Recent content by itchy

Good point! Too bad that a major gain (construction of Winthrop Center in place of a horrendous parking garage) led to a smaller-scale negative with the updated park. Why'd they have to mess with it?! And what happened to the John Winthrop statue?

It's a great point. I think half the opportunity / benefit from building more housing (whether in Boston or the burbs) is the improvement to the built environment of our city/town downtowns. Almost all the talk from politicians, media, etc., about housing focuses on 'affordable housing.' To...

It's because it looks like something gangsters would put up in Chisinau. Only that would be more fun - there'd at least be a sleazy cafe called "Euro-bar" serving overpriced drinks and blasting trashy techno on the ground floor.

Aren't they basically proposing to put the parking on the ground floor instead of building an underground parking garage? I'm probably missing something, but isn't that pretty bad for how these buildings meet the street, the retail and activity they bring to the neighborhood, etc.?

No developer on earth who wants to bulldoze an old building ever produces a report saying the old building is in good shape. "Structural issues" is the biggest weasel term there is - a developer (which Harvard is) can always find someone willing to make that claim.

What the hot mess is this new building? The old building doesn't look very deteriorated in the photos - certainly much less so than 17 Story Street further up in the thread! If that can be rehabbed, so can this. Even if this building were in bad shape, there is no institution on earth with the...

It's too bad - looks like they replaced the most intricate historic Victorian elements of the exterior and replaced them with interchangeable Lego pieces. Does anyone know the name for the "Lego elements" aesthetic that has come to dominate single-family carpentry/construction the last few...

Why? Why?! WHY?!!?! This is utterly moronic. What on earth is worth preserving in this abortion of a building? Where was this requirement when Druker was tearing down actually historic structures (not urban renewal mega-pustules) across the street from the Arlington Street Church?

Brutalism in Brick, 2025 edition.

^^ Yeah, would love to see more 'superblock developments' in Boston recognize that it IS in fact possible to have >1 building on a single block (wowzers!).

Yeah, it'll be a real missed opportunity if they don't reuse some of the old industrial buildings. I'd love to see a creative reuse (including building on top) for the iconic low-rise "World Shaving Headquarters" building... But even in the absence of that, the buildings on W 2nd St, btw Dot...

Disagree 100% about the Lucas. It's nothing less than dystopian from most angles. But don't want to derail this thread.

Hopefully this one turns out less horrible than "the Lucas."

Yeah, the city needs to clean that up stat. And place a few $200 Ring cameras in the area to capture attempts to repeat the offense.

So it's <30% residential. It's wildly hypocritical how much commercial/office Boston continues to build, and how little residential, despite the constant hectoring by MA politicians about the need for more housing. Will the state's political/media elite ask Boston politicians to take a dose of...