BEACON HILL
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2019 | Beacon Hill, Massachusetts
1,150 SF | 2 Bedrooms | 2 Bathrooms
Deep Energy RetrofitThis historic Beacon Hill apartment had a disoriented, maze-like layout with poor flow and no support for an art collector. Meanwhile, the principal bedroom and utility spaces were undersized. We restructured key bearing lines to clarify circulation and created layered, highly controlled lighting for a client who is sensitive to brightness but deeply devoted to displaying art.
The result is a calm, legible home where both the resident and the artwork thrive. Special thanks to our client, whose nuanced ideas helped make this a truly bespoke project. -
Like many historic Boston buildings, the Beacon Hill project was built with mass masonry walls — approximately 12-inch, three-wythe brick assemblies that were never intended to behave like contemporary framed walls. These walls are durable precisely because they can absorb, store, and release moisture over time. When treated incorrectly, especially from the interior, they can be put at risk. Conventional insulation strategies can trap moisture within the brick, interrupt drying cycles, and accelerate deterioration of the very material they are meant to improve.
Rather than relying on vapor-closed assemblies, we selected vapor-open interior retrofit strategies that improved interior surface temperatures, reduced drafts, and made the space feel significantly more comfortable while still allowing the masonry to dry as it was designed to. The goal was not to seal the building into submission, but to tune the assembly: manage air movement, improve thermal performance, and maintain drying potential.
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