PERSPECTIVES

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The Life of A Rendering

RODE has established a unique graphic style in everything from diagrams and axons to renderings. Each drawing becomes an important piece that illustrates the building’s story, concept, and vision. More and more, we are finding these types of drawing studies to be beneficial throughout multiple phases of our design – even our building process. While sketches and massing models can be used to quickly understand a project, they tend to lose a sense of scale and reality. Diagrams and axonometric projections are very informative, displaying everything from a building’s functions to its construction. However, these drawings do not depict how the building will appear upon completion. It’s the renderings that capture a true human eye perspective of the site and the setting. At RODE, we believe it is important to create renderings that trigger emotions. We develop a wide variety of projects for many types of clientele and it’s essential to create renderings that do the same.

Renderings can be broken down into several components: the three main ones are materiality, entourage, and atmosphere.  Most successful images achieve a balance of these three key elements.

1.      Materiality:

Materials add texture and color, giving the image a sense of reality – a familiar feeling that connects what doesn’t yet exist to what could be. Depicted materials scale and fade as they retreat into the distance, and they add bold perspective lines that draw your eye into the horizon. They can reveal shadows and reflections, which create a second layer of depth showing elements from behind the main vantage point that would not otherwise be visible in the foreground.

2.      Entourage/People:

In many ways, a building’s location determines its users, but in a rendering, the entourage/people depicted are often representative of a building's location. The entourage portrays target audience for the space and its amenities on a fun and playful level, whether it is dog and family friendly or a pristine penthouse apartment. Encouraging diversity within a building’s community is also a goal for designers and this can also be seen through the entourage. The chosen figures within the rendering represent the desired audiences and the overall demographics of the area. We also use scale to play with a person’s distance within the space, manipulating the overall scale of the architecture. Including people activates a space and the more a space is populated, the more the architecture can be distorted. In this case people become the focus, allowing a real life connections and more meaningful relation to the viewer.

3.      Atmosphere:

Atmospheric perspective is one of the final layers of depth we add to a rendered scene. It conveys an overall mood and can reach viewers on an emotional level. We use tonal variations, add overlays, and tailor blurriness to portray seasons, adjust the weather, and set the time of the day. Wintry scenery creates a subdued setting that allows the viewer to focus on the building. Spring and summer renderings are quite the opposite. These are fresh and crisp, filled with bright colors that provide a lively and happy feel for the viewer. Fall can act as a combination of the two. While the leaves change and the days get shorter, the render takes on a warm, but de-saturated, appearance. We can adjust the weather as well. Snow and rain are not always the most popular weather conditions in the real world, but can produce some of the most interesting renders by depicting real life conditions. We are also able to alter the time of the day by adjusting the lighting. Day time renders convey that the space is active, full of light, and focus on how the building relates to its surrounding site; while dusk or night time renders re-direct the viewer’s focus to the building by reducing the visibility and details of the site and drawing attention to illuminated interior spaces.

Overall, renderings have an infinite capability of showing the potential of a new building. To view some of the latest RODE renderings, take a look at 3200 Washington St, 6 +14 West Broadway, and 232 Old Colon

1.22.2025

A New Pitch for Talbot Ave. Church: 5-Story Condo Complex

James Baker has updated his proposal to replace an existing Lutheran church at the Ashmont neighborhood intersection of Talbot Avenue and Argyle Street with a RODE-designed mixed-used development. The new plan calls for a 40-unit mixed-use building that could rise up to five stories on the prominent parcel, including a community space dedicated to the congregation of the existing church if they choose to continue worshipping and gathering at the site.

The 17,554-square-foot lot is known around the neighborhood as 500 Talbot Ave., although the address is 8 Argyle St. It comprises most of the southern half of a triangular block between Talbot and Welles avenues and Argyle Street a block west of the Red Line tunnel between the Shawmut and Ashmont T stations.

To learn more about this project, head to the original article at the Dorchester Reporter.

1.22.2025

Egleston Square Apartment Complex Starts Construction Near Orange Line

The RODE-designed complex has started construction on 3200 Washington in Egleston Square in the Jamaica Plain-Roxbury borderlands.

