The eye catching 30-storey residential building in Boston's Theatre District is bringing much needed residential housing to the downtown area, drawing young professionals into the city. The innovative AVA Theater District Apartments, located at 45 Stuart Street and next to Boston's cultural, educational and medical facilities, offer 398 residential units (representing 384,000 square feet) varying from studios and one and two bedroom units. The first five floors include a 198 spot-parking garage, covered by a glass curtain wall facing Stuart Street. The parking garage is 90,000 square feet and features a pedestrian walkway connecting Stuart and LaGrange Streets. The 45 Stuart Street building is projected to be LEED Silver Certified.

Due to extremely restricted access to this project location, Strescon and AvalonBay Communities, Inc. coordinated efforts to perform nighttime erection. This was to ensure they did not impact trades working on site during the day and to disturb the local community during busy hours. Erection of the precast concrete panels was scheduled in two phases. The initial Phase began in April 2014, followed by the second phase, which completed the end of summer 2015.

The following precast concrete products were used for this project: 

Architectural solid Cladding Spandrels – 413
Architectural solid Vertical Cladding Panels - 284
Architectural solid Garage Cladding Spandrels Panels -181
Architectural solid Column Covers/Infill Panels – 28
Precast Solid Slabs – 4
Panel thickness ranged from 6-8”

Strescon Limited supplied roughly 100,000 square foot or 910 individual panels for this project, which were used in combination with metal panels and glass curtain walls to create the building’s striking envelope. Architectural precast concrete is not only compatible with all structural systems, it can be designed to harmonize with, and complement, all other materials.

Each visible precast concrete element consists of the same architectural, light sandblast finish, to maintain consistency between the upper and lower sections of the structure. Improvements in fabricating processes allow architectural precast concrete to be produced in almost any color, form, or texture, making it an eminently practical and aesthetically pleasing building material.

The major factor in Strescon producing this project was their ability to design the unique, three-storey vertical column covers that CBT Architects had envisioned for this project. Precast concrete’s moldability and versatility offers the freedom to sculpt the structure’s facade in imaginative ways. It is difficult to imagine an architectural style that cannot be expressed with this material. The “sky’s the limit” when it comes to architectural precast concrete and its applications.