8-10 Waldo Street | Coolidge Corner | Brookline
- Thread starter shmessy
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It looks halfway decent from the inbound angles on Beacon/Pleasant, but it ruins the prospects from everywhere else. Nothing will ever make me like this project. Coolidge is charming because of the low rise character... this thing hulks and looms over the shops from every other angle and will dominate the overall aesthetic. Developing the Center St lots with mid rises (and Waldo with mid rises) would be a much better plan. Leave the tall buildings to literally any other lot on Beacon St and leave Coolidge alone.
I personally like this far more contextual render and Waldo/Pleasant really is far enough east of Harvard Street - - to not really feel like an intruder so much on Coolidge Corner. Preserve Harvard Street for sure.
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I refer back to my original post of this very thread 5 years ago, to fully get perspective on what a nuclear bomb we have avoided here..........
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I refer back to my original post of this very thread 5 years ago, to fully get perspective on what a nuclear bomb we have avoided here..........
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Look at the renders from Harvard Street. I agree and said as much that from the angle you quoted there it looks fine. It still dominates/looms from the other angles of Coolidge.
Absolutely - - and you were right there on that first page 5 years ago decrying the spaceship - no argument.
Just looking at the updated renders, we went from a soul killing spaceship to a far more contextual (albeit hulking) project. Is it perfect? No. But they went from a butt ugly and non-contextual -5 to a pretty decent 6 with this one. The only real demerit is the bulk. And when you look across Pleasant/Waldo there is already 1284 Beacon - - all 8 marvelous stories of it. In that particular location I really don't see such an eggregious sore thumb.
I just don't think the Corner is "virgin territory" anymore. Harvard Street? Yes. But not the overall area.
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stick n move
Superstar
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Update presentation from 2022 hadnt been posted.
Waldo-Durgin Development
https://www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/30738/DAT-Presentation-4-12-22?bidId=
Waldo-Durgin Development
https://www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/30738/DAT-Presentation-4-12-22?bidId=
Czervik.Construction
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Those last two renders are about 1 person away from an Edward Hopper painting.
Looks like it was staging for the collision place that was there: https://goo.gl/maps/9jJX7GgLCdwRUwJo8
Smuttynose
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Demolition begins at Waldo-Durgin site, paving way for major Coolidge Corner development
Demolition begins at Waldo-Durgin site, paving way for major Coolidge Corner development - Brookline.News
Dust clouded the air just north of Coolidge Corner in recent weeks, as demolition began on the site of two historic garages which will now become the center of a major new development. The Waldo-Durgin project, decades in the making, is moving forward, although it will likely be years before a...
brookline.news
RandomWalk
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That strikes me as a mothballed site.
Equilibria
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The demolition took place over the last couple of months - was there something wrong with the buildings on site that would have required their demolition without any plans to build?
Aprehensive_Words
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Sometimes developers pay for demo out of their own pockets before financing is secured as a way to make their site look more attractive to lenders (no risk of unexpected asbestos messing up the construction timetable, for example).
I think many of the potential answers lie in the excellent July 30, 2024 article link from Smuttynose in Post #90
Demolition begins at Waldo-Durgin site, paving way for major Coolidge Corner development - Brookline.News
Dust clouded the air just north of Coolidge Corner in recent weeks, as demolition began on the site of two historic garages which will now become the center of a major new development. The Waldo-Durgin project, decades in the making, is moving forward, although it will likely be years before a...
brookline.news
(Perhaps the ground soil needs treatment? I'm no expert in this, but that might be an explanation?)
".....Andy Martineau, development project manager at Chestnut Hill Realty, said that asbestos in the building’s interior has been abated, and that asbestos in its roof will be “abated during demolition following a work plan approved by MassDEP and the Brookline Department of Public Health.”
The company says it is using fire hoses and water cannons to wet down the buildings as they are being demolished, and will have a licensed hygienist on site full-time to monitor the air quality for asbestos during the demolition.
Also
".......Zuker says the company’s goal is to start construction in the next 18 months (~January 2026), and he’s hoping that interest rates will come down during that time. (Soaring construction costs and inflation have stalled construction projects around the Boston area and the country.)........"
".......In the meantime, the town and developer are in talks about whether there might be any mutually beneficial interim uses of the site. In other towns, such interim uses have included things like pop-up event spaces or outdoor movie nights......."
I'm not overly worried about the intentions of the developer at this time (subject to change, of course, but, given the above this all seems pretty much right on schedule)
".......Ed Zuker, a prominent local developer and the founder of Chestnut Hill Realty, has been eyeing the property, and buying pieces of it, for 50 years.
“To me, Waldo is a crown in my career,” said Zuker, 76, who grew up in Brookline. “I want to do something that’s really great for the town.”
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