By Abby Goldenfarb and Aaron Horne
Last month we celebrated Youth Art Month with a new exhibit opening, Celebrating Local Student Artists!, at our Boston East Community Art Gallery to showcase 31 original works from local middle and high school students. The evening was abuzz with excitement as 30 students from Revere High School, Chelsea High School, Excel Academy Middle School (East Boston), Excel Academy High School (East Boston), and Eugene Wright Science and Technology Academy gathered with family and friends to view their incredible pieces. The opening is the first of a two part series with the second opening on April 23rd which will feature students from Winthrop High School and Garfield Middle School (Revere). For each show, students were asked to submit vibrant, dynamic pieces that they felt represented the best of their work.
The exhibit coincided with the National Art Education Association’s (NAEA) annual conference, held this year in Boston. The conference is a gathering of thousands of visual art educators from all over the world dedicated to the education of young artists. We thought there would be no better way to celebrate this tremendous organization gathering in Boston than to offer them a chance to see some of the local talent in our city.
When we opened the gallery in the summer of last year to be part of our larger Boston East building project, we envisioned a space that would continue East Boston’s long standing tradition of nurturing and supporting local artists. For support, we partnered with the Atlantic Works Gallery and June Krinsky-Rudder from the East Boston Artists Group to help us create exhibits that will highlight this area to the general public. Local art is the visual and creative 
expression of a community by reflecting what makes any given area unique. Encouraging local art, however, means providing the necessary space and support to help future and emerging artists showcase their work. Displaying the works of middle and high school students reflects our commitment to this community. We love the community of East Boston and hope to continue to show the vibrancy of this community through the amazing local talents of its artists.
More than three years after its inception by Trinity, the former Imperial Knife Company building in Olneyville is seeing a new life through the opening of our 60 King project. The redevelopment of 60 King is the second housing project contemplated in the Build Olneyville Plan, a holistic, community-based vision for improving the Olneyville neighborhood and the nearby Manton Heights public housing development.
Washington Village is the oldest public housing site in Connecticut and experienced significant damage and flooding during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Over the past few years, Trinity and the Norwalk Housing Authority have worked with the residents and local and state agencies to develop a plan to replace the housing on site with a design for the new buildings that pairs style with sustainability and flood resiliency. When completed, this revitalization will replace the existing Washington Village with 273 new, safe, modern apartments, including a one-for-one replacement of the 136 public housing units that existed there at the start of construction. 
At the ribbon cutting, Governor Malloy told the crowd, “Housing is fundamental to who we are and how we raise our children. We need a broader brush of affordable housing through our state.” At Trinity, we could not agree more. We are proud to now be able to share Phase One with the South Norwalk community, and also look forward to the completion of the whole project! 
At the core of all Trinity projects are the community, its residents, and 
Orient Heights, a public housing development, was originally built in 1951 and has been owned and managed by the Boston Housing Authority. The dated property sorely needed improvements to provide residents with quality housing within a healthier, more vibrant living environment. We were selected, along with the East Boston CDC, to bring this transformation to life. 
As we cut the ribbon to celebrate the completion of this first phase, MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay reminded us all that, “We always remember what we do this for – at the end of the day it’s about the residents and we all know that and keep our eyes on the prize.” This is something we take to heart at Trinity, as we always work to develop communities that enhance the quality of life for residents and the surrounding neighborhood.
Like most of our projects, the Overlook Terrace at Orient Heights revitalization is a collaborative effort between both public and private partners, and we were proud to stand alongside many of them at the ribbon cutting. Phase Two of construction is now underway, and will consist of 88 rental units in a combination of townhouse and mid-rise buildings, as well as new and improved open spaces. We’re hoping for a smooth construction phase and are as eager as the residents to fulfill the vision of a renewed community in this Orient Heights neighborhood!
We recently had the opportunity to come together to celebrate the official opening of this building with Governor Charlie Baker, leaders from UMass Lowell, national manufacturing institutes and the Massachusetts advanced manufacturing community. As Lowell continues to be a hub for innovation, we know that 110 Canal Street will be an important part of this story. We look forward to seeing the entrepreneurial and creative spirit that has revitalized this former mill building and hope it will extend beyond the building itself and into the entire city.
On the morning of June 6th, we gathered in Lawrence with elected officials and our partners to break ground on our newest redevelopment: Van Brodie Mill. This adaptive reuse of a former mill that was originally built in 1919 is our first project in Lawrence, and will preserve an historic structure while remediating a brownfields site, ultimately bringing 102 units of mixed-income housing to the Arlington Mills Historic District.
Van Brodie Mill will be built on four adjacent land parcels within the city’s 34-acre Arlington Mills Smart Growth Overlay District, containing two interconnected mill buildings with 100 units; a small, former incinerator building with two units; a water pump house, and a parking lot. The completed project will contain eight studio apartments, 25 one-bedroom apartments, 56 two-bedroom apartments and 13 three-bedroom apartments.
While Van Brodie Mill may be Trinity’s first project in Lawrence, it is not our first foray into brownfield remediation, a process which we are also undertaking in the redevelopment of our 
Located between the Central Square and Maverick MBTA stations, we were able to transform what was once an industrial site into 200 breathtaking rental apartments, including six artist live-work apartments. Residents will be able to benefit from unique amenities like a kayak and paddle board launch; a yard with grills and a fire pit, a dog spa, a Hubway dock and Zipcar spots on-site.
Trinity’s presence in East Boston extends beyond the waterfront, too. Just last year we 
The Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Medical Center, and Hope House were also on-hand, providing information and resources for members of the community.
Built between 1969 and 1973 to house the Boston City Hospital School of Nursing, the City of Boston and Boston Public Health Commission procured our team in 2010 to modernize components of the Campus that were in desperate need of capital repairs.
