A. O. Flats | Parcel U | Jamaica Plain

Interesting decision to go with the round column covers at the corners.
 
The red section is different, I like it. I'm seeing more tans and browns lately, and while it's a change from the same grey scale used throughout JP, the browns often come across as drab.
 
This entire development so far has been awesome. This newest building looks great too imo. I like both sections, just wait until it has some trees around it and its going to be phenominal.
 
To clarify, I like the design just fine, I just wish they'd have gone with a different cladding color.
 
stick n move said:
This entire development so far has been awesome. This newest building looks great too imo. I like both sections, just wait until it has some trees around it and its going to be phenominal.
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It is a very nice addition, even makes Washington St. from across the tracks look more densely urban, despite the project being entirely on Hyde Park Ave.
 
I spend time around here every day, and here's something I've been wondering about lately: when these projects are completed, are we going to reach a critical mass where Forest Hills will/should be considered its own neighborhood, separate and apart from either JP or Roslindale? A neighborhood is, first and foremost, something you feel on the streets. Even someone who's never seen a map of Boston knows that they're leaving one neighborhood and entering another when they cross North Washington Street from the North End to the West End, or cross Fort Point Channel from Downtown to the Seaport. You feel it.

To me, this area neither looks, nor feels like JP or Roslindale.

Here's roughly what people would describe as Forest Hills today. It's already bigger than or comparable to several designated neighborhoods (Bay Village, Beacon Hill, the North End, the West End, Chinatown - and maybe the Fenway).

Screen Shot 2019-10-29 at 7.35.49 PM.png


But I would even suggest calling this entire area Forest Hills:

Screen Shot 2019-10-29 at 7.43.25 PM.png
 
BronsonShore said:
I spend time around here every day, and here's something I've been wondering about lately: when these projects are completed, are we going to reach a critical mass where Forest Hills will/should be considered its own neighborhood, separate and apart from either JP or Roslindale? A neighborhood is, first and foremost, something you feel on the streets. Even someone who's never seen a map of Boston knows that they're leaving one neighborhood and entering another when they cross North Washington Street from the North End to the West End, or cross Fort Point Channel from Downtown to the Seaport. You feel it.

To me, this area neither looks, nor feels like JP or Roslindale.

Here's roughly what people would describe as Forest Hills today. It's already bigger than or comparable to several designated neighborhoods (Bay Village, Beacon Hill, the North End, the West End, Chinatown - and maybe the Fenway).

View attachment 964

But I would even suggest calling this entire area Forest Hills:

View attachment 965
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Ask people who live in Forest Hills and they'll tell you it's been a standalone neighborhood for a while now. Neighborhoods tend to merge or split depending on the demographics. Egleston Sq is listed as part of JP, but try telling that to an old-timer and you'll be swiftly told that that is Roxbury. Lately Google Maps shows Egleston Sq as not only firmly within JP boundaries, it's also migrated south from the Washington/Columbus intersection to encompass the whole recently-gentrifying Washington St corridor.
 
HarvardP said:
Ask people who live in Forest Hills and they'll tell you it's been a standalone neighborhood for a while now. Neighborhoods tend to merge or split depending on the demographics. Egleston Sq is listed as part of JP, but try telling that to an old-timer and you'll be swiftly told that that is Roxbury. Lately Google Maps shows Egleston Sq as not only firmly within JP boundaries, it's also migrated south from the Washington/Columbus intersection to encompass the whole recently-gentrifying Washington St corridor.
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I think the whole fixation on names is bullshit, anyway... only in this day and age are people so hung up on boundaries of things as inconsequential as neighborhoods... half a century ago, yes, there were neighborhoods that were defined mainly by the people who lived in them, but it wasn't a situation where the entire city limits were carved up into regions, each of which was equivalent to the other.

There are some areas that are "just the neighborhood" — ie, Centre St in JP is just JP, — but others aren't really equivalents to neighborhoods. Kenmore Square is like that: you could argue that it's technically part of Back Bay, or "The Fenway" (or Fenway/Kenmore or whatever the BRA calls it now), but I think most people who live in Boston and don't think as much as we do about this stuff would consider Kenmore to be Kenmore. That doesn't really make it its own neighborhood, at least as an equivalent of Back Bay or Jamaica Plain. But I would also scoff a little if someone said they lived in Back Bay but actually lived on Deerfield Street.

In our overly pedantic and fixated time, where we truly behave as if, if only we could just define and name everything, our problems would be over, we leave no wiggle room for the way a city — or a region — actually functions organically. Boston is more like medieval Germany, with numerous overlapping, sometimes ill-defined, constantly changing spread of principalities, electorates, bishoprics, kingdoms, duchies, free cities, etc, none of which were equivalent to the other. Yes, the city needs neighborhood associations for every square inch and so you can find your map telling you where JP ends and Roxbury begins, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Some squares are too big to really call them "part of" some other neighborhood. Kenmore, Forest Hills, Cleveland Circle, are examples of places that have their own identity, in 2019. And some areas don't really fit into any area at all — the area of all the -bourne streets (between Walk Hill, Hyde Park Ave, and Morton) may technically be JP, but nobody thinks of that area when they hear "Jamaica Plain". It would make sense to call that area "Forest Hills" although I'm sure that 'hood would vociferously oppose such a redesignation, given the cachet of JP these days. Ha, that gets into another thing nobody talks about, which is how race and money influence the wars between defining neighborhood boundaries, but that's another rant.

Anyway, we have to have our territories and names these days so as long as we need to play the game, I agree with you Bronson, it's time for FH to be its own neighborhood. I wouldn't exclude Forest Hills Cemetery, though... rather essential, I'd say.
 
They are pretty nice, and hold up well when seen in person. I still think the MBTA needs to figure out something creative to do with the exposed sides of the train corridors ...
 
I don't hate the massing, but I go by this almost every day and the more I look at it, the more dated it feels. The siding looks really cheap and the townhouses even more so.
 
I absolutely love these rowhouses and townhouses going up here. In the day of anonymity and boringness, these are unique and attractive. Id love to see these takeoff and pop up around much more of the city. The best part is the materials are nothing special. The architect is just tasteful and knows the best way to use the positive attributes and hide the negatives. Just goes to show materials are not an excuse for bad design, lack of effort and being out of touch are why so many of the crappier buildings fall short.
 
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Yeah I love the massing of these (minus all the space for the parking) but the materials are definitely noticeably...bad? Going by these they definitely look dated in terms of siding, especially the yellow.
 
I can't say that I love these units individually--the facade looks cheap and will age poorly and the amount of $ and space that went into the parking garages...I can't.
but together they form a really great continuous wall that looks great when going down Washington street towards Roslindale.
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DAVE said:
I can't say that I love these units individually--the facade looks cheap and will age poorly and the amount of $ and space that went into the parking garages...I can't.
but together they form a really great continuous wall that looks great when going down Washington street towards Roslindale.
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Agree. Every time I pass through there , I'm surprised by how much impact a project on Hyde Park Ave. has had on the Washington St. side of the tracks. Now if we could just get a bit of that for the stretch of Washington just after the cat hospital and closed Simpli building.
 
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