Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

Boston Herald: Developer Pitches 132 apartments near former Brighton speedway

Boston Herald said:
Boston’s Mount Vernon Co. is eying a new multifamily residential and retail project in Brighton, across from the former Charles River Speedway.

The Hub real estate firm wants to build 132 apartments and three retail storefronts at 516-522 and 530 Western Ave. and 8 and 10 Waverly St., according to a letter of intent filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The project would include a six-story building at Western Avenue and Leo M. Birmingham Parkway that would be connected on either side to a five-story building.

The development is slated for a 49,383-square-foot site with four buildings that would be demolished: a two-story three-family, a vacant one-story building that was a used-car dealership office, a former DeWalt tools service center and a single-family home.

The new apartments would include 20 two-bedrooms, 43 one-bedrooms, 16 one-bedrooms with dens and 53 studios.

Parking for 108 cars, storage for 132 bikes and a rooftop multipurpose room and fitness center also would be part of the development.

[...]
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Instead of bickering over whether or not a neighborhood is dense enough to make a new subway line worth the money, why not induce the demand? Allston - esp lower Allston along Western Ave - would be a perfect area to completely rezone for 10 stories along the road, 4-5 stories on side streets, build the subway from comm ave under beacon yards through western ave...

i know it's just fantasy, but it's nice to think about.
 
In regards to the development in the Everett triangle area, what has become of the old Rug Road rehearsal space? That place was great in it's shitiness !
 
The place with all night parties? It got bought by some biker group and turned into more of a biker (underground) bar, I believe.
 
FK4 said:
Instead of bickering over whether or not a neighborhood is dense enough to make a new subway line worth the money, why not induce the demand? Allston - esp lower Allston along Western Ave - would be a perfect area to completely rezone for 10 stories along the road, 4-5 stories on side streets, build the subway from comm ave under beacon yards through western ave...

i know it's just fantasy, but it's nice to think about.
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If I had my choice of route, it would be Arsenal on the Charles to Barry's Corner along Arsenal St/Western Ave, then to Harvard Square to join the red line. Basically, a 70/86 merger.

JumboBuc said:
Boston Herald: Developer Pitches 132 apartments near former Brighton speedway
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Relating to the above, with 108 cars vs. 132 units/152 bedrooms; I'm asking what the split will be on method of (non-car) commuting.

For bus commuting, obviously the 70 and 86 are popular routes that this could be decently served by, one can also reverse commute the 70.

Boston Bike Network Plan has a bike lane along all of Western Ave by 2018. One could also go over to the river path; the Greenough Greenway may even make it a pleasant ride on the Watertown/Cambridge side. I don't know if Watertown has plans for cyclists beyond the "Share the Road" signs along Arsenal Street.

And for walking, it is only a mile to the Arsenal on the Charles (and the surrounding nearby pharma companies). And the escape route to the reverse commute 70 on rainy/snowy days.

Generally, I think this is a location that has a lot of promise if someone cleans up the intersection here. It is horridly hostile to walking/biking if you want to get to Watertown. If anyone knows if there are any plans for improving this, please share.
 
dwash59 said:
Generally, I think this is a location that has a lot of promise if someone cleans up the intersection here. It is horridly hostile to walking/biking if you want to get to Watertown. If anyone knows if there are any plans for improving this, please share.
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New Balance agreed to improve the Birmingham Parkway / Western Avenue / Arsenal Street intersection when it got zoning approval for its Guest Street projects. It is in the "final improvements" section, so I expect it won't happen for a while.

Birmingham Parkway / Western Avenue / Arsenal Street
 Reconstruction of intersection.
 Install new traffic signal.
 Provide pedestrian crossings.
 Consolidate/reorganize lane use.
 Upgrade for ADA compliance.​

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Mv_n6nNyOTb20wVXBZUnktNW8/view?usp=sharing
 
FK4 said:
The place with all night parties? It got bought by some biker group and turned into more of a biker (underground) bar, I believe.
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I'm cool with that, thanks
 
Honestly, the building is cool, but do we really need to save a single story shingle building in this location? We go way overboard on historical preservation in Boston, in my opinion. This guy should be torn down and replaced with something that conforms to the corner and establishes a presence at this intersection. All tha grass only makes these wide, highwayish roads feel wider and make people drive faster.
 
FK4 said:
Honestly, the building is cool, but do we really need to save a single story shingle building in this location? We go way overboard on historical preservation in Boston, in my opinion. This guy should be torn down and replaced with something that conforms to the corner and establishes a presence at this intersection. All tha grass only makes these wide, highwayish roads feel wider and make people drive faster.
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Unused buildings aren't going to have much a presence if they're hidden by greenery, but fix that up and provide a reason for people to be there and I think it'd serve well for that stretch. If there was a pressing need to build along the outer edge of Western, I'd be more generous to scrapping at least part of the speedway building. But that isn't the case, Western pulls to the center more than it ripples to the edges. Nail down the stuff going up already, drop something on that lot across the street (unless something's been proposed), wait for the NB development to come alive in all it's glory, then make the call on keeping/demolishing the Speedway.

