Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

The Brighton Ave project needs to be a prototype for every one story retail building in Boston. While housing prices remain so high, the city should levy a tax on one story retail landlords until they develop upper stories. Change the meaning of "taxpayer building" for the better.
 
So the Glenville project actually happened at (what appears to be) the originally proposed scale? i.e., the NIMBYs lost?

Also, now that KZ is famous, we need someone else to step up and keep track of projects not named Liberty Mutual...
 
czsz said:
The Brighton Ave project needs to be a prototype for every one story retail building in Boston. While housing prices remain so high, the city should levy a tax on one story retail landlords until they develop upper stories. Change the meaning of "taxpayer building" for the better.
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CZ-- you know of course that a lot of the one and two story buildings in Boston began life taller. However, during the Great Depression, landlords being unable to rent anything except the ground floor and being taxed for 2 or three others -- just lopped the upper floors off

And then there's the most bizare case of Sumner Appleton who bought the somewhat decrepit Paul Revere House to preserve it -- and then in a fit of restoration feaver while trying to restore it to its neo-Medieva origins -- lopped off the top floor. The top floor (3rd floor loft level) was the most authentic part of the building -- quite possibly the part most built by Paul Revere himself. Remember that the house was already 80 years old when Revere bought it and that Revere was one of the most-up-to-date people in all of North America and further that he had a very growing family - one of whom would be an ancestor of Sumner Appleton.
 
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blade_bltz said:
Also, now that KZ is famous, we need someone else to step up and keep track of projects not named Liberty Mutual...
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Haha I'm still in town a decent amount, I've just been a bit lazy about getting out when I am around (my bed is soooo much nicer to spend time in than Super 8's). But expect loads of pictures in the next few days...everything from Chestnut Hill to Southie.
 
Brainard Road apartments:
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Brighton Ave: (this came out fantastic IMO)
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Charlesview right side:
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Charlesview left side:
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They repaved and striped North Harvard St: (I give it a week before Nstar tears it up)
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blade_bltz said:
Anyone have pics of the TD Bank? Kz - that's high praise for what is presumably another one story addition to the nabe.
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So I finally got around to photographing the new TD and the site of 375 Market right next door. Dunno why it took so long considering I live a mile away...

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375 Market:

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Not sure if demo prep is starting or if the site's been like this:

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Three generations of one-story banking retail are visible here:

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That would look unwelcomely suburban in Needham Center, let alone there.
 
There's a cemetery right there where the photo was taken. I was amused by the inscription on the sign there when I first read it. It discussed the history dating back a couple hundred years. They had to move graves and cut part of the cemetery when widening Market Street.

Some things are too sacred to sacrifice. Such as roads.
 
czsz said:
That would look unwelcomely suburban in Needham Center, let alone there.
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Brighton aspires to be suburban, not urban. Walk 200 feet off of Washington Street in any direction and it's nice little buildings set in nice little yards. I'll bet you fifty bucks the new project--375 Market with 39 units--will have a splendid little yard out front and a splendid little parking lot out back.
 
kz1000ps said:
Brighton aspires to be suburban, not urban. Walk 200 feet off of Washington Street in any direction and it's nice little buildings set in nice little yards. I'll bet you fifty bucks the new project--375 Market with 39 units--will have a splendid little yard out front and a splendid little parking lot out back.
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And the problem with that is??

Take a look at Arlington -- suburban sure-- but not a necessarily bad model:

1) Mass Ave. Corridor -- #77 Bus provides subway type frequency of service with a lot more stops per mile
2) right on an a block or so off Mass Ave -- lots of appartments and multifamily
3) Arlington Center -- within 3 or 4 blocks on Mass Ave and a couple of blocks deep -- central retail, food quite a bit of vibrancy -- restaurants of many genres -- lots of future downtown chefs get their starts in a lower cost environment
4) Arlington Heights -- end of the 77 nice retail for a few blocks along Mass Ave and perpendicular in one key intersection
5) the rest dominated by single family homes on fairly small lots with some local retail some service from a couple of low frequency bus routes
6) easy access to both Cambridge / Boston and Rt-128 via Rt-2
7) Minuteman Bike / pedestrian path
8) not much larger scale commercial / institutional development except for on the fringe with Cambridge

Add the Red Line eiher under the Minuteman or under / over Rt-2 and you would probably support some increase in residential density along the Red Line -- but probably Arlington would remain a bedroom community for both Cambridge / Boston and Rt-128 (including Lexington)

That's a successful model for most of the neighborhoods in Boston outside of the 10 or so cores which are employment hubs
 
^The problem with this is the transformation from street car suburb to automobile suburb.

