Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

[JohnAKeith]

"It's gotta be little Lisa Simpson. Springfield's answer to a question no one asked."

 

[blade_bltz]

Wait, what's going on here?

 

[kz1000ps]

St. E's is adding three stories onto its existing emergency wing:

The plans call for adding 71,000 square feet, including 47,000 square feet of usable space, that will house 23 new beds, mechanical uses, and a consolidated critical care unit, the city said in a statement Wednesday.

The addition will be spread over three new floors built atop the current three-story structure at the corner of Washington and Cambridge streets, according to the statement. The addition will make the facility 69.5 feet taller.

Link

The article refers to this newish--and unbelievably ugly--building at Washington and Cambridge, but when I went to their emergency department years back it was in a building behind it, so I'm not entirely sure which building they're talking about. Either way I reeeeeaaalllly hope this pink turd doesn't grow any taller:

 

[Hutchison]

They are also relandscasping...the backside of the hospital lol

 

[davem]

RE: St E's
The inside is really nice, and the massing and proportions are good as well. The skin they chose is just so damned ugly. If they had gone with the yellow brick on most of the existing campus the building would be 8 billion times better. I really hope the pink is temporary and a better quality skin will be applied. Doubt it though.



On a completely unrelated note, the scaffolding isn't even down at the new building at the corner of Greylock and Glenville and the ugly-as-sin panels already have graffiti on them, Whoever thought a monotone flat siding in the heart of Allston was a good idea must live on the moon. I actually like the building in general though, it reminds me of Europe.

 

[kz1000ps]

Thanks for the heads-up, davem. I'll be in the neighborhood shortly and will make sure I have my camera with me.

 

[davem]

Thanks for the heads-up, davem. I'll be in the neighborhood shortly and will make sure I have my camera with me.

The building on Brainerd is almost complete as well. They also have the one story commercial building across the street fenced off and are gutting it, anyone know whats going on there? I've also heard rumors the steel fabrication place is next to go for another apartment building.

Over at Charlesview they are starting to put up supports for the exterior on the first building, the second is topped off, and they started putting up steel for the third midrise. They have also started pouring foundations for the houses in the back.

I run deliveries as part of my job and drive past all these projects every day, but my camera has no batteries!

 

[shmessy]

RE: St E's
The inside is really nice, and the massing and proportions are good as well. The skin they chose is just so damned ugly. If they had gone with the yellow brick on most of the existing campus the building would be 8 billion times better. I really hope the pink is temporary and a better quality skin will be applied. Doubt it though.



On a completely unrelated note, the scaffolding isn't even down at the new building at the corner of Greylock and Glenville and the ugly-as-sin panels already have graffiti on them, Whoever thought a monotone flat siding in the heart of Allston was a good idea must live on the moon. I actually like the building in general though, it reminds me of Europe.

Auschwitz?

 

[kz1000ps]

I did a big walk all over Allston this morning trying to get all the current and recent residential projects. We'll start with the new one on Greylock:

The materials look shockingly cheap and fragile:

Next up is 65 Brainerd Road (what a name....Brain-nerd) aka "The Element":

And directly across the street at 60-66 is where "The Edge" will go:

Also built by the same developer is this project on Comm Ave, completed back around 2008:

This is at Harvard and Comm Ave, where Uno's used to be. A bank will be going in here:

Everyone's favorite new-old development:

And then there's this project directly behind the Brighton Ave addition, completed in 2009 I think:

 

[kz1000ps]

For my last set, I visited the new Library Park that sits behind the Allston-Honan library branch. I give it a 3 out of 5:

There's those lions:

Tucked away at the back is this little arroyo:

Looking towards the rear of the library:

 

[Matthew]

The TD Bank was supposed to be done already. It hasn't changed in months. WTF is going on with that?

I'd be more impressed by the library park if there were, y'know, people there. Never seen anyone in it.

 

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Thanks KZ.
Those lions look an awful lot like the ones in Wormwood Park. Any idea if there's a story behind them?

 

[Shepard]

The TD Bank was supposed to be done already. It hasn't changed in months. WTF is going on with that?

The alleged Capital One in Coolidge Corner also seems to have stalled out. Wonder if there's some sort of slowdown (due to oversaturation?) in the local retail banking sector.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

The alleged Capital One in Coolidge Corner also seems to have stalled out. Wonder if there's some sort of slowdown (due to oversaturation?) in the local retail banking sector.

Possible. BoA has announced its intention to close a ton of branches to cut costs, but it hasn't named which ones, indicated what % of them are big full-service branches vs. lighter-staffed locations, or put on any sort of schedule when they plan to start pruning. That will undoubtedly affect placement of competing branches, not only for maintaining location parity with BoA but also because scooping up some ex-BoA offices may be cheaper to swing than gutting/renovating a space that previously wasn't set up as a bank branch. So I'm sure all the major banks in the area are in indefinite holding pattern until this plays out.

 

[JohnAKeith]

The Brainerd Road development looks decent. Can we get another 700 of them put up, stat?

 

[datadyne007]

I like the Brainerd development. Great contextual design!

 

[blade_bltz]

Awesome update. Shocked at the way Greylock turned out. WTF

 

[stellarfun]

kz, thanks for the library park pictures. I assume Harvard never did figure out which Boston building the lions came from.

 

[davem]

The TD Bank was supposed to be done already. It hasn't changed in months. WTF is going on with that?

They are working in there every day, I can vouch for that.

It was a complete gut job, right down to the supporting structure which was replaced with new steel beams. That whole apartment building was held up with scaffolding for a few weeks.

Right now they are working on the interior. My guess is they don't want to put the windows in until as late as possible, it being summer and hot and all.

 

[Matthew]

Thanks, dave, I'm glad to hear that.