The Children’s Art Center
The Children’s Art Center is a vibrant, creative space designed with the boundless imaginations of young artists in mind. This project showcases our commitment to fostering artistic expression and creativity in the next generation. Bright, spacious, and filled with inspiration at every corner, The Children’s Art Center is a testament to our belief in the power of arts in education.
Categories: Arts, Music, Education, and Culture | Spiritual Retreats | Commemorative Spaces | Sustainable Design | Inclusive Architecture
“Little Glass Treasure Box” restoration and conceptual masterplan to provide a new clay studio, garden courtyard classroom, and stickball play area.
The Children’s Art Centre was established in 1918 and is considered the first public fine arts museum for children. This Italianate building and gardens design in the Beaux-Arts style by Architect A.M. Emerson, are part of Boston's South End Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mary McKenna and Associates, Architects obtained the necessary approval from the Boston Landmarks Commission for the restoration and redesign of the building.
This "little glass treasure box" continues today as a community-based project under the United South End Settlements.
The restoration included the masonry, limestone columns, a new slate roof, and the replacement of the original five pairs of arched French doors with new mahogany, thermally glazed doors. Integrated within these doors are two new egress door matching the door profiles, and the original hardware was restored and reinstalled.
A close up of the arched French doors.
Shown above are the restored medallions bearing pictures of children reminiscent of Brunelleschi's early renaissance Foundling Hospital in Florence, which was an inspiration for the Architect’s original 1918 design.
The conceptual master plan combined and expanded the existing classroom with a new clay studio, display museum teaching gallery, administrative office, ADA ramp, toilets, a new exterior garden courtyard classroom, and stickball play area.
Proposed site plan and addition.
The master plan, exterior design vocabulary created continuity in concert with the rhythm, proportions, and materials of the existing language of the original Children’s Art Center.
View to the garden courtyard classroom.
The Children’s Art Center restored Guardian Angle artifact.
Inspired by the existing cross-vaulted ceiling, limestone columns and French doors in the original “Little Glass Treasure Box.”
The addition’s interior master plan design vocabulary comprised pairs of columns that support a system of cross vaults formed by steel straps in between large window with benches creating a daylight filed teaching gallery.