Waiting Room

A Midrise Civic Center

Boston, MA · 2024

Overview

Large granite, brick, and glass buildings give the Boston site a monumental scale and limit access to daylight. Waiting Room responds to that condition through an entrance, a curved corner, and shared interior rooms that make the civic building legible at the scale of a person walking around it.

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Complete sequence of civic center models from material studies to the final sectional building model

Studio: Core II Studio · Harvard Graduate School of Design
Instructor: Ritchie Yao
Format: Individual work
Location: Boston, MA
Year: 2024

Separate public and service cores
Two deep light wells
Pixel-like massing around a curved corner
Library, theater, cafeteria, and civic rooms

01 / 09A Midrise Civic Center

Design approach

Early models develop a pixel-like, stepped mass around the curved corner. Carved openings and overhangs mark the entrance, while the building shifts between a solid silhouette and a more articulated profile as it is approached from different sides.

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Cast site model registering the curved corner of the Boston block

02 / 09Site cast and curved urban corner

Material and context studies

Wood, resin, and concrete studies explore mass, surface, and the relationship between solid and void. The model sequence moves from the scale and texture of the surroundings to the arrangement of rooms, using physical making to develop the building’s form.

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Wood resin and concrete material studies

03 / 09Site texture and material studies

Program and daylight

A library, theater, cafeteria, and shared civic rooms are arranged in rows and sections that follow the stepped exterior. One core carries public circulation and the second consolidates services; two large light wells bring daylight into the deep plan and create tall interior rooms of arrival and pause.

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Interlocking red white and gray volumetric studies

04 / 09Interlocking room and void studies

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Lower floor plan showing the theater and public circulation

05 / 09Theater level and public core

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Floor plan of the library level

06 / 09Library plan

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Tall civic courtyard with a suspended stair

07 / 09Light well and suspended circulation

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Building section through the light wells and public rooms

08 / 09Section through the civic center

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Two sectional physical models of the civic center

09 / 09Sectional model studies

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