Recent content by Revitalist

Take your favorite building in Boston--let's say, Atlantic Wharf. Imagine what would happen if you failed to properly maintain the building for over forty years, closed-off a number of it's main entrances, fogged over the windows, failed to in anyway update its lobbies or common areas, closed...

It's almost impossible to financially quantify the value of balancing the preservation of these old buildings in Central with the building of the new. If MIT raises all of these old buildings, however, Central will cease to be an interesting place, which would be a loss to the institution...

The Urbanica building pictured above technically is in Fort Hill, and Fort Hill leads down to Dudley. With some of the best housing stock in the entire city (certainly much better than Dorchester 3-deckers), and with the institutions nearby (hospitals, Northeastern + other colleges), there is a...

Is the concrete a way of bypassing the carpenter's union?

Magellan's smaller scale stuff is nondescript. Somerville missed an opportunity by not choosing Gerding Edlen.

Who is the developer for this project?

Wrong: the high rents and expensive in Central and Harvard mean that restaurants and developers trying to attract a similar crowd to Harvard and Central without the high upfront costs have invested a great deal in Union and built what has become one of the best food scenes in metro-Boston. It...

This (short white historic) building is a gem. I've long admired it and I hope it remains after the adjacent building is raised. MIT, while building (and facilitating the building of) offices and labs for complimentary business bordering its campus needs to be careful not to turn its campus...

I would love to see the general hatred/concern with the BRA redirected toward ISD--the most wrongly politicized, behaviorally arbitrary, unpredictable, and poisonous agency in Boston.

Since the development is being financed with tax credits, site control is needed before the project can be financed. Sort of a chicken and egg situation--not a misstep in awarding the project.

Re: Mega-Lab in East Cambridge Cambridge residential property taxes are actually extremely low. Even though it's a liberal city, the commercial buildings carry the tax burden.

I major problem with Chelsea is that it isn't part of Boston. If you live in Eastie, you have the resources of the City government, you have Latin school, pilot schools, resources for building first rate parks, street infrastructure, and well-funded and well-run police department. In Chelsea...

Hopefully Harvard mindful of Sert's primary design goals during this rehab. It would be a shame for Harvard to modernize Holyoke Center at the expense of the legacy of one of the most important modernist designers.

Jackson Commons. Renderings: from the architect's website: http://www.prellwitzchilinski.com/projects/jackson-commons-2/

Re: 300 Mass Ave (Central Sq) Cambridge While Kendall is a success as a economic engine, it is a failure as a pedestrian zone--the place is a ghost town at night and even during the day is an awkward design of high offices and wide streets, looking more like San Jose than Massachusetts. Just...