Work, worship and performance : integrating the office building development

Abstract

This thesis is the design of an office building which uses the air-rights to an existing church/performance hall. In the design, I try to acknowledge and express underlying economic relationships -- in particular, the funding of cultural facilities by revenue-generating office space. I give a form to each of the major partners of an economic venture and then I intersect and juxtapose them. In the resulting development, the forms integrate in a way that suggests interdependence of the parts. After describing the essential history of the church, the thesis takes the reader graphically through the design starting with the office building. It then describes the block of worker amenities, the shared church/performance hall and their lobby. Finally, it explains the coming together of all the parts on a prominent Boston street corner.