7INK (née Ollie) | 217 Albany St | South End

Do the micro-sized studios share common kitchens with other units?
How many bathrooms to ever 2, 3 micro-sized units?
 
Takes all kinds: -- here's a small sample of places outside of hotel rooms or traditional apartments or single family houses in which I've stayed over the years:
  • At MIT as an undergrad I lived in MacGregor -- everyone had a room 5 rooms to a Suite shared kitchen, bathroom and small lounge -- 2 suites to a floor -- then as you scaled-up more common spaces --seemed to work quite well
  • As a grad student U Texas Austin my first habitation was a private dorm -- everyone had a room -- 2 rooms shared a bathroom -- no kitchen nothing much beyond a common entry lobby
  • On my way to Austin I stayed one night in Oak Ridge Tennessee next to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a WWII era Men's Dormitory -- 3 or for beds to a room, bathroom for a couple of such rooms a shower down the end of the hall, no kitchens or common areas
  • On a project in Singapore I stayed in complex on a private island that once was R&E for the British Army "Brass"-- grouped in clusters 3 rooms each with bath and kitchen with a 4th room for your semi-private valet on call 24x7
  • On a project in India I stayed in a complex once only available to British Officers located on a mountain in southern Andra Pradesh -- but it was more like a camp in the woods than a fancy hotel -- everyone had a room and a bathroom -- there was a communal mess hall down the road a piece
  • In Budapest I stayed in a Professors Guest House with a chef to cook breakfast to order for each floor -- 5 or 6 rooms
  • in Gdansk Poland I stayed in a "vising staff dormitory" where everyone had a room with a bathroom and there was a common breakfast room a and a common laundry
I guess I would consider most of the above with the exception of the Oak Ridge and Austin dorms as acceptable habitation
 
Here is a great primer on what is being done with a lot of micro apartments around the country:

This may not be exactly what we are getting here, but I imagine the concept is close.
 
Takes all kinds: -- here's a small sample of places outside of hotel rooms or traditional apartments or single family houses in which I've stayed over the years:
  • At MIT as an undergrad I lived in MacGregor -- everyone had a room 5 rooms to a Suite shared kitchen, bathroom and small lounge -- 2 suites to a floor -- then as you scaled-up more common spaces --seemed to work quite well
  • As a grad student U Texas Austin my first habitation was a private dorm -- everyone had a room -- 2 rooms shared a bathroom -- no kitchen nothing much beyond a common entry lobby
  • On my way to Austin I stayed one night in Oak Ridge Tennessee next to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a WWII era Men's Dormitory -- 3 or for beds to a room, bathroom for a couple of such rooms a shower down the end of the hall, no kitchens or common areas
  • On a project in Singapore I stayed in complex on a private island that once was R&E for the British Army "Brass"-- grouped in clusters 3 rooms each with bath and kitchen with a 4th room for your semi-private valet on call 24x7
  • On a project in India I stayed in a complex once only available to British Officers located on a mountain in southern Andra Pradesh -- but it was more like a camp in the woods than a fancy hotel -- everyone had a room and a bathroom -- there was a communal mess hall down the road a piece
  • In Budapest I stayed in a Professors Guest House with a chef to cook breakfast to order for each floor -- 5 or 6 rooms
  • in Gdansk Poland I stayed in a "vising staff dormitory" where everyone had a room with a bathroom and there was a common breakfast room a and a common laundry
I guess I would consider most of the above with the exception of the Oak Ridge and Austin dorms as acceptable habitation

Wow MIT sounds luxurious. In NY, the state schools upstate provide dorms with 36 rooms (72-84 residents) sharing two bathrooms per gender with 4 stalls and 2 showers each. Asbestos in the walls, and everything concrete. 9 of 11 buildings like that. Other two? Similar but more spacious. Population of the town? 18,000 with a density of 500psqm.

But back on topic, I think these units are just fine. They serve a person nowadays and its what millennial want/need. Just like 100 years ago, triple deckers served an extraordinary purpose to house European migrants.
 
Wow MIT sounds luxurious. In NY, the state schools upstate provide dorms with 36 rooms (72-84 residents) sharing two bathrooms per gender with 4 stalls and 2 showers each. Asbestos in the walls, and everything concrete. 9 of 11 buildings like that. Other two? Similar but more spacious. Population of the town? 18,000 with a density of 500psqm.

But back on topic, I think these units are just fine. They serve a person nowadays and its what millennial want/need. Just like 100 years ago, triple deckers served an extraordinary purpose to house European migrants.
Not -- to continue the diversion too too much -- BUT -- not all MIT dorms had the same kinds of accommodations -- for instance in the architecturally significant Baker House designed by the Finnish Modernist Alvar Aalto -- there were the infamous Quads [stuffing 4 students into one room] which in my era looked across the Briggs Athletic Field at a blazing Neon Sign that said {"Cains Mayonnaise / Potato chips"] routinely hacked to say "Cains Mayonaise / Pot"]
 
I am so one-track minded, I saw "Ollie" and thought that the startup company I get my dog's food from was opening an HQ in Boston:

https://www.myollie.com/

Happy Friday.
Hey, if it was this Ollie's, this property is basically across the street from Amazon East (not official name) in Arlington VA.
10646260686_b42edccf2c_b.jpg
 
Wonderful picture. Does a great job helping explain the term "New York Streets" among other things.
Actually to understand the term "New York Streets" you have to go back to the street grid before 1955 (pre-urban-renewal). The streets between Harrison and Albany were a tight grid of streets lined with small row houses. The streets were named for New York State destinations out of South Station:
Seneca
Oneida
Oswego
Genesee
Rochester
Troy

Plus you had Albany and Utica streets running perpendicular.
 
Actually to understand the term "New York Streets" you have to go back to the street grid before 1955 (pre-urban-renewal). The streets between Harrison and Albany were a tight grid of streets lined with small row houses. The streets were named for New York State destinations out of South Station:
Seneca
Oneida
Oswego
Genesee
Rochester
Troy

Plus you had Albany and Utica streets running perpendicular.
I appreciate the listing of streets. Sometimes I forget there so many of them. https://bostonhistory.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/newyorkstreetsfinal2.jpg
 
I get such FOMO when I hear about Boston pre-urban renewal. I'd love to hear what are places and experiences we as Bostonians missed out on and what after that now that we might not have had if it didnt happen
 
Suffolk -- the NY Streets has sort of two meanings:
1) as quoted above -- in building its access to South Station the Railroad transformed the then mudflat into a "housing development" -- as befits the "Master Developer" -- the Railroad named the streets and chose to name them after cities in upstate NY which could be reached on a train from South Station
2) Just the idea that streets in Boston could be arrayed in a grid just like Manhattan NYC -- this was a popular interpretation of those unfamiliar with #1. It really doesn't make any sense since X-Y street grid existed in Boston in the Back Bay well before the New York Streets area. Later there were X-Y grids overlayed onto Boston in quite a few areas as they in turn developed either from the original land grants or as new land was made from filling the mud flats [e.g. Southie, Charlestown, Eastie, Dorchester, Roxbury, etc.] -- so much so that majority of the non-rectilinear grid of streets are confined mostly to olde original layout Shawmut Peninsula Boston.
 

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