Chelsea Enclave
(work completed at QRP)

This earlier restrained QRP project has held up well over time. The goal of the design was to blend the addition of a modern building with the 19th century historic Close of the General Theological Seminary campus. This project is successful because of the restraint; the intervention disappears and blends into the larger landscape.

The entrance to the new building was lowered to be inconspicuous and to recede visually when standing in the interior courtyard of the Close. The materials and details, including the bronze railing and brownstone wall, are modern but grounded in the historic materials of the place. A lovely detail is that the planting bed at the ramp glows in the sunlight mid-day and provides a view of luminous greenery from the window of the lower library.

Design Team: Ennead, Beyer Blinder Belle, Walter B. Melvin Architects
QRP Design Team: Andrew Moore, Krista Bentson
Photography credit: QRP