Edge Merrimack River

The Edge Merrimack River is a private residence hall on French Street in Lowell Massachusetts. Constructed on the site of the former Merrimack Manufacturing Company Mill No. 3 (ca. 1875), this mill was demolished in the 1950s as part of urban renewal and replaced by a one-story bank structure in 1967.

The Edge project’s design is clearly contemporary but responds to the historic context and the former mill building in massing, scale, height, and has an appropriate ratio between solid wall and voids (windows).

Historic materials are reflected in the limited use of brick on the ground floor and tower while the majority of the cladding is in a contemporary industrial aesthetic as expressed through the use of metal panels of varying color and texture. A major focal point of the new building is a nod to the bell tower that was part of Merrimack Mill No. 3. The tower was re-constructed as a new, contemporary tower that takes advantage of the Merrimack Canal vista as the historic tower had.