Image courtesy of Studio Enee and Annum

What: The CASA
Where: 85 West Newton St., Boston
Owner: Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción
Built: 2023-2024 

A South End nonprofit will expand its arts and community programming with development of a new 26,425-square-foot community center. 

The Center for the Arts, Self-Determination and Activism (The CASA) will include a third-floor roof deck overlooking the O’Day Playground and IBA’s Villa Victoria apartments. 

Designed by architects Studio Enee and Annum, the $25 million project is set to break ground in the fall. Its centerpiece will be a 2-story performance space that also can be used for community meetings and events. The building also will include classrooms, community spaces, offices, conference room and gym. 

IBA’s bilingual youth development, financial empowerment, resident services and arts programs will relocate to The CASA upon its completion in late 2024. 

They Said It: 

“The CASA will be a place for residents of IBA and the South End to learn, grow, perform, and, most of all, to gather. As Boston’s new home for Latinx art and community empowerment, The CASA will reinvigorate IBA’s arts program, expand its youth, social, and economic mobility programs, and be a gathering space for local nonprofits and the wider community.”
— Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO, IBA