As the year comes to a close, we reflect on the power of giving.

A ceremony on Hartford Street in Boston on November 12 welcomed 16 former US service members to the Pine Street Inn’s new Home for Homeless Veterans. Between them, the Home’s residents and staff have served in Vietnam, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Others saw service at home or abroad during peacetime or in support of combat areas.

Shepley Bulfinch employees contributed to the renovation of the house as a transitional housing facility on a pro bono basis,  producing conceptual design schemes and preparing detailed construction drawings for the project.

We were one of a number of in-kind donors,  including ...[more]

Saint Peter’s College broke ground on the MacMahon Student Center October 26 in a ceremony attended by members of the college community and civic and political leaders.

In his remarks, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healey noted that the 84,000 s.f. building would be transformative not only as Saint Peter’s first student center, but also in its wider role in the revitalization of McGinley Square and Jersey City.

Student Government Association president Venny Turner expressed the anticipation felt by resident and commuter students alike, and called it “Saint Peter’s ...[more]

In a provocative blog post on beauty in architecture, 2012 Summer Design Fellow Amrita Raja commented upon the reluctance of many contemporary architects to discuss the role of beauty, relying instead on more purely rational justifications such as performance. It reminded me of the 2009 NY Times article about Douglas Bowman who very publicly left his position as Google’s top visual designer because, in his words, “at Google design lived or died by data.”

Amrita’s post also reminded me of the scene in the documentary film Helvetica, where Michael Place from UK-based design firm Build talks candidly about how, for him, design is primarily ...[more]

As a long-standing tradition Shepley Bulfinch reaches out to our clients in an annual mailing. For years, this took the form of a signed card or letter, accompanied in recent years by a commemorative poster. What started as a holiday gesture has become an important statement that exemplifies our core values.

Like every project our annual mailer starts with a written strategy: a design brief. This year we drew on our annual internal staff survey for inspiration. Within a section of the survey on differentiation a few key words and ...[more]

How do you match the resounding success of our 2010 Fellowship Poster, designed by Experimental Jetset? By inviting Michael Bierut of Pentagram to design the 2011 poster.

I’d like to share some insights about the design process, strategy, and design thinking behind the poster itself. Our design brief to Michael was essentially to match the quality of the candidates we’re seeking as this year’s Fellow: someone who combines a high-level and perhaps rare combination of extraordinary design talent, creativity, passion, intuition, appetite and ...[more]

The healing power of the award-winning Hollander Healing Garden of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven is celebrated in the October 2011 issue of Health Facilities Management. Its recognition as a distinctive design element of note is the latest in the magazine’s monthly “Last Detail” feature.

The 2,500 square foot rooftop garden, located on the 7th floor of the hospital, is an oasis of calm in one of the densest parts of downtown New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of a number of elements in the hospital that draw ...[more]

The US Green Building Council has awarded LEED® certification to Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven in recognition of the hospital’s successful sustainable design and construction strategies. The 516,000 square foot hospital is located in downtown New Haven.

When planning for Smilow began in 2002, sustainable strategies, including LEED certification, were not widely considered attainable in healthcare, given their high energy demands and other perceived constraints. The project team rose to the challenge of making Smilow a sustainable trendsetter. New opportunities for LEED points were sought and identified by ...[more]

Creating an environment that promotes healing complements the development and practice of treatments that heal. That was the thinking behind the design of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which has received an Award of Merit in the Connecticut Green Building Council’s (CTGBC) 2011 Green Building Design Awards. Norman Roth, Yale-New Haven’s Senior Vice President of Administration, accepted the award at the June 21 ceremony in New Haven.

The hospital was designed by Shepley Bulfinch and landscape architects Towers|Golde, and built by Turner Construction.

Eight years in the making, the 516,000 square foot cancer hospital ...[more]