In a former Industrial Revolution powerhouse town north of Boston, an old mill building—dating back to 1845—has been transformed into a mixed-income residential complex.
Designed by The Architectural Team (TAT) for owner and manager WinnDevelopment, the adaptive-reuse development called Stone Mill Lofts offers 86 units of rental housing, including 58 apartments for households earning up to 60% of the area median income (AMI), 11 apartments for those earning up to 30% AMI, and 17 market-rate units.
In addition to preserving an iconic building in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and providing affordable housing options, the teams also worked to prioritize sustainability and decarbonization by designing the community to be all-electric. According to WinnDevelopment, Stone Mill’s fossil-fuel-free design is expected to use 46% less energy and emit 33% fewer greenhouse gases than a typical gas-fired multifamily structure.
Ed Wonsek/Courtesy TAT
Inside, residents are greeted with today’s standard amenities, such as a fitness center, a children’s playroom, work-from-home pods, and more, but also a remarkable piece of history. In the resident lounge, TAT created a window that looks onto one of the mill’s original turbines. This water intake room helped use hydropower to drive the mill’s machinery roughly 180 years ago.
“The original water intake room is one of my favorite spots in the building,” says TAT project manager Scott Maenpaa. “You’re surrounded by the newest in technology and furnishings but looking back to the ‘now seemingly simple’ height of technology in the 1860s.”
Each of the units benefit from thoughtful integration of existing historic elements as well, such as exposed, original wood beam ceilings, ultimately tying the past with the building’s hopeful future.
