TAG Cambridge
New designs at Ruhl Walker Architects’ studio
We are really excited about several new projects in the early stages of design, including new houses, two new lofts, and a master plan for a small school in northern New Hampshire. We will share some more information about each of these projects in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, check out the images and information below.
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- One of several potential conceptual designs for a new house built on an enormous, shifting coastal bank on the outer reaches of Cape Cod, this view shows the house on the water side. The main living space is elevated above the ground, under an asymmetrically curved roof, to enhance views and natural ventilation.
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- The inland side of the same Cape beach house is more introspective, with smaller windows in a collage of overlapping and sliding curved planes and volumes. The main house is to the right and an art studio is to the left, connected by a deck / bridge.
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- We are also in the very early stages of design for a new house designed for a wooded site on Martha’s Vineyard, for wonderful clients we have known for over 20 years.
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- An early proposal for the Vineyard house illustrates our effort to design a house that appears to almost melt into the land, not unlike the stone farmers’ walls that snake through the woods.
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- A conceptual site model for five small houses built into a hill on Cape Cod. In the upper right corner is the client’s existing glass and steel house; each new house is to have a green roof so that the view down from the main house is of a modern sculptural landscape, not just a collection of roofs.
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- The conceptual site plan shows how the houses hug close to one setback line to allow for each house to have surprisingly large side yards that can be designed to open to the dramatic views as well as capture ocean breezes.
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- This conceptual digital model shows material and formal ideas for the redesign of a penthouse at the W hotel condominiums in Boston. The unit will have a new steel and glass stair to a roof deck, and boasts 270 degree views stretching from the Harbor Islands to the Charles River and Cambridge beyond.
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- The proposed new kitchen for the W unit.
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- We’ve just started redesigning two lofts at the Channel Center in Boston, both units that we happen to have designed for previous owners several years ago. This photo shows an intermediate owner’s idea of appropriate loft décor — not exactly our cup of tea! — and a subsequent owner ripped out the polycarbonate and steel sliding doors and built full height plastered walls, crown mouldings, and a plastic raised panel door around the custom steel, fir, and acid etched glass shelving…
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- The existing heavy timber beams and columns in the Channel Center have steel column caps that are open in the middle to allow for steel tension rods to pass through them; a very cool industrial detail.
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- We have also been working on a master plan for The White Mountain School in Bethlehem, NH. The plan includes renovations and energy enhancement improvements to all existing buildings, converting underutilized older buildings into staff housing, bringing the original Frederic Law Olmstead landscaping back to its original glory, bringing the 1960’s vintage main administrative / classroom building into the 21st century, and adding a new theater / gathering space and arts classrooms, a 16-bed dorm addition with two faculty apartments, and a new 28-bed dorm with 3 staff apartments. Clearly this ambitious plan will take many years to realize.
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- Most of the administrative, classroom, and gathering spaces are within a rambling main building. Much of the building was rebuilt in the early 1960’s after a devastating fire destroyed most of the original structure, which had been a private estate prior to being donated to the school. The plans above show preliminary thoughts on how to add a new entrance that includes an elevator and other accessibility improvements, new art classrooms with a green roof, a new theater, converting underutilized ground floor space to a fully accessible infirmary, and converting the former upstairs infirmary into staff housing.
