We believe in making design accessible to everyone and are committed to providing educational and mentoring opportunities to the larger community. Our fabrication capacities at PAYETTE provide us a unique opportunity to give back to communities with physical objects and making.
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.
Education outreach through making
Our FabLab leverages making as a tool for outreach, community engagement and building for the future, enabling our active involvement in educational events for teenagers and career development mentoring programs. We recognize the need to build the pipeline for future architects in under-represented communities, establishing opportunities and awareness through meaningful engagement with local youth such as the ACE Mentor Program.
Use fabrication to solve real world problems
Our fabrication capabilities enable us to explore ways to enhance public spaces and strengthen the communities we live in. We combine our creative minds and construction skills to tackle real world problems. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our team realized the potential of utilizing design and construction to address the challenge of how we can safely come together in public spaces and foster community connections. With our long-term partner Beyond Walls, and assistance from Lynn Vocational Technical High School, we designed, fabricated and installed two new systems – WaSH and FoLD – to provide outdoor handwashing stations and barrier systems for outdoor dining.
Hands on participation
We appreciate the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and volunteer for various building projects and events. Since 2000, PAYETTE has participated in the annual design competition hosted by the Boston Society of Architects and CANstruction Boston, an organization dedicated to issues of hunger and food insecurity. We also partner with other companies in the A/E/C industry to build projects, such as a basement renovation for the Boston rescue mission.
