December 9, 2015

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For this week's Throwback Thursday trip through the Epstein archives we visit 1971 Brookline, Massachusetts for the opening of the Hearthstone Insurance Company's office and commercial development. This seven-story, 238,000 square foot project located on Route 9 was the third major project we completed for Hearthstone's parent company, the Combined Insurance Company of America.

(See http://goo.gl/4xM3Oo for info on our first major project for Combined)

The Hearthstone complex featured a reinforced concrete structure which was clad in horizontally-expressed beige pre-cast spandrels with bronze glass and aluminum fenestration. This development not only provided office space for Hearthstone but also featured a landscaped plaza as well as a movie theater, bank, restaurant, retail shops and underground self-parking.

In addition, a pedestrian bridge was built, shortly after the completion of this development, which linked a residential development to the south and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Brookline Village Station to the north.

Today, this building is home, albeit for just a short while longer*, to the New England Institute of Art, a for profit arts college.

* In May of this year the parent company of the New England Institute of Art announced that it would be closing the school as a cost cutting measure.