Waterside Place Opened for Business on January 30, 2014

The long-awaited opening of the Waterside Place 20-story luxury mixed-use tower is now history. The gala celebration culminating the massive amount of design and construction work that began in June, 2012, included Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Massachusetts Port Authority officials, and John Drew, whose Drew Company actually led the building’s development.

Waterside Place is the newest of the many residential options now being built in the Boston region.  Metro Sign & Awning has been fortunate enough to be asked to play a significant role in these projects. Many developers, architects, designers and business owners choose us to help with signage, awnings and canopies due to our knowledge, expertise, and skill-set, as well as our reputation for getting the job done in a professional, cost-effective, and highly service-oriented manner.

Located at 505 Congress Street at the intersection of D Street, Waterside Place houses some 350,000-square-foot of retail, commercial, and residential units, including 236 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments (some of which already have waiting lists for the overflow of interested occupants), all with a “green living” LEED Silver Certification. The new building also contains 140 parking spaces, and 10,000 square feet of retail space.

Just blocks from District Hall at 75 Northern Boulevard, the “heart” of Boston’s new “Innovation District, ” Waterside Place houses its own 7,000 square foot “innovation center” to house and support local start-ups.

It’s all accessible to the MBTA’s Silver Line Station, as well the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Metro Sign Involved From the Beginning

Metro Sign & Awning was active on this project since the early stages, working on both the interior and exterior signage.

As you can see in the accompanying photo, and in our Portfolio, the building’s final customer-facing interior signage design utilizes an acrylic material, similar to Light Blocks, that we back-sprayed with Waterside Place’s signature custom color. We water-jet cut the polished lettering that is raised from the backing block.

Separately, we created “back of house” and utility signage that blends in with the project’s overall design and yet helps keep costs under control. Our approach to fabrication of the interior signage not only reduced the cost but allowed us to meet the project’s critically short timelines.

Our own Mark Vella worked closely with the architect, TRO Jung Brannen, and the general contractor, Suffolk Construction, to develop and offer various material samples and mock-ups of evolving design concepts, and to create the final signage production schedule.

We delivered the first set of signs on December 6, 2013, and the last group exactly a month later.

As usual, our budget for all the items we designed, fabricated, and installed came in within the signage allowance the developer had established as part of the entire project.

If you live in the Boston area, you’ll likely have an opportunity to experience this exciting new waterfront building. When you do, we’d love to hear your reactions to it, either through our contact form or as a comment you post at the bottom of this page.