93 Mass Ave (Other Side Cafe) | 93-97 Massachusetts Ave | Back Bay

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This is slightly off topic, but the City of Boston recently put up a picture of this building in 1911 on Flickr:

 
I walked by this the other day. It is a very nice rebuild of a very nice building. Almost Fort Point-esque. I venture the green space between the windows will have the decorative features put back in before this is fully wrapped up.
 
The Mass Ave side is almost complete, its a very good match to the way it was. It's a shame they didn't replicate the historic storefronts from that picture, they were really impressive. Otherwise, while I have some misgivings about their 'demolish and rebuild' approach to the facade, the work is very, very good.

I'd also been inside in the past, inside and out the building was in very sorry shape.
 
Davem, was it all just apartments upstairs? I could never quite tell what was going on up there given the random assortment of junk seen in every window.

And this building anchored my view for two and a half years, 2005-07. I always loved its strong vertical lines (hell, I loved my view) but it was obvious back then that it was pretty rundown.

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kz1000ps said:
Davem, was it all just apartments upstairs? I could never quite tell what was going on up there given the random assortment of junk seen in every window.
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Really creepy, run down offices. It looked like they renovated it in the late 60s and never did another ounce of maintenance. One of the offices on the top floors ceiling had collapsed, and the elevator stunk like it belonged to the T.
 
Huh...there was always a group of black gay/crossdressing/transgender kids hanging around in the front doorway that I assumed lived there; they were also frequently seen wandering around the Berklee area. Maybe they just rented a space there for their, uh, artistic endeavors?
 
kz1000ps said:
Huh...there was always a group of black gay/crossdressing/transgender kids hanging around in the front doorway that I assumed lived there; they were also frequently seen wandering around the Berklee area. Maybe they just rented a space there for their, uh, artistic endeavors?
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Maybe it was a chinatown sort of situation, renting space for "commercial use" but actually living there. It was certainly sketchy enough
 
kz1000ps said:
Huh...there was always a group of black gay/crossdressing/transgender kids hanging around in the front doorway that I assumed lived there; they were also frequently seen wandering around the Berklee area. Maybe they just rented a space there for their, uh, artistic endeavors?
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As I recall there was some sort of LGBT community center in the upper floors of that building- my old roommate would go there a lot before we were roommates, and I would often meet her in front of the building and then head off to wherever it was we were planning on going that day.
 
^ That must be what it was. Thanks for that bit of info!
 
novitiate said:
As I recall there was some sort of LGBT community center in the upper floors of that building- my old roommate would go there a lot before we were roommates, and I would often meet her in front of the building and then head off to wherever it was we were planning on going that day.
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It was Boston GLASS, which was a GLBT youth services organization. It was the more urban answer to BAGLY, which drew kids more from the suburbs.
 
I'm in the building across the street a lot, and have been trying really hard to find a flaw in the replica facade. So far, I can't. They've done really, really good work here.
 
Davem, can you tell what the cornice is made of? It is A) the original cleaned up, or is it B) a replica cornice, and if so is it made of wood or some nasty EIFS?
 
kz1000ps said:
Davem, can you tell what the cornice is made of? It is A) the original cleaned up, or is it B) a replica cornice, and if so is it made of wood or some nasty EIFS?
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It's definitely a replica, and believe it or not I think its actually metal. They carefully dissembled the original, probably to made molds out of them. It is possible they are fiberglass though, as I believe the panels between the windows are. Most day's I'm there they are done with work, so I rarely see anything going up.
 
Artisanal quality. A lot of people have reason to be proud to have worked on this.
 
davem said:
I'm in the building across the street a lot, and have been trying really hard to find a flaw in the replica facade. So far, I can't. They've done really, really good work here.
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Dave, you normally rail against facadectomies. I'm curious why you think this is better?
(I'm not baiting or anything. I respect your opinion - I get the impression you're an architect).
 
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