The 76-unit housing complex will include 73 apartments—19 studios, 11 one-bedrooms, 34 two-bedrooms, and nine three-bedrooms—with nine of those apartments as affordable.

It will also include a new triple-decker with a trio of three-bedroom condos for households earning 65 percent of the area’s median income. There will also be 3,800 square feet of ground-floor commercial space along Washington Street.

The complex is going up on the site of the old Economy Plumbing & Heating Supply Co., and is about a 10-minute jaunt from the Stony Brook stop on the Orange Line.

Developer Berkeley Investments says that 3200 Washington is scheduled to open in early autumn 2018.

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Original article, by Tom Acitelli, can be read here.

1.22.2025

Are Architects Shaping Boston or is Boston Shaping Them?

Our principal, Eric Robinson, sat down with The Bates Real Estate Report  to discuss the forces behind RODE's community-driven work and architectural inspiration.

Read the article below or check out the original post here.

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Are These Architects Shaping Boston or Is Boston Shaping Them?

By David Bates, The Bates Real Estate Report

“I never did a project in Boston. Not one,” recalls Eric Robinson, 46, about the 10 years he worked at a Harvard Square architectural firm. Robinson managed exciting projects, but apparently never walked, took a bike, or jumped on the MBTA to get to any of them. Then, instead of being an on-the-road architect, Robinson (“RO”) teamed up with his former classmate, Kevin Deabler (“DE”), and became a principal at RODE Architects.

Frankly, their entrepreneurial timing wasn’t so great: 2007. And their initial projects weren’t so big: bathroom renovations. But one thing the pair of architects had going for them was that they were part of a community, which – by the way – is something completely different than an area where people just live. A community is where people know and care about their neighbors.

For 13 years, Robinson and Deabler lived a two-family apart from each other in Savin Hill. It was in Deabler’s two-family that they started the firm. Dorchester is where they found their first niche: “There are a ton of families that want to raise their kids, that want to live in the city,” Robinson says.

Speaking about the firm’s early days, he says, “We just started putting our names out there and we were so active in the neighborhood.”

Their names got around. “These are two good guys,” they would hear as one neighbor would introduce them to another who needed their services. It took a while, but hard work, talent, and community connectedness eventually snowballed and the firm’s opportunities grew.

RODE’s first larger project happened when Robinson and Deabler went to the blast-from-the-past part of Boston known as Allston and got a Glenville Avenue site approved for four contemporary townhomes. The venture helped build a foundation for their feelings about design. “We are architects that are building for this day,” Robinson says, “so we don’t want to build and design work that looks like something in the past.” People live differently now than they did in the past, notes Robinson. So, although RODE is sensitive to the historical and contextual aspects of a building’s surroundings, designing the architecture – even on the outside – to reflect these lifestyle changes ultimately drives their more contemporary approach to the project. RODE was the lead architect for the interiors of Radian, the curved 26-story apartment development in Chinatown. It was a challenging project, even for a firm committed to design that doesn’t look like something in the past.

RODE also designed restaurants in Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston.

Today, instead of logging frequent flyer miles, Robinson is accruing Uber charges, the preferred method of transportation for the 20-person firm located on Albany Street in the South End.

Not long ago, Robinson and Deabler were invited to speak to architecture students at their North Carolina State alma mater; their talk was titled “Shaping Boston.” But because they are working on so many projects in so many different Boston neighborhoods, they had to ask, “Are we shaping Boston or is Boston shaping us?”

Currently, they’re the architects on a 40-unit building in Mission Hill, a 73-unit in Jamaica Plain, and a boutique hotel and condos at 14 West Broadway in South Boston. In Brighton, RODE is designing a new synagogue, a new Mikvah, and a new 70-unit residential building. There’s no cookie-cutter approach to these residential buildings, as developers look to cater to the values and routines of residents in each neighborhood.

