August 2025: Planning Board approved
The site is midblock, infill, at the southern end of Davis Square. It is surrounded by mostly one and two story buildings, with primarily commercial use. There are some apartments on the block, and many more in the surrounding blocks. The existing building is a two story, former house, used now as a commercial space.
One of the most notable features of this neighborhood are the vibrant, colorful murals. There are four on this block alone. The elephant mural on the side of the neighboring cafe abuts the southeast lot line of our site. We used this as a starting point in the design.
We wanted to make sure that we preserved the mural on the neighboring cafe, so the project design started with a step in plan at the ground floor. That move preserves the mural and the cafe’s windows, and creates a small entry courtyard off the sidewalk. It also begins to relate the project in scale to its neighbors.
The majority of the ground floor is reserved for a restaurant. The remaining space is a lobby for the residential apartments above. There is no car parking on the site. Instead, each residential unit has indoor bike parking with a bike repair area.
The massing of the building is divided into several pieces to create a place that is human scale and that relates to the existing, low-rise context. First, a ground floor podium is created with a contrasting material from the top. A darker color was selected to create a relationship with the neighboring commercial building. The base is articulated with a cornice and profiling that relate it to the human scale. Above, the building steps twice more to create space for balconies on the street facing units. These create visual interest on the facade and provide a place for people to enjoy the outdoors. Finally, the stair towers are clad in a bright accent color to break the lot line walls into apartment-sized widths.
