Center and Stone

Work completed at Utile Design

Role: Project Manager, Design Lead

Status: Under Construction

1170 Hancock Street combines the adaptive reuse of a historically significant Masonic temple with a new construction residential building in the center of historic Quincy, MA.

Damaged by a fire in 2013 that took down a large portion of the original temple, the Masonic temple at 1170 Hancock Street sat empty and boarded up for years. Originally designed for a secret society, the interiors of the building were oriented inwardly, with most windows illuminating passage ways that wrapped around hidden rooms. The redesign of the space includes a complete gut of the level 1 and basement interior and opening up the building to daylight in the few places possible. The first floor of the temple will be made ready for a future restaurant tenant, 2nd floor for a future office tenant, and the basement will be divided between space for restaurant back of house on the west and fitness rooms in the double height basement rooms adjacent to the new construction residential program on the east.

The residential portion of the building is accessed through an opening in a remnant of the temple facade on the East side of the site. Passing through the opening, one proceeds through an open air courtyard between existing and new before entering the lobby.

Ground floor amenity spaces receive daylight from the south and west via large areas of storefront, either looking out to the street or to the courtyard. A stair from the lobby leads to basement fitness rooms located in the Temple basement. Heading up through the building, compact units are organized around a point loaded core. The units all use the same linear kitchen design and a palette of simple, fresh finishes.