Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

Another apartment building approved on Birmingham Parkway near Western Avenue in Brighton
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The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved the Mount Vernon Co.'s plans to replace a Santander Bank branch and parking lot at 30 Leo Birmingham Parkway with a six-story, 117-unit apartment building, with a dog run for residents, as well as solar panels on the roof, where room would be set aside for beehives.

The building, to be called the Current, would sit between Mount Vernon's completed Radius building at the corner of Birmingham and Western Avenue and another six-story building proposed by Arx Urban.

https://www.universalhub.com/2022/another-apartment-building-approved-birmingham
 
Orthodox Jewish congregation wins approval for new synagogue in Brighton
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The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by Congregation Khal Tiferes Yosef to move from its current home in its rabbi's basement to a new two-story shul at 49 Bennett St., basically across the street.

The congregation bought the roughly 12,000-square-foot lot for $1.2 million in 2019. It needed board approval for its new home because the building, which would include an attached apartment for its rabbi, would be closer to its side and rear lot lines than allowed, the proposal called for just 5 parking spaces instead of the 14 zoning required, and the building would be larger than allowed on that size of lot.

https://www.universalhub.com/2022/orthodox-jewish-congregation-wins-approval-new
 
The board approved an amendment to the Harvard University Institutional Master Plan to include the renovation of 92 Seattle Street in Allston.
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The 92 Seattle Street project focuses on the renovation of an existing warehouse structure located on Harvard University’s Campus in Allston, in order to provide new institutional program space for use by Harvard programs, including the athletics department and studio/office space for the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. As part of the overall effort, the existing single-story structure will be retained and will receive various upgrades, including new windows, two new accessible entries, improved exterior envelope and insulation, updated infrastructure systems, and a full interior fit-out to support new program uses….
https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/92-seattle-street
 
BDLG 89, New Years Day--retail in the ground floor filled up fast--what appears to be a burrito place and a gym.

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#bancars said:
BDLG 89, New Years Day--retail in the ground floor filled up fast--what appears to be a burrito place and a gym.

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Definitely a win for this section of Comm ave. All of the existing housing on and off Comm ave borders on slum status. Hoping they can do this over and over again in this area to change the streetscape. Unrelated, but has anything filled the old billiard place that was on the corner of Comm and Harvard? Can't remember the name of that place of the life of me.
 
#bancars said:
I agree it is pretty ugly but honestly I was impressed by how quickly they filled their ground-floor retail--a lot of these new infill projects seem to have empty retail storefronts that don't fill for months if not years.
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I would love to get a sense for commercial rents in different parts of the city and region. Anyone can pull up Zillow and see what residential rates are, but are we reaching sufficient commercial capacity to stabilize or reduce rents for commercial store fronts? For how long is new-construction commercial space vacant over time? I feel like it’s a big variable for which I have zero sense.
 
beck4537 said:
Definitely a win for this section of Comm ave. All of the existing housing on and off Comm ave borders on slum status. Hoping they can do this over and over again in this area to change the streetscape. Unrelated, but has anything filled the old billiard place that was on the corner of Comm and Harvard? Can't remember the name of that place of the life of me.
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For starters, this isn't Comm Ave, it's Brighton Ave.

But regardless, I'm going to STRENUOUSLY object to your desire to rip up all of the lovely stone and brick pre-war buildings lining Comm Ave in A/B and replace them bland, modular-looking 5-over-1s.
 
I strenuously object to that idea, too. Furthermore, I take issue with the notion that the area is borderline slum. I lived there 30 years ago, more recently two of my kids have lived there (one still does). It's actually a fantastic neighborhood, especially for young adults. The building stock is mixed, some units aren't in great shape, but there are plenty of gems, and definitely not worthy of the slum label in any particular sense of the word's meaning.
 
BronsonShore said:
For starters, this isn't Comm Ave, it's Brighton Ave.

But regardless, I'm going to STRENUOUSLY object to your desire to rip up all of the lovely stone and brick pre-war buildings lining Comm Ave in A/B and replace them bland, modular-looking 5-over-1s.
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I'd agree. Leave the stone alone. There are ways to build over it without completely destroying the character of those blocks. I still think of a lot of odd little alleys off Harvard Ave between Brighton and Cambridge Streets. Give me big drafty store windows over tan/gray cladding any day.
Also, it's not a slum. I wish I could have stayed in Brighton but moved the whole neighborhood 4 miles closer to downtown. Unpredictable B-Line delays and crowding forced me to reexamine life choices, mostly how long was I going to stomach the ~45 minutes of punishment it took to get from Wash/Comm to Park Street.
 
The amount of surface parking in that first picture, Yeesh. I should update the “Where is left to build?” thread with just a satellite image of Allston. Also love the apparent lone holdout on the corner of the lot.
 
I’m glad about the housing on Western, but think this is / was really a corridor where there was no excuse to go a minimum of 6 stories. There’s no residential at all on the north side, and the city really could’ve prioritized even denser here than what has happened. At least some of the lots are going taller. But still. Get rid of street parking, run a full on BRT lane on each side, and build up.
 
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