3 Ink, ties the project together with a transitional, industrial design that features warmer colors with wood integrated throughout, giving it the inviting, refined look of an urban retreat. These three buildings, along with Sepia and Siena, two luxury condominium buildings with 83 units and 79 units respectively, fit into Ink Block’s mission of envisioning a sustainable neighborhood development. Beyond being aesthetically interesting, the site has been entirely transformed in order to conserve water, and to be energy efficient and environmentally sensitive. In addition to its 315 residential units, Ink Block features exciting new restaurants and shopping, anchored by a flagship 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods, with a wine shop, gelato bar, and outdoor sidewalk café seating on Harrison Avenue. “We also got to design a mix of residential, hospitality, and retail experiences,” Lowrey adds. “Our ability to understand how all those different parts work together was important in knitting together industrial South Boston with the residential South End. We’ve created a magnet that expands, overlaps, and transforms both areas.” Harrison Avenue itself is receiving a makeover, breathing fresh life into the neighborhood with new landscaping, lighting, and improved sidewalks to complement Elkus Manfredi’s innovative design. Ink Block gives a new, cuttingedge look to the public spaces and amenities of an upscale residential area, helping return this piece of Boston’s South End to the lively, dynamic community it was over a century ago.
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1 Exposed structural elements combine with polished concrete floors, lush materials, and oversized graphics to create a lively environment in the shared amenity space of 1 and 2 Ink. Ceiling heights provide a grand scale; graphics recall the heyday era of the Boston Herald and reference the dots of the lithographic printing process. 2 The design of 1 Ink has a high-end industrial feel that incorporates references to the newspaper roots of Ink Block’s site, such as printing press gears and a color scheme grounded in the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black of the printing process.
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