Austin Biscuit Company Building // 1906

Originally constructed in 1906 for the Austin Biscuit Company, this building on Causeway Street serves as both a gateway into Boston from the north and as an excellent example of adaptive reuse with thoughtful additions. The massive structure, which was originally two separate but connected buildings are a significant example of the panel brick construction with Romanesque detailing. Part-owner of the site, Edmund Dwight Codman hired  his brother, architect Stephen Russell Hurd Codman (1867-1944) and business partner Constant-Desire Despradelle (1862-1912) to design the building which was immediately rented out to the Austin Biscuit Company and the American Glue Company. When opened, the Boston Daily Globe wrote that it was “…a large new building of a thousand windows, a building which on fine days is flooded with sunshine and good air”. By the late 1900s, the building was altered and suffering from deferred maintenance, with an unknown fate. Luckily by 2001, the local architectural firm of Finegold Alexander, was hired to re-envision the building. They converted the two connected buildings into a unified mixed-use residential condominium and retail/office complex. The adaptive reuse of this building provided for 108 dwelling units in the top six floors (in the addition), offices on floors two through six, retail space on the first floor and garage parking in the basement. This is one of my favorite success stories in Boston architecture and historic preservation!

Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Co. Building // 1897

Nearly a decade after the heirs of Peter Bent Brigham and his wealthy estate erected the Peter B. Brigham building in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District of Boston, they would again develop more of the block the trust owned, building this stately commercial building. Much of the Peter Bent Brigham Building was rented to the Heywood Brothers & Company and Wakefield Company, both furniture makers. Heywood Brothers was established in 1826, Wakefield Company in 1855, with both firms producing wicker and rattan furniture. The companies merged in 1897 and moved into this building constructed by the Brigham estate that same year. The building was designed in a unique version of the Beaux Arts and Classical Revival styles by relatively unknown architect Stephen Russell Hurd Codman (1867-1944), a first cousin of more famous architect and interior designer, Ogden Codman. Stephen Codman opened a firm with the French-born architect, Constant Desire Despradelle, designing some landmark buildings in Boston together. The Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company Building on Portland Street is a distinctive granite-faced building standing six-stories tall with engaged box columns spanning four floors and dividing the bays of the facade.