March 2025 — Written by Aatman Modi. Growing up in an architect’s home meant that architecture wasn’t something I chose—it was always there. Our house was also our design office, where I would come home from school to find designers pouring over drawings, building models, and sketching intricate plans. I was that overly curious kid who asked far too many questions, much to the amusement (and occasional exhaustion) of the designers around me. I was fascinated with how a simple sketch could turn …

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February 2025 — Written by Katherine Faulkner. Connecting with a state-wide reading initiative, I recently joined a book group to discuss Mel King’s Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development. Melvin ‘Mel’ King (1928-2023) is a well-known Bostonian with a powerful legacy as an active organizer, educator, and politician in the city for more than 50 years. My vague familiarity with Mr. King has been around his work with Boston Public Schools, where he was central to exposing the baked-in unfairness and inequality …

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December 2024 — Note from Editor. I have the pleasure of being part of a NESEA-funded business support group with Deb Sheppard.  Our cohort, nicknamed Seven Strong, comprises women-owned businesses with missions around sustainability and healthy/inclusive communities. Whenever we meet, Deb inspires me with Riverstone’s commitment to practical and measurable change.  Reading the morning paper, all of us are reminded of the consequences of our collective damage.  We can see the wages paid to our extractive economy, and we know the impact of continued consumption.  It makes …

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August 2024 — Yasmin Morais Torquato is a rising junior studying Architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Originally from Brazil, Yasmin chose architecture to have a meaningful impact in her surroundings through creative design. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places, curating playlists, and engaging in various arts like writing, photography, and drawing. During her summer internship at West Work, Yasmin attended the AIAS Grassroots conference in Washington D.C., where she shared her early experiences in the architecture profession.

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August 2024 — Written by Aatman Modi, Graphics by Yasmin Morais Torquato. The United Nations’ Environment Programme, the UN’s commission to support the implementation of global environmental obligations, published a 2023 report called Building Materials and Climate: Constructing A New Future, which indicated that the building and construction sector is responsible for an astonishing 37% of global emissions. Since 1975, when the term “global warming” first appeared in the news, engineering, and architecture have been linked to the warming of the planet via …

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February 2024 — West Work, together with office neighbor Stull + Lee, had a wonderful workshop with SIGA on building air tightness and moisture management. Here is a summary of our key takeaways. When it comes to improving a building’s energy and moisture performance, the first thing to check is air infiltration. Even minor holes and punctures contribute significantly more to energy loss than inefficient windows or mechanical systems. Addressing these infiltrations, identified through precise blower door tests, is a more cost-effective initial …

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October 2023 — Written by Teddy Slosberg. While researching West Work’s hotel conversion projects for transitional housing for the homeless, I found myself digging deep into the myriad of potential solutions for homelessness and how the hotel-to-housing model fits within that. For more information on this topic, I interviewed Juann Khoory, the chair of the Shelter and Homelessness Roundtable for the Boston Society of Architects. Juann works with architects to help organize talks around homelessness to educate the industry on the work being …

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September 2023 — Written by Teddy Slosberg with input from Bruce Hampton. Climate crisis management demands quick and multifaceted responses to ensure that what is built today does not contribute to the issues of the next century, and the buildings we already have can be repaired so that they cease their extraordinary energy consumption. In recent years, state and federal governments have added mechanisms to promote responsible and sustainable building practices. New buildings in Massachusetts must adhere to strict energy performance requirements to …

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