val

The design responds to an invited competition for two blocks of market-rate housing, facing a park to the north and the town of Cambridge to the south. A public, south-north passageway bisects each block. The building lobbies are located along these passageways, and individual grade-level units can be entered directly from the sidewalk. The scale of the outdoor spaces is modulated by grape arbors forming a canopy at the second floor level. The buildings themselves comprise a series of clustered concrete towers crowned by a green roof, which supports another grouping of detached towers crowned by cisterns for the capture and reuse of stormwater. Each tower is wrapped in a patterned skin of glass and salvaged aluminum; on the south façade, photovoltaic panels take the place of the salvaged aluminum and provide energy for use in the complex. Glass-enclosed bridges between the towers provide public meeting spaces for residents.