In their search for new office space in Boston’s Financial District, Friends of Post Office Square, a consortium of twenty-five firms, selected a 3,300 square foot space overlooking a three story, outmoded concrete parking garage. Most tenants would have passed on such a view, but this group of civic and business leaders knew that they could change the view outside their windows. The consortium was founded solely for the purpose of purchasing and demolishing the existing garage, and replacing it with a new park and underground parking garage.

The new management offices, used by the general manager, the administrative assistant and staff, board members and consultants were designed so that visitors as welt as employees would always be confronted with a view out the window at the site being developed. The angled entry and the display gallery both converge at the reception area with its exterior window view. The opposite end of the display gallery terminates in a full height mirrored door to repeat the view of the Park at Post Office Square. The sandblasted glass and linear wood wall partition with its horizontal emphasis, directs the view again to the exterior. The boardroom has large windows for the consortium’s Board Members who meet regularly to review the progress of this unique and highly visible project for downtown Boston. Primary geometry, angled forms and saturated colors against a black/white palette are used to articulate this office space. These functional, crisp offices are a viewing platform to oversee this new public green space and underground garage, which has been recently added to historic Boston.

Retail Feasibility Studies

Ben Olson Architecture was also contracted to investigate the possibility of adding retail shops to the -1 Level of the new Garage. The shops studied included an automobile detailing facility, a dry cleaners’ pick-up, a rental car agency, a newsstand and a postal mailing facility. Drawings were prepared to understand the viability of such underground service facilities. With information gained from these studies as well as a careful survey of the current rental market, the Owner decided not to add retail shops to this parking garage complex. However, Ben Olson was responsible for updating the Garage Lobby to include a Parking Pay Station, a Dry Cleaner drop box, a Bank of America ATM facility and a photographic mural of Boston’s Post Office Square “Then and Now.”

Other Projects

Site Office for the owner’s representatives. Ben Olson prepared design and contract documents for new Management Offices, Employee Locker Rooms, Cafe Storage and an enlarged Trash Facility which was constructed on the -1 Level of the new Garage.