460 Harris Ave.
Providence, Rhode Island
If you've traveled the 6/10 connector to or from Providence, you've seen The Box Office, the bright blue, yellow and green office building made out of shipping containers.
In fact, it's made of 32 recycled shipping containers (equaling 94 tons of recycled steel) and houses 12 office/studio spaces on what was once the site of Harris Lumber but had since been abandoned. The building is designed to use 25% less energy than a typical office building of the same size.
According to the article in the March/April 2011 issue of Design New England, "It is the brainchild of young Rhode Island School of Design-trained architects Peter Gill Case and Joe Haskett and Brown University graduate and builder Joshua Brandt."
Shipping containers were prepped pre-construction off-site, but assembling the building took just four days:
From the highway as you're buzzing by at 55 mph (because neither of us speed, do we?), it's easy to miss some of the detail of the building. For example, the graffiti artwork on the Harris Ave. side of the building:
You also might not realize that there are balconies
and interior open space. The roofing material is part of a shipping container as well.
The building itself is a work of modern art, all angles and bright color. It definitely draws the eye, and is so interesting to walk around.
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