21 Boston – 28 – Genieuses

As the 21 Boston housing and commercial project emerges from behind it’s construction scaffolding, the method of working on the exterior has changed as well. Many of the elements, such as balconies, railings, finishes and some windows now need to be installed individually instead of in groups from the scaffolding. Enter the genieuses. Although Genie is a proprietary name (note there’s a Skyjack also on the job), I like the implication that genies have some magic skills for getting the jobs done.

Below, you can see a relatively recent view of the southwest corner, with two of the genies working on balconies on the Queen Anne Avenue side of the project. Basically, they pick up the materials for one balcony at a time and raise them, including the installer, to the next unit that needs one. The installer does all the maneuvering of the Genie from the basket / platform at the end of the boom, including driving the vehicle.

Here’s a view looking up Crockett Street where two of these lifts are doing two different types of lifts: a balcony installation and a sheetrock delivery.

Here’s a close-up of the delivery and installation of the balcony components.

And here, sheetrock is being plunged through an opening where the windows have not yet been installed. This work is more delicate than it appears. Sheetrock, especially in bundles like this one, is HEAVY, so it can’t be moved quickly or allowed to damage the building or be damaged itself. Workmen inside the building slide pairs of sheets off the lift and set them on the floor – backbreaking work if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Closer to the ground, at the open corner of the project where there will be a plaza, another workman applies the appropriate layers of vapor barrier protection to the canopy areas.

One of the key uses of vapor barrier is to shield walls of different materials from water penetration, in effect wrapping the rough construction before the finishes are applied – in this case the dark red brick that will define the grade level Safeway spaces.

A few other interesting views have been exposed now that the scaffolding is mostly down. In the design process it was decided to leave a visual slot through the project from north to south, approximately where the alley would have been – if there had been an alley. Here’s the view looking north from Crockett towards Boston Street.

This sits right above the entrance to the Safeway store parking garage. The other view looks south from Boston towards Crockett street – and frames one of Queen Anne’s vertical communication towers in the process.

In some places, scaffolding with its protective mesh is still in place, such as here at the corner of Crockett Street and 1st North.

The work going on behind the mesh will make a major contribution to the appearance of the project as well as introduce a different form of housing. This area is being clad in a dark brick, the use of which defines the zone where the townhouse/apartments will be located. These will be unique in that they will have entrances via stoops directly to the sidewalk.

A couple different views are starting to show the ways in which this project is settling into the neighborhood context. Here’s one looking north on Queen Anne Avenue from the area in front of the Towne.

Once the red brick base has been installed, the general massing approach similarities will become evident – not enough to confuse the two projects, but enough to reinforce the housing over retail character of the street as a whole. This can also be appreciated at a distance from the neighborhood.

From this perspective, Queen Anne Avenue merges these forms visually and underlines the location of the spine of the urban village.