Their strong suit, however, is Dorchester. In Dorchester, they are the architects for 14 units in Savin Hill, a sizable Port Norfolk development, and DOTBLOCK, the game changing mixed-use development that includes 362 residential units. Robinson says one of the firm’s strengths is navigating Boston’s challenging appeal process and getting projects approved. What makes them so good at it? Matching the goals of the client with the neighborhood helps, but it’s really their understanding of how community works that wins the day. Robinson describes an approach that is clearly the exact opposite of walking into a meeting, dropping a plan for a building, and telling neighborhood attendees, “Here you go.”

“We work extremely hard in the first part of the process with both the client group and the neighborhood association,” he says. He wants the neighborhood to understand what they’re doing and why, even early on. Clearly, caring about others in the neighborhood can pay off. Where does the Virginia native get that civic sensitivity? “I think it comes clearly out of being Dorchester residents, being in a neighborhood and understanding,” he says.

Eric Robinson
1.22.2025

RODE Architects Help Drive Haverhill Revitalization Through Redevelopment of JM Lofts and 87 Washington

RODE Architects are working alongside Traggorth Companies to convert vacant, historic buildings into mixed-use buildings. These projects serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of the city’s historic downtown, support the expansion of investment in local businesses, and fit into the overall revival of downtown as a gateway city.

RODE was excited by the opportunity to renovate JM Lofts at 37 Washington, a vacant building originally erected in 1882 as part of an industrial expansion. That project was completed last year and now they begin 87 Washington, which contains many of the same features. 87 Washington stands as the next endeavor, to be another step in the Downtown Haverhill Smart Growth redevelopment. In both of these boutique developments, RODE is working with Traggorth to preserve historic context, while constructing residential apartments on upper floors and renovating the street level as retail space. As their portfolio grows, RODE has seen the compounding benefits of re-claiming vacant buildings as well as a focus on distressed neighborhoods. At 18 and 24 units, these small projects suggest a slight momentum shift, where the historic scale is being stitched back together in successive steps.

“We are very excited to be doing this work in Haverhill,” said Kevin Deabler, principal and co-founder, RODE Architects. “We know that transformations do not happen overnight; rather they are realized when successive, small improvements aggregate over a contained area and broader positive changes are able to be seen. The energy that accompanies each successive renovation feeds into the vitality of the streets and sidewalks, which, in turn, fuel interest in downtown living.”

RODE and Traggorth have followed this approach on multiple projects, beginning with the Off-Centre Lofts in Jamaica Plain, to utilize good design and a mix of functions to support urban revitalization. The mixed-use aspect is essential to encourage both the street front and the upper stories to become inhabited and allow continued growth. These historic projects are rare because renovating these old, vacant buildings can be challenging and dispels the interest of many developers or land owners, causing them to further deteriorate over the years and compounding the necessary improvements.

“In order for us to attract businesses and residents to Haverhill, it’s critical to have distinctive, well-thought design that sends the right message,” said Noah Koretz, a transformative development fellow at MassDevelopment. “Rode’s work on the revitalization of JM Lofts is a critical piece of design work in Haverhill, as it honors the history of the building and its surroundings while pushing the envelope in terms of style and functionality offered in downtown apartments here. Those of us working on downtown investment in Haverhill are thrilled that the firm will be working on Traggorth Companies’ next project as well.”

The projects were funded through Mass. Historic Commission (MHC) tax credit rewards and, while adapted to another use, are intended to replicate the original condition as much as possible. The state of Massachusetts has also supported these redevelopments with investment through the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Housing Development Incentive Program. The planned redevelopments include necessary structural upgrades to resist seismic and wind-loads and visual renovations that align with the Historic Preservation guidelines and include the replacement of windows with new historically accurate ones that are high-performance and the repair and replacement of historic brick, stone and cast-iron facade elements. RODE’s approach to interior design is in-keeping with this focus, allowing the building to reveal itself through the execution of the project, with textures unearthed as the old layers are exposed. Mayor James Fiorentini and planning director William Pillsbury have expressed their support for this transit-oriented development and the opportunity for continued economic growth it brings to the city.

Photo Credit: Christian Borger

Kevin Deabler
1.22.2025