Give Boston a Brooklyn

“In a city full of higher learning, innovation, culture and vibrance, Boston’s built environment somehow lacks personality; it’s reserved, packaged and mass-produced,” says Erik Rueda, CEO of Chelsea’s Erik Rueda Design Lab, which has crafted Mac Mini-embedded conference tables for travel biz Kayak and apothecary-inspired counters for online pharmacy PillPack. “In New York, Brooklyn acts as its artisan asylum, a borough rife with talented craftspeople, designers, artists and creators that inject into their work that vitality that Boston hasn’t quite unlocked. New York is brimming with beautiful, hand-made, contemporary furniture and interiors. They have personality. They are made by people you can talk to and easily visit,” says Rueda, who imagines a design district that would help artisans connect with customers. “Walk into a local workshop, have a cup of coffee and chat about your idea. This happens to us often and we love it.” It may happen more in 2017, when Rueda plans to turn the floor above the lab into a collaborative office space where designers, architects and fabricators can share their networks and knowhow. “We’re building a design guild,” he says. “There is something so special about locally sourced anything. Let the growing maker community breathe life into the built environments that are the heart of Boston.”