Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

vanshnookenraggen said:
That's the type of development Brighton needs more of.
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Allston + Brighton have a ton of potential in terms of providing the middle-income/working professionals' housing that Boston so desperately needs, and that is economically difficult to inject into the core of downtown (lux pays).

But we need systemic improvements in allston/brighton. Yes, line the streets with semi-dense brownstone-esque developments such as this. Pack them in. Keep/restore the existing classic 1920's-era brick structures (these are generally fantastic structures in need of the standard upgrades), but level the wood-framed/vinyl-sided trippledeckers in Allston, and replace them with one's like these. But allston/brighton as-is won't work - we've got to fix transit and infrastructure. A lot of these things are in the works - stoplight priority for the T, station consolidation, stoplight priority for the buses: let's get these things installed asap...also, bring back the A-branch!

With these improvements in place, bring on the infill!
 
Around here would be a good place for micro units, w/o stainless steal appliances and granite counter tops. Maybe those could truly be affordable.
 
Still plans for 215 parking spaces, which makes me wonder where they're going to put such an enormous amount of parking. Can't be good.

Brown has a big parking lot facing Gardner Street where his employees park. If he wants to build employee parking in this project, I guess that means he wants to redevelop the Gardner Street lot?
 
Matthew said:
Still plans for 215 parking spaces, which makes me wonder where they're going to put such an enormous amount of parking. Can't be good.

Brown has a big parking lot facing Gardner Street where his employees park. If he wants to build employee parking in this project, I guess that means he wants to redevelop the Gardner Street lot?
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The addresses in the BBJ article make me believe that the lot will be redeveloped as part of this project.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...co-plans-apartments-near-allstonspackard.html
 
GW2500 said:
Around here would be a good place for micro units, w/o stainless steal appliances and granite counter tops. Maybe those could truly be affordable.
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Sure micro units if they want, but how about just regular apartments without stainless appliances, granite countertops, doormen, pools, fitness centers, etc? Just a regular place to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, watch TV, etc. That's truly what Boston needs and isn't building. These infill human scale buildings are great from an urban density/FAR standpoint, but they don't work to actually solve the problem when they are just uber lux one after the other.

Edit: This building is being advertised to be "well below downtown rates" though so it looks like this is off to a decent start.
 
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Indeed, spartan/basic micro-units without the bling. Please fill Alst/Brighton with these.

But, please make these developments not just mix-income, but also mix rentals and condos. That's how you build a mid.-class community; Alst/Bright is already home to thousands of 22-yr-old transients. Let's plant some ownership roots around the transients so people actually care about the building maintenance, trash in the street, etc.
 
i always thought that 3-4 bdrm/ no redundancy kitchen/dining, bath in Fens, South End, and Newbury St area brownstones work well for students and young workers. IS building micro units be following a trend on campus'? Is there such a trend at the schools?
 
Fwiw, nice appliances and countertops aren't what make apartments expensive. The difference between an ugly kitchen and a nice one is a couple grand. That's a drop in the bucket compared to land and construction costs. The stainless/granite finishes are a red herring. The important part for affordability is to maximize leasable square footage, which is what doormen and half-assed gyms waste. Obviously the easiest way to add to leasable area is to build up.
 
odurandina said:
i always thought that 3-4 bdrm/ no redundancy kitchen/dining, bath in Fens, South End, and Newbury St area brownstones work well for students and young workers. IS building micro units be following a trend on campus'? Is there such a trend at the schools?
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Yes. Many universities are transitioning to apartment-style housing, because students prefer it.

bigpicture7 said:
Indeed, spartan/basic micro-units without the bling. Please fill Alst/Brighton with these.

But, please make these developments not just mix-income, but also mix rentals and condos. That's how you build a mid.-class community; Alst/Bright is already home to thousands of 22-yr-old transients. Let's plant some ownership roots around the transients so people actually care about the building maintenance, trash in the street, etc.
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That's not a problem with the residents, its a problem with the landlords, and they DO own the properties.
 
fattony said:
Fwiw, nice appliances and countertops aren't what make apartments expensive. The difference between an ugly kitchen and a nice one is a couple grand. That's a drop in the bucket compared to land and construction costs. The stainless/granite finishes are a red herring. The important part for affordability is to maximize leasable square footage, which is what doormen and half-assed gyms waste. Obviously the easiest way to add to leasable area is to build up.
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Exactly. I'd like to believe that that's what makes my rent here at 225 Centre in Jackson Sq reasonable. The floor for rents here is $1800, which is what you'd end up spending on a 1 bed unit with considerably less space, fewer modern conveniences, and higher energy bills in older construction nearby.

We have granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, in-unit washer and dryer, our own VTAC, and wonderful sound insulating poured concrete deck construction. We have a very spartan fitness room and there's a handful of paid parking spaces to go around. We don't have a door person or a pool and our building isn't billed as luxury. Nor will the 100-unit 250 Centre St building proposed for construction across the street.

I would love to see more solid, no-frills, low parking ratio apartment buildings like this across Boston and especially in Allston. Despite the fact that my building is practically on top of the Orange Line, I think this would absolutely work in a transit-rich, highly walkable area like Allston, especially with the volume of people who prefer to bike and with the significant number of bike facility and transit improvements slated to hit Comm Ave around Packard's Corner.

I'm with Datadyne on micro units. Build some, but they definitely shouldn't be dumped here in any significant volume. They're not the panacea to our housing shortage and I think they'll only serve to concentrate even more students in even larger buildings, which has its own implications. We absolutely need to have better balance of age and residential permanence here.
 
Not the best pic, but I was in a hurry. House on Franklin st looks completed
s99iXD1.jpg
 
And I no longer want to live on the top floor and there's no elevator in the building! Can't do it.
 
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