Project Updates
On The Boards: Q1-2 2026
A look at a few projects currently in development at Union Studio
Saving the Henry O. Tanner House
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Built in 1871, the Henry Ossawa Tanner House at 2908 West Diamond Street was the childhood home of Henry Ossawa Tanner, one of America’s most celebrated painters. From this three-story brick rowhouse, Tanner went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as its only Black student and later created landmark works such as The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor, paintings that affirmed the dignity and humanity of Black life. Today, the house stands as a National Historic Landmark and an enduring symbol of Tanner’s legacy.
After years of vacancy and deterioration, the house is being carefully restored through the efforts of the Friends of the Tanner House, who stabilized the building and selected Union Studio as design partner through an open RFP process. Guided by six pillars—Faith, Family, Freedom, Health, Arts, and Education—the project reflects community priorities, including spaces for gathering, archives, storytelling, youth programs, and an artist-in-residence apartment. Underlying the vision is the principle of Sankofa: looking to the past as a way to move forward.
House of the Seven Gables, Phase I: Moving the Counting House
Salem, Massachusetts
The Counting House, a small 1830s structure that once served as a merchant’s office and now functions as a children’s education center, sits at the harbor’s edge within FEMA’s VE (velocity and elevation) flood zone—the designation reserved for the most vulnerable coastlines. Working with Union Studio as the architect partner in a highly specialized collaborative effort with climate scientists, engineers, preservationists, and Salem community members, the organization developed a 50-year climate adaptation plan that calls for relocating the Counting House by 2030, followed by the Hooper-Hathaway House, Retire Beckett House, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthplace.
In April 2026, the House of the Seven Gables received $461,000 in federal funding to address damage tied to heavy rain, poor grading, and undersized drainage systems. The Gables was awarded $179,190 from the state for fiscal year 2026 for permitting and final designs for Phase I improvements. Currently, the project is progressing through the regulatory approvals process, with permitting documents being finalized.
Center for Southeast Asians
Providence, Rhode Island
The Broad Street Synagogue has stood at 688 Broad Street since 1911 — a brick and terra-cotta sanctuary built for Temple Beth-El, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and woven into the daily life of Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood for nearly a century. The congregation closed its doors in 2006.
By 2024, the Providence Preservation Society had placed the building on its Most Endangered Places list, but a new chapter began when the property was donated to the Center for Southeast Asians (CSEA) in November. Serving Providence’s Southeast Asian community for nearly 40 years, CSEA gained a permanent home that will support gathering, childcare, adult daycare, and neighborhood health services while honoring the building’s historic purpose as a community hub. Although the structure has suffered significant deterioration and requires roof shoring and further structural assessment, a completed programming and feasibility study has established a path toward stabilization and adaptive reuse, ensuring that the building’s most enduring qualities are preserved as it is transformed for future generations.