Schmidt Associates has been renovating buildings along the now-trendy Mass Ave neighborhood for years. The area around our office has become a mecca for restaurants, retail shops, arts activities and urban living. It only makes sense that we are repositioning our offices so our door faces the thriving Mass Ave.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Our location is actually made up of three buildings that function as one. Hey, we LOVE an architectural challenge!

We started with a little research. Turns out, the building that faces Mass Ave was home to Boyd Automotive in 1907. We found a historic photo of it as the Bethard Wallpaper store in the 1920s. The new main entrance will reuse the historic leaded glass entrance archway. You may have walked by it many times without paying much attention, but we think you will really notice it when we are finished.

The installation of new lights above the arch will bring a focus to this beautiful entrance again. It will actually glow as you walk by on a pleasant Mass Ave evening.

Also when you walk by, take a moment to appreciate the artistry of the façade of the 415 Mass Ave building (soon to be our new address). It is made of terra cotta that features decorative columns between the second-story windows and three-dimensional floral design panels on both sides of the top of the building.

The historic 1920s photographic showed Bethard Wallpaper had faux painted a marble knee-wall beneath the storefront windows to dress up its entrance. The knee-wall with faux marble is coming back to complement our current renovations.

While we capitalize on the historic architecture of our Mass Ave storefront, we’re also improving our buildings’ energy efficiency and creating the latest in flexible meeting space.

More on that in the next blog, but look for the unveiling of our new/old door soon!

Relocating our entrance to Mass Ave officially says we are a part of the Mass Ave we helped shape.