The elimination of the A line cemented the end of any meaningful density along that corridor.

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If Brighton Center is striving to be Arlington, it's doing a good job.
 
bdurden said:
^The problem with this is the transformation from street car suburb to automobile suburb.

The elimination of the A line cemented the end of any meaningful density along that corridor.

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If Brighton Center is striving to be Arlington, it's doing a good job.
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Bdurden -- I'll bet that Arlington along Mass Ave is as dense as Brighton along the former A-line

You have to understand -- that in the US there are no more streetcar suburbs -- they only existed before there were cars

LRV subsurbs are just suburbs with an LRV line instead of a bus -- I don't get the affection for trolleys running in the street
 
czsz said:
Now I know why I disagree with you all the time.
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No -- you just think that you do

You have a preconception as to what is suburban -- but there are as many different types of suburban existance (just within Greater Boston) as there types of urban existance

I'm not a big fan of 2 acre zone lots, nor McMansions shoe-horned onto less than 10,000 sq. ft.

But I like the suburban lifestyle surrounding my house.

Within a 5 minute walk I can:

1) stroll to a small but nicely lanscaped park
2) take the dog to a few tens of acres of woods
3) take the dog / or myself or my bike to the Minuteman Bike / Pedestrian Trail and surrounding Great Meadows with hundreds of acres of semi-wilderness
4) eat or get takeout from a Mexican, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Pizza, sort of nouvelle American cuisine, and a Dunkin Donuts
5) bank, shop for furniture, do my laundry, late hours shop with food, newpapers and lottery tickets
6) 2 wine and beer shops
7) tailor, dry cleaner
8) bus to Alewife

Walk a bit further and I can be in Arlington Heights with more shops (Hardware, building supply, picture framing, etc.... and more restaurants and I can catch the regular every 10 minutes or so #77 bus (30 minutes to Harvard Sq.)

Get in my car and in 5 minutes (non rush-hour) I can be at Alewife, or Lexington Center; or on Rt-128 -- and in 30 minutes of driving or taking the T from Alewife I cab be in downtown Boston somewhat less to MIT

In less than an hour by car or by T I can be at Logan and within 9 hours of leaving my house in Frankfurt, Paris or London

I have neighbors with whom I regurlarly talk and sometimes share tools

Oh and I do have a small lawn, some vegetable plants and my wife gardens florally quite extensively

So what is wrong with that lifestyle -- why wouldn't it appeal to people in Brighton?
 
^ The "suburban center" effect is very lovely indeed because of its relative urbanity compared with the rest of the town of Lexington. Same goes for Arlington. When people think of the "suburbs" they aren't thinking of the quarter mile surrounding town centers and along main thoroughfares, they're thinking of the McMansions or the 2 acre lots that fan out around those centers for miles.
 
I could go off forever obviously but for now I'll just say that keeping a neighborhood of Boston as suburbanesque as Lexington or Arlington is precipitating an affordable housing crisis in the metropolitan core and sprawl outside of it.

That, and to add to what Busses said: not everyone in suburbia gets to live within walking distance of the one bus or train line. And not everyone gets to live in a low-density suburb so close to the city. In order for them to be able to, the suburb would have to resemble something far more urban.
 
Busses and czsz both made good points. I would also like to point out that there is a huge demand for walkable urban or even suburban areas, just check out rents and home prices. But entrenched interests have written overbearing regulation that pretty much outlaws the development of more such areas. That's why I rail against bad zoning codes so much; it's creating an artificial scarcity. Where's the freedom of choice in that?

Also, more on the suburban "center" concept: if you look at more traditional Asian and European small towns you'll notice that even they are often compact and walkable despite not being in a city. That style is sadly something that never really carried over to North America.
 
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