Multifamily

MASS Design Group’s senior housing redevelopment fosters resident connections in Boston

Boston and Kigali, Rwanda-based MASS Design Group leveraged conventional wood-frame construction for the new JJ Carroll Redevelopment in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. The 180,000-square-foot building provides 142 affordable housing units for seniors and replaces an earlier community on the same site that had just 64 apartments.

But while much of the new 5-over-1, light-frame wood over concrete structure is conventional, MASS Design Group’s approach is hardly conventional among architects. The 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization is constantly exploring how to implement good design to achieve a greater experience for the end user—no matter their status or income level. When the JJ Carroll senior housing project required a complete rethinking of the existing facility, MASS started its design by exploring how multifamily projects for seniors are usually created, and saw an opportunity to marry conventional and unconventional wood elements to improve upon the norm.

Economy and speed of construction were key reasons to use mostly conventional wood elements, but MASS wanted to create some larger open spaces than conventional framing would allow. The architects turned to a mass timber product, laminated wood members or LVLs, made from softwood to span these select interior spaces. “In some ways this was a demonstration to show people what could be done with [different forms of] softwood,” MASS Design Principal Jonathan Evans says.

JJ Carroll Redevelopment

Photo Credit: MASS Design Group

A single-story entry bustle at the northwest corner of the building welcomes residents and visitors. On the ground level, tenant amenities (reception, mail, a salon, and multipurpose room) are supplemented by a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Center and commercial space.

JJ Carroll Redevelopment

Photo Credit: MASS Design Group

On the upper floors, the architects shied away from the lengthy double-loaded corridors that often result from a conventional paradigm and instead created a series of what the architects dub “unit neighborhoods” within the larger structure. Each neighborhood contains five to eight apartments that share central community spaces that encourage interaction between residents, allowing for the formation of the types of connections between residents that have been linked to aging well. This neighborhood concept creates five separate apartment wings that provide plentiful natural light to every unit as well as the shared communal spaces.

Evans notes that codes require that the wood in a stick-built project be covered for fire protection, but MASS didn’t want to lose all biophilic benefits of covering the natural material. The team compensated by using sand, earthen, and clay-based materials on the exterior cladding—including fiber cement siding, terra cotta tiles, and decorative brickwork—to provide a warm and welcoming environment for the residents that reflects the natural structural materials that are otherwise hidden.

With every project they take on, the team at MASS asks: “How do we bring in innovation to established systems of delivering buildings?” Evans says. At the JJ Carroll Redevelopment, MASS Design Group melds conventional and unconventional wood framing to provide residents with a more welcoming and nurturing environment to thrive in their senior years.