Leon Electric
Boston
Site: Boston
Program: Adaptive Reuse / Mixed Use
Size: 5 story Abandoned Structure
Status: Competition Proposal
Team: Shawn M. Lutz
The Boston Society of Architect's Rotch Travelling Scholarship program is a 72 hour competition for emerging professionals. The proposal below is Shawn's 2023 entry. Program is adaptive reuse of the abandoned structure of Leon Electric Building adjacent to Uphams Corner station in the greater Boston area.
Driven by the five-story vacant Leon Electric building in proximity to public engagement to the building, this proposal focus is sectional and figural to a new beginning and understanding of its history.
The main central stair running east-west informs the organization in plan and section. From the ground to the second floor, the public realm, with connections to the adjacent Uphams Corner station, takes a transitional circulation to shift outward to building programs and bring a new purpose to the building. Lower levels of the program are tailored to the public, community, and enrichment of building use, while the upper levels are flexible to spaces for collaboration, performance, and productivity.
To maintain optimal restoration of adaptive reuse with a vibrant future on the horizon while maintaining the field of columns making up its interior and discovering a nine-square organization informing the placement of vertical circulation.
Nested to many adjacencies, the building's south elevation diagonal shapes and informs the west's massing and windows northwest for improved daylighting, city views, and Uphams Corner station. Even the figural stair is a rotational gesture from the second floor to five, bringing new inspirations and vistas as people progress vertically.
This proposal finds a new opportunity to reclaim the Leon Electric building and optimum to other vacant buildings in the city to improve the public realm and engage within our city's future.
