize, the building during the design process. But we were also conscious of needing to document the building’s history in a more concrete way (pun not intended). Our team decided to commemorate the various eras of the Hayden Building by incorporating infographic art panels between each level of the building in the stairwell. The panels are positioned to be visible from below, effectively drawing residents and visitors alike up the staircase. These panels cover the history of the building and Richardson’s architectural process in addition to the personal histories of its past tenants.
Ultimately, we wanted the Hayden Building to exist as a manifestation of past and present—a still-living-and-breathing memento of what came before. By combining new architectural strategies and updated materials with the bones and stories of the building, we were able to do just that. Step into this building’s beautiful lobby, its carefully placed family suites, and its five-story stairwell layered with art, and you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.