Castle Square – A Change Is Gonna Come

Castle Square Apartments was built in the 1960s as part of urban renewal. Hundreds of tenement buildings were knocked down in Boston’s South End to make way for 500 apartments for low-income people.

In the early 1990s, Castle Square experienced a rebirth when residents led a grassroots effort to take over the property and preserve it as affordable housing in perpetuity.

Now, twenty years later, residents are leading a trailblazing green renovation that will result in energy savings that have never been achieved on existing buildings in the U.S.

Annual Green Award for 2012

April 20th

On April 19, Mayor Menino presented his Annual Green Awards for 2012. It was the kick-off of a new initiative in the city: Greenovate Boston http://www.greenovateboston.org/] which will help organize multiple green initiatives in the community including energy efficiency, sustainable food systems, green buildings and more. Castle Square Apartments won an award for “Sustainability and Climate Leadership” as an innovator in energy efficiency. Below is a picture of the team – the Board of Directors, the staff, and retrofit project team members. Other award winners are summarized at this link http://www.cityofboston.gov/environmentalandenergy/greenawards/winners12.asp]

The event was held at the Gillette World Headquarters in South Boston – at the south end of the Ft. Point Channel. It is a massive facility and houses the world’s largest museum display dedicated to shaving products. We got to hear a lot about what Gillette and their parent company, P&G, are doing to benefit the environment. They are trying really hard, even though most of their products are disposable

Here are our luminaries accepting the award from Jim Hunt, head of the City’s Office of the Environment. Wei Ruan (Castle Square Board), Debra Backus (Castle Square Executive Director), Gilbert Winn (WinnDevelopment), Ann Mow (Castle Square Board), Jim Hunt (City of Boston), and Tony Stark (holding the plaque, Castle Square Board). Special thanks go to all the team members that put this project together – Heather Clark of Biome Studio and Bruce Hampton of Elton+Hampton Architects who designed the project, and the teamwork between WinnDevelopment, Castle Square Tenants Organization, and WinnManagement.

Congratulations to Castle Square! And thank you Mayor Menino and your great team!

High School Seniors Applying to College

May 1st was last Tuesday and many of the high school seniors who participate in our teen program paid their deposits! Our seniors are planning to attend American International College, Bridgewater State, Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Northeastern and more! Their intended majors range from theater arts to business! The teens worked extremely hard the last couple of months with their college applications, FAFSA, and scholarships, and deserve to attend schools that suit them! Congratulations!!

Here’s a display of some of the schools the teens applied to, got accepted and decided to attend!

Senior Birthday Party Festival

On April 7th, the Joy-Luck Club of Castle Square went to China Pearl in Chinatown for a combined Birthday Party for seniors. Anyone with a birthday in recent months was encouraged to attend. Over 50 seniors came out, even though it was a rainy day.

Some of the staff, from both CSTO and from WinnManagement, attended. It was great to catch up with many of the seniors and hear some great stories. There were even a few who presented sonnets, ancient poems, and a couple of songs!

Although there was more food in the buffet than would feed an army, we still saved room for a couple of giant birthday cakes. Seriously, there was a ton of food but the cake was very light and fruity, the perfect thing to accompany a great meal and very good shared company.

Happy Birthday Castle Square Seniors! I can’t wait to come out to the next one.

JQUS Wrestling Team

Several youth from our Center created this video profile of members of the Josiah Quincy Upper School wrestling team in Boston.

Chinese New Year and Black History Month Celebration!

Friday night saw the annual combined Chinese New Year and Black History Month celebration for Castle Square. The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, our lovely neighbor with a bit auditorium, hosted the event. We had a slate of performances from many cultural backgrounds and then a good buffet of dinner options. Mostly chinese food and soul food. It was great.

Here we have the Lion Dancers who put one a sequence of dance and drum performances. A classic start to the evening’s entertainment. No fireworks, though.

About 200 people showed up, mostly from our community but some were neighbors and friends from further away. We had our entire Youth Education Program crew in full force, students, teen aids, and staff. They especially liked when their colleagues performed “Thriller” (as in vintage Michael Jackson)

Here we have our fearless leader, Deborah Backus at the microphone addressing the crowd. We wanted to thank a lot of people for their participation in our community. Anne Moy, our board president, served as the MC for the evening. It was a great event – great entertainment, lots of fun, and plenty of good food. Thanks especially to the many volunteers who helped set up and clean up. It all went very smoothly. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Emergency Announcement! Fire Alarm Issues!

FIRE ALARMS are ringing!

They don’t need to be!

Each false alarm costs our community and residents will be charged $250 if they cause a false alarm.

As part of the upgrade to all of the units at Castle Square, every home now has a hard-wired fire alarm/smoke detector system. The garden apartments (Paul Place, Village Court, Emerald Court and Castle Court) never used to have these devices.

Now, everyone needs to get up-to-date on how to cook, considering these fire safety mechanisms.

• Smoke, steam from cooking and incense will activate new fire alarm.
• Keep your range hood fan operating to exhaust cooking smoke and steam out of your unit.
• If activated, be certain there is no actual fire or danger to you.
• Evacuate the apartment if it is unsafe!! Alert Management and/or the Boston Fire Department: Dial 911.

• If the alarm is false, due to smoking, steam from cooking or something else and is not an actual fire, you have three minutes to circumvent the alarm system.
• Immediately open windows and your door, and fan fresh air toward the detector. Wave the smoke or steam away from the detector as fast as possible. Detectors are located at the base of the staircase in the living room in most garden apartment units.
• The fresh air will cause the alarm to cease. If you do not respond immediately to fan smoke or steam away from a ringing smoke detector, and it rings for more than three minutes, the alarm system will think it is a real fire. The entire apartment block fire alarms will go off and all of your neighbors will be forced to evacuate. This is not pleasant to anyone. You will be charged $250 for not being responsible.

Please be careful with your cooking, and be quick to respond to a false alarm. It is simple to minimize the problem. We hope everyone will be able to help each other prevent false fire alarms. If you have any questions, please call the Management Office at 617 426-5517 or the Castle Square Tenants Organization Office at 617 357-8548 (do not call this number during an emergency). Thank you!