Boston Volvo Village set out to transform the former New England regional headquarters for International Harvester, a five-story, 71,000-square-foot historic Beaux-Arts building constructed in 1925, into a modern urban car dealership and offices. The intent was not only to preserve a historic landmark in the rapidly gentrifying Allston neighborhood, but to follow sustainability principles by reducing the amount of building materials needed to transform the space.
Boston Volvo Village aimed to restore the industrial building to its original form, including incorporating the original windows to showcase the automobiles and allow maximum natural light into the office space. Complicating matters, the original storefront windows had been bricked up, and the windows on the upper floors had been removed and infilled with metal panels with aluminum-track sliding windows.
“Old is new again, and the large windows purpose-built to show off vehicles do the job better than any new building Volvo could have constructed with the classic building framing and highlighting shiny new cars, all while keeping the history of the
neighborhood intact.”
Greg Galer, Executive Director
of the Boston Preservation Alliance
Working closely with the architect, Arrowstreet, Universal accessed its library of historic panning profiles to meticulously match the original moulding profiles shown on the original blueprints. Using a combination of their 550 Series Double Hung and 700 Series Steel Replica windows, the windows were mulled, and custom panning was attached in the factory. Arched triple-hung units were shipped with panning spanning across all three units.
The arched windows are highlighted by a bay window opening to the lobby, which includes a dramatic canopy entrance. There are eight and ten-foot-high windows on the main floor, with operable three- to four-foot-high windows on the upper floors, providing abundant natural light throughout the building. The reintroduction of a multi-light muntin pattern, characteristic of period windows, preserved the buildings’ early-20th-century character.
Boston Volvo Village (now Boston Volvo Cars) created a unique, state-of-the-art showroom and office space and leased the top two floors of Class A office space to a privately held biopharmaceutical company. The historic renovation earned the 2019 Boston Preservation Alliance’s Preservation Achievement Award and the Preservation Massachusetts’ 2020 Paul & Niki Tsongas Award (for a video presentation, click here).
“Old is new again, and the large windows purpose-built to show off vehicles do the job better than any new building Volvo could have constructed with the classic building framing and highlighting shiny new cars, all while keeping the history of the neighborhood intact,” said Greg Galer, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance.
Awards/Designations:
2020 Paul & Niki Tsongas Award, Preservation Massachusetts; 2019 Preservation Achievement Award, Boston Preservation Alliance
