Innovation and Design Bldg.

Client Jamestown LP
Architect Elkus Manfredi Architects
Location Boston, Massachusetts
Photography Christian Phillips, Chuck Choi

Scope Design and implementation of branding signage, exterior wayfinding, interior directories and retail signage guidelines.

See also
Boston Design Center

In collaboration with Elkus Manfredi Architects, RBA designed and implemented branding and wayfinding signage for the repositioning of the Bronstein Industrial Center, a former US Army warehouse built in 1918. Located in Boston’s Seaport district, the Innovation & Design Bldg. integrates commercial space for technology start-ups, research and development firms, maker-spaces, creative service studios, and the Boston Design Center, home of more than 50 interior design showrooms.

The 8-story building is a massive 1.4 million square feet and the signage responds with large-scale project identification letters that feature oblong perforated-metal faces, giving an industrial texture to the internally illuminated letters. The halo-illuminated lightbulb logo is similarly large scale and is integrated into the building pediment for distance visibility.

Signage for the five entry lobbies along Drydock Avenue is also robust, with bold street address graphics displayed on colorful pylons and entry portals constructed of shipping containers. Tenant sign guidelines were developed for The Promenade—the ¼ mile-long covered walkway linking the entry lobbies—which is enlivened with retail storefronts, restaurants and pop-up market vendors.