Sustainable Storefronts Project Heats Up
As part of the Sustainable Chinatown project launched in partnership with the Asian American Civic Association, about a dozen business owners in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood will soon be linked with teams of architecture students and design professionals in a design competition to surface best practices with regard to sustainable storefronts.
Across Boston’s neighborhoods, hundreds of business owners, often working closely with design and financial assistance from the City of Boston’s ReStore program, have made improvements to their storefronts that help attract customers, improve streetscapes, and increase property values.
Now, with support from the Barr Foundation, the Boston Architectural College, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, we are helping to bring sustainable design excellence to Chinatown’s famous business/restaurant district with a juried design competition in which the winner will receive funds to help underwrite the cost of construction.
What is a sustainable storefront? Our design teams will help answer that question, and will likely explore building envelope performance, materials, natural light, clean energy production, signage, storm water management and more in the process. Overall design excellence including streetscape context and historic preservation will weigh heavily.
Thanks to the BAC for providing project leadership and to the AACA for promoting the project generally and for providing cultural/language translation expertise.
