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Project
The renovation and adaptive re-use of the campus of an historic convent with the addition of new construction to create 125 units of elderly and family housing in Fall River, Massachusetts

Client
Claremont Development Associates
Quincy, Massachusetts

Budget
$8,500,000

Design Challenge
To develop an adaptive re-use design and compact master plan for new construction which would most sensitively fit 125 units into an historic 3.7 acre site

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Following a devastating fire which razed an historic church, destroyed three residential blocks, and displaced over 100 families, a new master plan was conceived for the 3.7 acres of the historic grounds of a former convent and girls school. In addition to the usual challenges of renovating historic buildings to new uses, the site itself was on the National Register of Historic Places making the placement of 51 new family units extremely sensitive.

The challenge was heightened by the eccentricities of the old buildings. These constrains required an ingenuity which produced apartments more varied and interesting than the rigidly repetitive units usual in such housing. The convent proper, for example, originally built with classrooms on the lower two floors and rooms for students above, allowed lofty ceilings that invest the dexterously inserted small units an air of spaciousness. The most problematic component in the composition of existing buildings - the auditorium - was divided into two story townhouses which are extremely popular among residents.

Photo by: Bruce T. Martin