Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | Roxbury

Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

Jouhou said:
Yeah, I was thinking it looks an awful lot like 10 farnsworth.
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Went to the South End forum and listened to the developers show this as a "concept". It was an interesting experience as it was my first time at an event like this. As one could expect, there was at least one vociferous complaint (complete with cursing), but mostly a measured response and an acknowledgement that this has been a spot that has been long in need of preservation/redevelopment.

The 10 Farnsworth is no accident as either the developer or architects (or both) created the 10 Farnsworth building and took credit for it as an inspiration that won awards for being historically contextual.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

reverend_paco said:
It was an interesting experience as it was my first time at an event like this. As one could expect, there was at least one vociferous complaint (complete with cursing), but mostly a measured response and an acknowledgement that this has been a spot that has been long in need of preservation/redevelopment.....
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and so it goes.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GvsZwutEI
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

"We must destroy it to save it!"
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

This is the type of treatment I would like to see in Kenmore Square, except on a notably larger scale.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

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Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

Its a pleasure to read well-written, descriptive prose (and history) in a PNF.

A five-story building organized as four residential floors above paired ground-floor storefronts flanking a central tenant entry on the Washington Street elevation, the Hotel Alexandra’s exterior is heavily detailed and, though long neglected, largely intact. Exemplifying the richly decorated, Venetian-inflected Ruskinian subtype of the High Victorian Gothic style, its façades are ornamented with pointed arches and colonettes as well as dogtooth and rosette-carved banding. At the second through fourth stories of the Washington Street elevation, box bays rest on the semi-octagonal cast-iron storefront projections of the ground floor. The roof of the right-hand bay retains its historic iron cresting; that at the left has been missing since at least 1899. The Washington Street elevation’s bays are answered on the Massachusetts Avenue façade by semi-octagonal oriels, also of cast iron, at the same levels. Long boarded over with plywood, four large storefront windows appear along Massachusetts Avenue, set flush with the elevation.

Completed in 1875 to the designs of an unknown architect, the Hotel Alexandra was built by Canaan, New Hampshire natives James and Caleb Walworth of the Walworth Manufacturing Company. As reflected by an illustrated catalogue published in 1878, this enterprise produced a vast array of wrought- and cast-iron pipes, steam and gas fittings as well as tools and supplies relating to steam and gas engineering. Founded by James Jones
Walworth (1808-1896), the firm expanded in 1846 to include his younger brother Caleb Clark Walworth (1815-1894).

A gifted inventor, Caleb in 1875 received a lucrative patent for a steam radiator that eventually became the standard type in use throughout the United States. The firm occupied offices at 69 Kilby Street in downtown Boston’s financial district, while its substantial manufacturing plant (or “works”) was located in Cambridgeport, then a thriving industrial area. Heating technology having wide application throughout the late nineteenth century economy, the Walworths’ business apparently met with great success; by the 1890s it was producing between six and seven million feet of pipe annually.
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Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

stellarfun said:
Its a pleasure to read well-written, descriptive prose (and history) in a PNF.
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Understanding history and context is important for most things in life, including architecture. And this fact has lead to an actually decent design and respectful materials for this. I'm unsure about other aspects of it such as affordability/affects to the current commercial units in the hotel, but design wise it looks great.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

reverend_paco said:
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The only problem I have with this is the western-facing side.

It's almost too obvious that they don't want people looking towards Roxbury.

I can't buy that it's because it's a shared plot line, because so is the north side. The west side brownstones are never going to be built up.

Neighbors coming up from Washington street are going to be given the view of an uninviting wall.

Am I missing some construction/fire proofing reason for this?
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

reverend_paco said:
The only problem I have with this is the western-facing side.

It's almost too obvious that they don't want people looking towards Roxbury.

I can't buy that it's because it's a shared plot line, because so is the north side. The west side brownstones are never going to be built up.

Neighbors coming up from Washington street are going to be given the view of an uninviting wall.

Am I missing some construction/fire proofing reason for this?
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The SW side (W on Washignton) is built to the lot line, the NW side (N on Mass Ave) is not. Note the NW side tower setback on, for example, PNF PDF pages 137 and 163.

But I agree that pulling the SW side of the tower away from the lot line a little to allow for a better facade would be a win. But it'd require giving up a decent amount of leaseable SF on each floor.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

JumboBuc said:
The SW side (W on Washignton) is built to the lot line, the NW side (N on Mass Ave) is not. Note the NW side tower setback on, for example, PNF PDF pages 137 and 163.

But I agree that pulling the SW side of the tower away from the lot line a little to allow for a better facade would be a win. But it'd require giving up a decent amount of leaseable SF on each floor.
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Gotcha. That makes sense. So lot line code dictates a wall (unless air rights are purchased)?
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

reverend_paco said:
The only problem I have with this is the western-facing side.

It's almost too obvious that they don't want people looking towards Roxbury.

I can't buy that it's because it's a shared plot line, because so is the north side. The west side brownstones are never going to be built up.

Neighbors coming up from Washington street are going to be given the view of an uninviting wall.

Am I missing some construction/fire proofing reason for this?
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While I agree, I think this is one of the better examples of this occurring. I think the fact that there is still some sort of design elements with the symmetrical windows going up the wall and I'm hopeful the wall itself will look maybe ok if it isnt alucobond (although is that just inevitable at this point?)
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

reverend_paco said:
Gotcha. That makes sense. So lot line code dictates a wall (unless air rights are purchased)?
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Like anything else, it's all about money. Typically, you need 3' between a window and the lot line. But, it's possible to put in windows on the lot line, but with much more expensive fire protection systems (exterior deluge). There probably just isn't the money for something like that on this project (given that they say they need to bulid 12 stories to finance retaining the existing structure).

But, I think there is a big difference between no windows and a flat alucobond wall. Especially in this context where we know nothing is going up next to this. Seems like an interesting opportunity to look at the facade, how it might relate to the other sides in a more interesting way.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

Is the nothing-to-see dank mid-rise part u/c yet?
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

Ugh. Another building with a tumor growing out of it. What a mockery of preservation this makes.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

I like the hotel tower. It reminds me of a lot of the smaller-scale stuff going up in the LES and along the High Line.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

I don't mind this.
 
Re: Alexandra Hotel Renovation | 1769 Washington St | South End

I live right down the street from this, I will gladly support this at a meeting
 
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