Most would readily admit that growing up demands a difficult balance between adhering to established societal norms and asserting one’s individuality. Such is the case for both this building and its context. The building’s exterior form respects – indeed maximizes – new zoning envelope regulations designed to achieve a middle-scaled residential typology amidst the existing mix of single-family homes, industrial buildings, and big box stores of South Quincy.
Content to adopt a typical profile, its contents are anything but. A single vertical circulation core and ground level corridor grants access to the garages and six corresponding units above. Strategic stacking and interlocking of these residential volumes allow for generous loft layouts that feature double-height living areas. While roughly equivalent in square footage, the units distinguish themselves externally in unique window layouts and outdoor spaces. Carved from the form in an homage to the stone yard that previously occupied the parcel, recessed balconies register the building’s complexity and provide glimpses into its inner life. Illuminated by night, the balconies’ bright green cladding contrasts with warm red cedar siding by day. Even as it may gray with age we can be assured the building will retain an idiosyncratic vibrance. Like the bouncing balcony subtractions and window patterns above, garage doors – labeled with a seemingly disordered set of supergraphic numbers – hint at the interior irregularity even as their rhythm remains consistent.
Just as it is singular and special, the loft building is also a replicable typology that – with inevitable mutations – might serve as a model for the ongoing growth of the neighborhood. In acknowledging Quincy’s past while looking to its future, the building’s strange familiarity may in fact spawn a family of similar types.
