East Boston Infill and Small Developments

If it is indeed corrugated metal, it's at least consistent with the other buildings along Addison Street and Rt. 1A (i.e. industrial, warehouse). Combined with the other materials, I think this'll be a cool spot. Helpful marketing-wise that it's immediately next door to a Planet Fitness.
 
Too "tower in the park" for my liking. Or rather "Row house in the park".

I don't see a good place to include one in this development, but in general I always want projects on large parcels like this to be forced to build new connecting streets. We could be mandating a walkable street grid, instead of ending up with large swaths of private land that look unwelcoming to pass through for nonresidents.
 
datadyne007 said:
I like it. The twist on the brick rowhouse in front is modern & clean. I also think the corrugated metal on the back will look pretty nice and give that facade some depth.
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First project in my neighborhood (Orient Heights) that I can think of where the developer actually hired an architect. Other proposals further up Saratoga Street are absolute rubbish.

dshoost88 said:
If it is indeed corrugated metal, it's at least consistent with the other buildings along Addison Street and Rt. 1A (i.e. industrial, warehouse). Combined with the other materials, I think this'll be a cool spot. Helpful marketing-wise that it's immediately next door to a Planet Fitness.
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Agreed on the industrial vibe, and the contextual scale. The juxtaposition of new construction bordering public housing and a busy stree lined with multi-family homes will be...interesting.

I get my sweat on at that particular Planet Fitness; the folks who can fork over the loot to live here might find the gritty urban vibe of this location not to their taste.
 
datadyne007 said:
11/17/16 - BPDA Board Meeting:

16 Boardman Street project approved for #OrientHeights neighborhood

https://twitter.com/BostonPlans/status/799373438720864257

Cxfx54PW8AAOMqM.jpg:large
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Being assembled like a stack of shoe boxes as I type. Rubbish.

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Beton Brut said:
Being assembled like a stack of shoe boxes as I type. Rubbish.

25193424417_ed0c59723a_z.jpg
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Is it actually modular construction?

We see so little of that in Boston. I wouldn't automatically characterize it as rubbish, from what I know it's not inherently better or worse than stick built and has some advantages from being assembled in a factory. The required layout space is one of many things that seems to make it less practical in Boston.
 
estyle said:
Is it actually modular construction?
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It is, trucked in and assembled with a telescoping crane over two days.

estyle said:
I wouldn't automatically characterize it as rubbish, from what I know it's not inherently better or worse than stick built and has some advantages from being assembled in a factory.
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Perhaps I could have better tempered my thoughts here, but this particular project infuriates me. To clarify, I've no antipathy to modular construction, indeed some of it can be quite beautiful in it's spartan purposefulness, going back to schemes envisioned by Wright and Rudolph.

But gaze upon the renderings of this project. It's the architectural equivalent of a crime scene. As ablarc may have said, ghastly!
 
The new condo building next to the pike down past New Balance was built modularly. It came out decent. I agree though that there is nothing inherently bad or good about modular construction, its all about what you do with it. It can be a good way to build fast and efficient and if done right can look just fine. If done wrong it can look horrible. All depends on what they do with it. You wouldn't want the whole city to move to this type of construction, but for some here and there development it can work out fine.
 
Beton Brut said:
It is, trucked in and assembled with a telescoping crane over two days.



Perhaps I could have better tempered my thoughts here, but this particular project infuriates me. To clarify, I've no antipathy to modular construction, indeed some of it can be quite beautiful in it's spartan purposefulness, going back to schemes envisioned by Wright and Rudolph.

But gaze upon the renderings of this project. It's the architectural equivalent of a crime scene. As ablarc may have said, ghastly!
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Modular saves on onsite time, and saves on logistics problems having to do with site access. When you have a challenged site it can save you money but it will not be cheaper than building in a standard way on a site with no time or logistics constraints.

I don't know this site but I assume that a cost/benefit was done and modular made some economic sense.

As far as quality. I would not call the technique garbage at all. The units are built in a controlled environment and have the ability to be at a higher quality. That is not saying it is a higher quality, it just can be because of the factory environment.

cca
 
cca said:
Modular saves on onsite time, and saves on logistics problems having to do with site access.

As far as quality. I would not call the technique garbage at all.
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Agreed.

Full disclosure: I've studied a variety of modular options for a vacation home, and I agree, the quality is high, and the designs are often thoughtfully detailed and serenely modern.

cca said:
I don't know this site but I assume that a cost/benefit was done and modular made some economic sense.
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The site was formerly a single family (ca. 1925), now built to the sidewalk and lot-line, on the edge of Orient Heights. The interiors could be mahogany and travertine, but the exterior is craftless and disorganized, a new building that fails completely to adopt its surrounding context.
 
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