My rule of thumb is: if we're destroying a building built in proper New England vernacular architecture, something significantly better/more functional/dense has to go in (not just marginally better)
 
CantabAmager said:
Unused buildings aren't going to have much a presence if they're hidden by greenery, but fix that up and provide a reason for people to be there and I think it'd serve well for that stretch. If there was a pressing need to build along the outer edge of Western, I'd be more generous to scrapping at least part of the speedway building. But that isn't the case, Western pulls to the center more than it ripples to the edges. Nail down the stuff going up already, drop something on that lot across the street (unless something's been proposed), wait for the NB development to come alive in all it's glory, then make the call on keeping/demolishing the Speedway.

My rule of thumb is: if we're destroying a building built in proper New England vernacular architecture, something significantly better/more functional/dense has to go in (not just marginally better)
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I think that's fair, but in the next cycle western ave is gonna be changing quickly. I love the building and perhaps if all the other junk on the feeder road to soldiers field gets redone, it can remain... I don't think being in the national register prevents its demolition, however, but could be wrong.
 
Being on the National Register doesn't prevent a demolition, but as this is a government building, and the government either sought or agreed to the designation, its significantly harder to do. What the commonwealth and the designated developer will be doing is pursing tax credits for developing and preserving at least some of the property.
The tax credit is available generally for a rehabilitation.

http://www.nps.gov/tps/standards.htm

http://www.nps.gov/tps/tax-incentives.htm
 
stellarfun said:
The buildings are landmarked and on the National Register. Several of those in the rear can and probably will be demolished as part of a redevelopment.

https://www.cityofboston.gov/images_documents/CRSAB_SR__final_revised_final_tcm3-39719.pdf

Lots of photos, old and new.
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Since it doesn't seem to be clear here, there is a designated developer for the site. Architectural Heritage Foundation and 243 Dutton LLC are the designated developers.

http://www.speedwayhq.com/news/archives/09-2014

The proposal that led to this designation can be seen at:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/projects/speedway/ahf-speedway-headquarters-response.pdf
 
FK4 said:
I think that's fair, but in the next cycle western ave is gonna be changing quickly. I love the building and perhaps if all the other junk on the feeder road to soldiers field gets redone, it can remain... I don't think being in the national register prevents its demolition, however, but could be wrong.
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To move this past preservation protocols...the question is how does this specific intersection fit in with that cyclical development and change in the already existing housing/commercial stock.

I'm not sold on this end of Western, yet. Allston Proper and Harvard kinda exerted pulls on Lower Allston in opposing directions, but the Barry's Corner development and the stuff happening on the stretch of Western east of this intersection will create it's own pull I think. LA goes more north-south, I think it'll start to go more east-west, but this intersection is sorta at the outer fringe.

NB full-buildout is going to do big things and draw substantially southwards on Market St and Birmingham. Watertown is doing it's thing with the Arsenal, but I don't see that flowing over to Allston as much (at least not yet).

This intersection is kinda sitting right in the middle of developments that pull people in opposite directions. So there's reason to expect more traffic and there's reason to expect that this little sliver is last bit of Western to be substantially changed.

In a few cycles - it could be big with access to two developing nodes, but right now I don't see that. Rather have the Speedway preserved so that when the area is more primed to contribute, the options will be better for rehab/replacement/renovation/etc...
 
CantabAmager said:
To move this past preservation protocols...the question is how does this specific intersection fit in with that cyclical development and change in the already existing housing/commercial stock.

I'm not sold on this end of Western, yet. Allston Proper and Harvard kinda exerted pulls on Lower Allston in opposing directions, but the Barry's Corner development and the stuff happening on the stretch of Western east of this intersection will create it's own pull I think. LA goes more north-south, I think it'll start to go more east-west, but this intersection is sorta at the outer fringe.

NB full-buildout is going to do big things and draw substantially southwards on Market St and Birmingham. Watertown is doing it's thing with the Arsenal, but I don't see that flowing over to Allston as much (at least not yet).

This intersection is kinda sitting right in the middle of developments that pull people in opposite directions. So there's reason to expect more traffic and there's reason to expect that this little sliver is last bit of Western to be substantially changed.

In a few cycles - it could be big with access to two developing nodes, but right now I don't see that. Rather have the Speedway preserved so that when the area is more primed to contribute, the options will be better for rehab/replacement/renovation/etc...
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The triangle of land between Birmingham, Soldiers Field, and Market/Birmingham is huge piece of real estate... it would be agreat area for the state to take a very hard look at an entire reconfiguration of all the roads to prepare for redevelopment in a few cycles. Such reconfiguration might also include the onramp for SFR where this property is... I would prefer that nothing be done with the property for now to avoid cementing something that cant be undone (once it gets preserved and redeveloped, no one will ever tear it down).
 
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