What: La CASA (Center for Arts, Self-determination and Activism)
Where: 85 West Newton St., Boston
Owner: Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción
Built: 2024-2026

The South End commemorated the grand opening of a community development group’s new offices and cultural hub with a weekend live performances and an open house last month.

The $33 million La Casa project created a four-story, 26,435-square-foot cultural center including the offices of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), an organization founded by Puerto Rican activists in the 1960s to fight urban renewal plans that would have displaced South End residents. The organization today owns a portfolio of 667 affordable housing units.

Built on the former location of the All Saints Lutheran Church and designed by Needham-based Studio ENÉE, the facility includes administrative offices and meeting space for IBA and rotating art exhibit space.

A dance fiesta and performance by percussionist and Berklee College of Music professor Eguie Castrillo inaugurated the 438-capacity Jean and Tom Yawkey Hall performance space on the opening weekend.

They Said It:

“At IBA, our mission has always been guided by the principle that a building is more than its walls. It is a place where pathways to building community, culture and generational prosperity are created.”

— Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO, IBA

A dance and fiesta iugurated the Jean and Tom Yawkey Hall performance space. Image courtesy of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción.