Size

Site: 71,126 sq. ft.
Build: 180,000 sq. ft. / 16,722 sq. m.
Units: 142

Year

2021

Status

In Progress

Client

2Life Communities

Partners

Petersen Engineering, Stantec, RSE Associates

Portrait of Patricia Gruits, RA, LEED AP
Patricia Gruits, RA, LEED AP
Senior Principal & Managing Director
Patricia Gruits, RA, LEED AP

Patricia Gruits, RA, LEED AP

Senior Principal & Managing Director — Boston

"I believe that the built environment impacts our lives and we can design the process to create positive social change."

Patricia Gruits is a Senior Principal with MASS Design Group leading both design and research projects in health, education, and equity. Since joining MASS in 2013, she has led the design of the Maternity Waiting Village in Malawi with the Malawi Ministry of Health, the African Leadership University, a series of primary schools in East Africa with the African Wildlife Foundation and the MSquared Foundation, and the development the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Currently, Patricia leads design and research initiatives at MASS with a focus on planning, design, and evaluation. Her work is aimed at engaging and empowering stakeholders in the design process; supporting and substantiating the impact of design on health, social, and environmental outcomes; and translating research into design strategies and decision-making. She has coordinated the creation of the Purpose Built series— a set of tools for creating impact-driven design— and has implemented this approach in the design of affordable housing, healthcare, and urban design projects around the globe. Patricia has also managed a range of design projects aimed at proving the impact of the built environment on individual and community health in the United States, including a collaboration with the mayor’s working group to address issues of homelessness, addiction and recovery in Boston and partnered with community development corporations to create affordable and supportive housing.

Patricia collaborated with the Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard to create guidelines for Safe Interaction in Senior Affordable Housing in response to COVID-19, and has lectured at the Harvard School of Public Health as a part of the USAID sponsored Airborne Infection Control course. She has taught design studios focusing on social impact at the Boston Architectural College and RISD. Her work has been published in journals of architecture and health and was recently awarded the “Top 40 under 40” for Sustainable Design by Impact Design Hub.

Portrait of Jonathan Evans, RA
Jonathan Evans, RA
Principal
Jonathan Evans, RA

Jonathan Evans, RA

Principal — Boston

Jonathan is a licensed architect with MASS Design Group. At Harvard, Jonathan was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi medal for leadership, service and promise of professional merit. Since then, his work has ranged from affordable multi-family housing to planning and urban design work for nonprofits and public agencies, but the through line has always been a focus on initiatives with measurable community value and public interest.

Jonathan is currently working on building out MASS’s portfolio in affordable housing projects, including upcoming developments in Cleveland, Ohio and Brighton, Massachusetts. Jonathan is also the project manager of a new memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in the Boston Common.

He has taught undergraduate and graduate level studios at the Boston Architectural College and Northeastern University, and has lectured at the conference of the National Organization of Minority Architects and at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Jonathan is a Mayoral Appointee to the Boston Civic Design Commission, where he serves on a panel that reviews significant projects that impact the city’s public realm.

Design Team

Patricia Gruits, Jonathan Evans, Emma Colley, Francisco Colom, Johanny Bonilla, Annie Wang, Ana Fernandez, Sierra Bainbridge, Dave Saladik

Collaborators

MEP: Petersen Engineering
Civil: Stantec
Landscape: Stantec
Structural Engineering: RSE Associates

J.J. Carroll landscape

J.J. Carroll Redevelopment

The J.J. Carroll redevelopment project advances 2Life Communities’ vision for all older adults to have the opportunity to age in community. Compounded with increased demand for housing, many senior residents do not have the financial resources necessary for a basic standard of living, with Massachusetts ranked second only to Mississippi of the states with the largest gap between senior median income and amount of money needed for a basic standard of living. The 142-unit affordable housing community for seniors seeks to address this need through design strategies that will help residents live better, longer.

53%

increase in senior households in Boston between 2010-2030

J.J. Carroll view from the street

MASS worked with 2Life Communities and the existing residents of J.J. Carroll to develop a model for high density housing that prioritizes resident connections and communal activities linked to aging well. The conventional double-loaded corridor apartment block was reconsidered to create clusters of unit “neighborhoods” with five to eight apartments that plug into a central zone of community program space. This framework creates opportunities for meaningful communal programming at a variety of scales and increases access to green space and natural light.

J.J. Carroll view from the street

In addition to providing much-needed affordable housing, the project features commercial space, a community health center, and over 15,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space. J.J. Carroll welcomes the community at large through intergenerational programming and play space, epitomizing 2Life Communities’ commitment to reducing isolation and loneliness in seniors and connecting them to the benefits of community.