Multi-Residential

How Successful Multifamily Project Teams Are Designing Inspiring, Healthy Interiors

by Jennifer Phan

After spending considerable time working from home this past year, today’s potential multifamily tenants and buyers are more interested than ever before in spaces that support health and wellness. For developers, owners, and operators of apartment and condominium properties, the question is, how can we plan and design these environments most effectively? As architects and interior designers working on a broad range of new construction and adaptive reuse projects across New England, here are a few key trends and considerations we have seen driving successful interiors in the current market:

Active Design and Encouraging Movement

By seeking to make physical activity more accessible and appealing, the planning and design approach known as active design is one of the most fundamental ways a project team can deliver healthier buildings. Effective active design strategies can be simple, for instance, it can include adding feature walls, customized accents, artwork, signage, or windows and skylights in stairwells to promote walking instead of elevator usage. Thoughtfully designed fitness centers with a variety of workout modalities are another path toward promoting resident wellness. Children’s play spaces now command an everincreasing role in multifamily: The latest trends focus on encouraging exploration, experimentation, and imagination through active but less structured types of play.

Beyond the obvious health benefits for residents, active design principles are essential for the pursuit of building certifications such as Well and Fitwel, which makes it necessary for design and development teams to be familiar with a range of strategies for achieving these goals.

Avalon Residences at the Hingham Shipyard

The Value of Biophilia

In a similar vein, many of today’s most successful multifamily projects incorporate elements of biophilic design, an approach that reconnects residents to nature within the built environment. Effective design strategies include a focus on visual connections to the outdoors, and where possible, the creation of exterior “rooms” that allow residents to move effortlessly and freely between the built and natural environment. These types of indoor/outdoor zones are an increasingly significant part of multifamily amenity packages. They provide an active connection to nature, which also increases residents’ ability to experience daylight and brings a positive impact on individual health and wellbeing. Plant life is also an important element of biophilic space, and design teams should include living elements in common areas both inside and outside. In addition to promoting higher indoor air quality, studies have shown that plants continued to page 44

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Mio Apartments Completed

Weymouth, MA – Mio apartments, located at 39 Trotter Road in Weymouth, has completed construction and is ready to welcome residents to all three buildings in the 237-unit complex. Mio is a joint project of Marcus Partners and John M. Corcoran & Co. LLC.

The property is also leasing two ground floor retail spaces. The project is professionally managed by Corcoran Management Company.

The project team included construction manager, Plumb House; design architect, Utile; MEP engineer, BLW Engineers; structural engineers, Veitas and Veitas; geotechnical engineer, McPhail Associates; civil engineer, CHA Consulting; landscape architect, CHA Consulting; leasing consultant, John M. Corcoran & Co; and traffic engineer, Vanasse & Associates, Inc.

Modern spaces at Mio include stainless steel appliances, plank flooring, quartz countertops, Nest learning thermostats, in-home washers and dryers, oversized windows, and high-efficiency plumbing. The property is aiming for LEED certification, with state-of-theart building practices and the latest ventilation technologies.

The new development features a high

Mio

level of service, with 24-hour package acceptance and notification, valet trash service, around the clock maintenance repair services, and complimentary WiFi in the amenity spaces.

“Along with our partners at Corcoran, we are extremely pleased to complete this project on time and within budget, especially in such a challenging year,” said Josh Berman, senior VP at Marcus Partners.

Mio community room Mio roof deck

Trends and Hot Topics ULI’s Spring Meeting Addresses Challenges, Inspires Change

by Emily Langner

During the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) virtual Spring Meeting on May 10-12, industry professionals from New England, California, Colorado, and other parts of the country convened to address the challenges and questions posed by the events of the last year, and to cover ongoing topics such as lessening the environmental impacts of real estate developments, meeting emerging housing needs, and ways to tackle sea-level rise.

While the industry continues to prioritize important issues such as social sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and climate change, the majority of the sessions at this year’s meeting were dedicated to discussions surrounding COVID’s impact on design, development, and productivity. During the three-day event, what emerged were thoughtful conversations and a general consensus that, although challenging, the last year has afforded the industry a unique opportunity to regroup, reset, and move forward with purpose.

In the session, A Post-Pandemic Workforce and Its Impact on the Workplace, Diane Hoskins, co-CEO of Gensler, and Mark Grinis, Americas real estate, hospitality & construction leader at Ernst & Young, LLP addressed the cultural and technological workplace impacts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hoskins said that “collaboration is showing up as the missing piece in the work from home equation.” This challenge, she says, is now driving new design ideas around the workplace and the best ways to enable the speed, communication, and sharing of knowledge that allow companies to achieve essential business outcomes and the ability to excel. Hoskins also noted that, as people come back to the workplace, “they have now all come through this awakening regarding DEI, climate change, and the realities of things like COVID” and said that addressing the fact that this change has occurred, and how it gets reflected in the workplace, is vital.

Diane Hoskins

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ULI’s Spring Meeting included a virtual session entitled, The Corporate Journey toward Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion.

Jasmine Williams

In the session entitled, Urban Shift: Future-Forward Inclusive Placemaking and Equitable Community and Economic Development, Jasmine Williams, associate urban designer and planner at CallisonRTKL, said the impact of the pandemic, the resulting financial strains, and the ongoing climate disaster have “altered our lifestyles and expectations.” The Q&A following the session centered on the questions of how best to convert office spaces left unused by the shift to working from home (and how much to convert), the importance of ensuring equal access to jobs, and the recognition that all voices matter and have a place in these discussions.

The session, The Corporate Journey toward Enhanced Diversity and Inclusion, focused on the importance of companies having a proactive, rather than reactive, approach when setting DEI goals within their organizations. Gabrielle Bullock, principal, director of global diversity at Perkins and Will, said an important step her firm has taken regarding recruitment and retention is to change who is doing the recruiting, along with challenging the status quo “at every turn.” She said it’s important to ask, what are you measuring, what are your performance measurements, and are they skewed? She explained that organizations should examine “how you engage your staff and how you promote and how you develop unique to them, and that the one size fits all just doesn’t work anymore if you want a more diverse, inclusive, and engaged organization.”

Gabrielle Bullock When planning for the “next normal” and considering important issues such as diversity and inclusion, collaboration and productivity, sustainable design practices, and social equity, the many challenges brought on by the pandemic have given companies the opportunity to take bold steps, and inspired them to set ambitious goals for the future.

Emily Langner is the editor and staff writer at High-Profile Monthly.