Brookline Infill and Small Developments

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“BROOKLINE, MA — The Brookline Housing Authority has officially opened what is being called the town's largest affordable housing development in more than 50 years, according to a report from Brookline.News.

The new development, known as 32 Marion Apartments on 32 Marion St., includes 115 affordable housing units for seniors and people with disabilities in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood. The project replaces 60 aging public housing units and nearly doubles the number of affordable apartments previously available on the site. Housing officials say the development is the largest addition of affordable housing in Brookline since the 1970s……”

patch.com

Brookline Cuts Ribbon On Large Affordable Housing Development: Report

The new building has more than 100 units.
patch.com patch.com
 
SteelyTom said:
I walk by this building every Sunday morning on my way to church. It's a powerful reminder of the misdeeds of men.
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I don't think the building itself is inherently unattractive. With signage and landscaping it may feel less imposing. My objection is with the decision to place the main entrance and most of the glazing mid-block on School Street, while largely ignoring the building’s frontage on Harvard Street— particularly at this intersection. Brookline should have explored ways to re-activate the ground level along Harvard St., perhaps even incorporating street-level small retail, and building the school on the levels above. With this re-development they've ensured that there will be a block long gap in the street wall connecting the village with development clusters furher along Harvard St as one approaches Coolidge corner. It seems like a missed opportunity

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a_tortoise said:
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I dislike all the randomly placed mismatched facade areas, as well as the three-dimensional chaos of in-and-out shapes everywhere. One section is dark larger brick, other oddball sections are reddish brick, than another section is Hardi-Plank (?) siding. It basically looks like a sloppy pile of random crap to me.
 
FPJ said:
I don't think the building itself is inherently unattractive. With signage and landscaping it may feel less imposing. My objection is with the decision to place the main entrance and most of the glazing mid-block on School Street, while largely ignoring the building’s frontage on Harvard Street— particularly at this intersection. Brookline should have explored ways to re-activate the ground level along Harvard St., perhaps even incorporating street-level small retail, and building the school on the levels above. With this re-development they've ensured that there will be a block long gap in the street wall connecting the village with development clusters furher along Harvard St as one approaches Coolidge corner. It seems like a missed opportunity

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Eh, I'm normally the first one to talk about the importance of an active streetwall. But we're only talking about half a block here and it's an elementary school. This is not some kind of crime against urbanity.
 
I mean, I think ultimately this building isn't meant to be oriented to any street, since it's part of that entire municipal campus. I think the main entrance won't be street facing at all - I think it's more likely to be on the loop sort of by that parking lot for the town hall, health dept and where the historic pierce school building is, which I think they're incorporating in some way. I think the Harvard St. frontage is effectively going to replace the School St entrance to that underground substructure parking garage for loading docks etc they've got under the library, school & city hall. In so doing, I actually think that School St entrance is really more oriented for access to the park and fields across School St, since that pedestrian bridge is going away.
 
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