đź”· Open Thread

Church Park in the Fenway at 221 Massachusetts Avenue was sold on Monday for $439 million. It's a 508-unit apartment complex built in the cement Brutalist fashion.

This is the first time this property has ever sold since being built in 1973.

I was/am under the impression that the First Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Scientists) were somehow involved in the original land deal but I can't find anything. Does anyone have the details?

The land was taken by eminent domain (I believe) and the entire city block of buildings demolished. One of the buildings on the street was the Loew's State Theatre. It was also known as the Donnelly Memorial Theatre and finally the Back Bay Theatre.

Judy Garland was one of the last performers at the Back Bay Theatre. She sang there in May 1968 following-up on her prior year's appearance on the Boston Common in front of 100,000+ fans.

Judy Garland The Concert Years 1966 – 1969 – The Judy Room

www.thejudyroom.com www.thejudyroom.com
 
225 Hemenway St

Does anyone have any information on this parcel?

It's owned by the city, has never been built on, and as far as I know has never been included in any development plans.

1685584902231.png
 
Interesting question! My first thought was it had something to do with the old Stony Brook canal, which followed what is now Forsyth Way from 1889 to 1905. However, it was fully filled in, and clearly did not stop construction of the MFA on the opposite side. (Compare to the older conduit further up Hemenway, marked as "Stony Brook Sewer Easement" on that aerial, which is still active.)

1685591401743.png
 
The EGE said:
Interesting question! My first thought was it had something to do with the old Stony Brook canal, which followed what is now Forsyth Way from 1889 to 1905. However, it was fully filled in, and clearly did not stop construction of the MFA on the opposite side. (Compare to the older conduit further up Hemenway, marked as "Stony Brook Sewer Easement" on that aerial, which is still active.)

View attachment 38640
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. Where did this map and cross section come from? I'd love to see more of it.
 
Desire Path said:
Thanks for the info. Where did this map and cross section come from? I'd love to see more of it.
Click to expand...

From this 1892 engineering journal article:
archive.org

Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies : Association of Engineering Societies (U.S.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Vols. 4-15 contain Index of current literature later republished as Engineering index, v. 1-2
archive.org

The Wikipedia article that I wrote should be a decent overview as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stony_Brook_(Charles_River_tributary,_Boston)
 
If anyone is wondering what the current state of wealthy high schools' construction costs are... Andover is independently (no MSBA) navigating through design of a new high school, at a cost of.... $484 million. With potential adds (i.e. not included in the $484m) including:
  • Solar: $17M
  • Timber Structure: $7.5M
  • Porous Pavement: $6.3M
  • Plateau field: $2.4M
  • Skate Park: $4.7M
  • Parking garage: $43M
  • Sports Lighting: $5.1M
Recent presentation

Project website
 
stefal said:
If anyone is wondering what the current state of wealthy high schools' construction costs are... Andover is independently (no MSBA) navigating through design of a new high school, at a cost of.... $484 million. With potential adds (i.e. not included in the $484m) including:
  • Solar: $17M
  • Timber Structure: $7.5M
  • Porous Pavement: $6.3M
  • Plateau field: $2.4M
  • Skate Park: $4.7M
  • Parking garage: $43M
  • Sports Lighting: $5.1M
Recent presentation

Project website
Click to expand...
Parking 43M? So sad
 
Speaking of parking, I saw this pic on Reddit today. Reddit

One of the comments mentions all the parking still exists, it's just underground. The strings gets more informative about "parking ratios" (I forgot all about those) and provided a couple of interesting links. Just throwing out there for info / fodder. I'm glad there are people out there to lead these governing efforts to prevent South Boston from becoming more of a parking lot.

Max parking ratios - Boston
APCC (Air Pollution Control)

seaport.png
 
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