A new house for an art collector on Martha’s Vineyard, the renovation of a beach house we originally designed 10 years ago, the complete reconstruction of an urban townhouse, the total redesign of a glass walled penthouse at the W Boston, not to mention over 10 additional projects in design or under construction from Cape Cod to Hawai’i… It’s going to be a VERY busy summer at our studio…
 We just started the design of a new house for an art collector on an extraordinary site on Martha’s Vineyard |  The house will enjoy spectacular views of the Atlantic as well as brackish ponds and adjacent conservation land |
 We have begun redesigning a glass walled penthouse at the new W Boston |  The unit has magnificent views of Boston, including the harbor, the Public Garden, the Back Bay and Financial District skylines, and the Charles River. The generic existing plan will be opened up to enhance the dramatic views and allow for a more relaxed lifestyle. A new sculptural glass and steel staircase will lead through a motorized skylight to an enormous roof deck with lap pool |
 We are just beginning the design for a completely rebuilt South End row house |  Five floors have already begun to be demolished in preparation for all new structure and finishes, inside and out |
 Construction has just begun on an expanded unit at The Esplanade, a condominium complex built on the Charles River and designed by Moshe Safdie |  The expanded space will serve as both a home office as well as a guest suite for two young entrepeneurs, whose families visit regularly from India |
 We designed this Cape Cod beach house over 10 years ago for a family with two young daughters. Since then, the family has out grown the original house, so we are helping them expand it in every direction, including up |  All interior walls on the ground floor as well as a brick and concrete chimney have been removed, and large steel beams have been added for a totally open living / dining / cooking / entertaining space. This open living space will extend up to a second floor family room with deck that faces out to the Atlantic. The wood posts in this photo are only temporary… |
The Ruhl Walker Architects team (family)
You can find a lot of facts and figures about our team on our portfolio website, but the facts do not tell the whole story. We are more than the sum of our parts; we like to think of our studio as a family, including our alumna/ae who may have moved along to other firms in other parts of the world but continue to have an impact on us to this day. We have been so fortunate to have worked with so many incredibly able, talented, intelligent, and INTERESTING men and women over the years.
You might be interested to learn that we have attracted an unusually large number of surfers, like our first associate, Mark Bandzak, who thought nothing of surfing in Maine in the middle of winter; or Matt Ostrow, who surfed competitively all over the world prior to joining our studio; or Grant Scott, who grew up in New Zealand and surfed his way around the world, cut his dreads and found his architectural calling in London, somehow landed in Alabama of all places, then turned up in Boston, luckily for us. At the moment, we do not have any surfers on board, other than our lead snow-boarder, Lilly, and other than the token surfer wanna-be – Will Ruhl – thanks to his love of the Big Island of Hawai’i…
So, we tend to be a pretty laid-back crowd for the most part, other than that we work intensely during normal working hours. The office can be pretty quiet as we crank away on behalf of our clients… Brad and Will work really hard to maintain the office equilibrium and work loads, and other than one period of 3 weeks when we had to charette due to the frantic This Old House TV schedule featuring a house we designed in Cambridge, [click here for a link], we have been able to keep to unusually normal schedules, rare for design studios in Boston. We do this not just for ourselves and our quality of life, but for our clients, since no one benefits from being on full-time panic mode! So, laid back, passionate, intense…
We can’t resist bragging about our current team. Our senior associate, Sandra Baron, is a LEED Accredited Professional and Registered Architect, with architectural degrees from UVa and MIT, and brings the benefit of almost 9 years of professional experience to our studio and our clients. Lilly Smith is not only our lead snow-boarder but is also our resident artist (BFA Summa Cum Laude from UMass, Amhearst), another MIT graduate, a LEED Accredited Professional and brings almost 8 years of diverse experience to the team. Lilly directs sustainability issues in our practice. Nerijus Petrokas brings his wit and refined sense of humor to our studio by way of his Master’s Degree in Architecture from Penn; 3 years of architectural experience at firms such as Machado + Silvetti, office dA, and Howeler + Yoon; 2 years building custom houses on Nantucket; and growing up in Lithuania. Keith Case is yet another MIT grad, where he received the Alpha Rho Chi medal, received his undergrad degree from Middlebury, and has worked in Maine, Vermont, and NYC, where he interned with Tod Williams Billie Tsien. Paul Commito is the most recent addition to our studio, and joined us after spending four years in Washington and London as a Marketing Manager for an executive networking/education board, and two years with Gensler in Washington working in marketing and business development. It’s a great team, with each person bringing unique strengths and interests, and the mix being a genuine benefit to our clients.
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 Hillary and Dragomir |  Lilly and Wyatt |
2010 saw the addition of two more honorary RWA family members. In May, one of our all time favorite associates, Hillary Mateev, who had rejoined us in February after 3 years at Cambridge 7, and her husband Slavi brought baby Dragomir (nicknamed “Dari”) into the world! And then on Thanksgiving night, Lilly Smith and her husband, James, gave birth to Wyatt James Smith! Hillary is now back at Cambridge 7, and Lilly is on maternity leave, but they and their families are still an integral part of our studio.