This is a time of year that we take a moment to step back, assess the year and give thanks. At PAYETTE we like to gather during the week of Thanksgiving for a firm-wide potluck meal and look back the year. From road races to our bocce ball tournament, softball games, hackathons, construction tours and our projects, we’re always busy and bringing our staff together in new ways.
We wish you a safe and happy holiday weekend.
Beneath layers of renovations of MIT’s historic Building 4, we found something quietly extraordinary—massive planks of lumber, once part of a mezzanine, weathered by age and use. A good wood plank will catch any architect’s eye; we immediately began brainstorming ways to reuse and reinsert this incredible material back into the project as part of our 18,000sf renovation to insert high-performance lab spaces.
We saw not just material, but story—of place, of craft, and past use. What followed was a journey: from reclamation to study models and full-scale steel joint studies. What resulted was a 14-foot conference table of reclaimed wood and steel, designed and fabricated in-house.
Old floors, now foundations for conversation and collaboration.
#artofmaking #designalways #adaptivereuse #fabrication #MITarchitecture