BLOOM is excited to share our design for Little Children Schoolhouse in Brookline Village. The new 4-story structure proposes to fill in the "missing tooth" site within the otherwise continuous urban street front of predominantly late 19th century panel brick buildings. The new building will add much-needed daycare to the area, and features an open plan, generous daylight, an elevator and outdoor roof garden space.
BLOOM studied the history of the site and the surrounding context to create a building that will resonate with the urban environment, employing compositional and material strategies from the surroundings, while having a more contemporary tectonic and articulation of features, to make clear that the building is not from the same period. In this way, the historic buildings will remain center-stage and the new building will recede into the background.
Analysis of Context- Harvard Square in Brookline Village is a vibrant historic commercial center with predominantly 3-4 story buildings, with primarily red brick facades. It is a busy 5-way vehicular intersection, where Harvard Street, Washington Street, Kent Street, and Davis Ave meet. The street wall is well-established and continuous for much of the surrounding several blocks, and there is an active, pedestrian-friendly urban street-life. The current day brick buildings replaced wood framed buildings in the square during the late 19th century, when panel brick became the signature style of Brookline Village.
1- A 3-story wood-framed building originally existed on the site. It was occupied by a dry goods store 1865-1875, and later an electrician 1912-1917.
2- Around 1895, the abutting corner building was replaced with a 4-story brick building
3- The Brookline Cooperative Bank was also established in 1895 (see bank record), at an unknown location. In 1957 (assessor), Brookline Cooperative Bank built a modern one story structure on this site, replacing the original wood-framed building. This new structure typified the “missing tooth” typology of undersized buildings in urban areas, creating a rift in the original street fabric.
4- Through mergers, the building has remained a bank through several name changes, most recently Rockland Trust.
sources: Brookline Preservation Department, Brookline Historical Society, Public Library of Brookline, banklocations.com, Digital Commonwealth