GrubWrites

News on the (Seaport) Move: See Floor Plans for our New Home

Now that we’re officially through the Schematic Design Phase, GrubStreet's Founder and Executive Director, Eve Bridburg, shares the floor plans and other updates on our move to the Seaport.

Dear fellow grubbies,

My favorite joke lately is a simple one and likely only amusing to me. When people ask me how things are going at Grub, I say, “Busy, actually. Turns out building a center which includes classrooms, a cafe, a bookstore, a podcast studio and a stage is a bit of extra work.” Mondays have turned into a full day of meetings dedicated solely to this exciting project. Meetings about project management, budget, hiring, design and funding run right through them and give us our marching orders for the week. Though the workload is daunting, our excitement about what we’re building, the promise it holds for the community, and all the new things we’re learning keep us energized.

Working with our architects has been a highlight for me. Their process reminds me of the writing process. There are first drafts, rounds of revisions based on our feedback and their architectural savvy, moments when constraints lead to creative breakthroughs, and moments when we let go of a favorite idea that doesn’t quite contribute to the whole. We are now officially through what’s called the Schematic Design Phase, which is the phase where you get aligned around goals and necessities. I’m happy to share our floor plans here so you can see where we’ve landed. Just please know, this is where we’ve landed for now. We will likely be making edits right up through construction. I'm also excited to note that we’re defining the hallway on the second floor as a “social spine,” which will include nooks for our coommunity to huddle, lounge areas to write in, and even a few comfy spots for day dreaming.

For the rest of the month and into August, we’ll be in what’s called the Design Development Phase. Now that the structure is largely in place, we’ll start to add the vivid details that will truly bring it all to life: paint, flooring, wall graphics, furniture and lighting. Will there be furry carpeting in the teen nook? A neon sign reading “ON AIR” for the Podcast studio? Will the floors be polished concrete or wood? These are the questions before us now. For this next phase, we’ll be leaning heavily on our branding firm, Catapult Thinking. They’ve done some brilliant thinking about how our refreshed branding will extend into the new space. We look forward to partnering with them and with Merge Architects to create a truly welcoming, accessible and grubby arts space. Stay tuned for images of this next phase when they’re ready.

In the meantime, we have an evolving FAQ and we’re still all ears if you have anything you’d like to share with us.

Warmest wishes,

Eve

About the Author

Eve Bridburg

Under Eve’s (she/her/hers) leadership, GrubStreet has grown into a national literary powerhouse known for artistic excellence, working to democratize the publishing pipeline and program innovation. An active partner to the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Eve was the driving force behind securing chapter 91 space in the Seaport to build a creative writing center. Eve was recently awarded the 2023 WNBA Award by the Woman's National Book Association, an award given every two years to a living American woman who has made exceptional contributions to the book industry beyond the scope of her profession. She is a 2019 Barr Fellow, and having graduated from its inaugural class, Eve remains active with the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, a consortium of 200 of the world’s top cultural leaders, which addresses the critical issues that face the arts and cultural sector worldwide. Eve has presented on the future of publishing, what it takes to build a literary arts center, and the intersection of arts and civics at numerous local and national conferences. Her essays and op-eds on publishing, the role of creative writing centers and the importance of the narrative arts have appeared in The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Cognoscenti, Writer's Digest and TinHouse. Eve serves on the Advisory Board of The Loop Lab, a new Cambridge-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing representation in the Media Arts and on the Advisory Board of Getting to We, a nonprofit dedicated to civic rights and social action. Eve worked as a literary agent at The Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (now Aevitas Creatve Management) for five happy years where she developed, edited, and sold a wide variety of books to major publishers. Before starting GrubStreet, she attended Boston University’s Writing program on a teaching fellowship, farmed in Oregon, and ran an international bookstore in Prague.

See other articles by Eve Bridburg