Fitting and re-fitting : adaptive re-use proposal for building 114 in the Charlestown Navy Yard as a bio-tech research facility

Abstract

n the 1988 Master Plan of the Charlestown Navy Yard, Building 114 was originally planned as a boat repair and maintenance facility with offices. It appeared to be a logical proposal which would revive it to its previous function as the Navy Yard's historic Boatworks building, and introduce a recreational function to an office and research laboratory district. Disappointingly, ten years later, the site of the Boatworks continues to be abandoned along with the neighboring buildings along the north edge of the Navy Yard. Building 114 at the Charlestown Navy Yard can be described as an architecturally challenged site. For the last 14 years it has managed to resist development despite the successful development of neighboring property. The multiple obstacles facing this site include: contamination, adverse industrial and vehicular presence, design restrictions, neighborhood community resistance, uncertainty of neighboring development and isolation from main circulation and business operations in the Yard ...