Barry's Corner Mixed-Use | 180 Western Avenue | Allston

The entire stretch of Western Ave in Lower Allston is going to feel like a whole different neighborhood 10-20 years from now, between this, NEXUS, Skating Club / Studio Allston, the I-90 project, and all of Harvard's various developments, plus a host of infill here and there.
 
Harvard must have finally bought this residential building; the last holdout to development of this section of Barry's Corner. Harvard had bought all the other parcels 10? or more years ago. From the assessor's records, Samuels bought this probably in 2019 Flint Cleaners was still privately owned on January 1, 2020.

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Love the transformation of Barry’s Corner into an active more pedestrian area.
Don’t love the terribly generic apartment blocks that give off a cheap vibe.
 
bdurden said:
Love the transformation of Barry’s Corner into an active more pedestrian area.
Don’t love the terribly generic apartment blocks that give off a cheap vibe.
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Would love to see that gas station disappear at some point. If you built another 6-8 story MF mixed use project in its place, that would round out a really nice, active square of sorts, along with a nice corner park.
 
I used to work at Harvard and the good folks doing PR on the Barry's Corner project were forever bringing out Swiss Bakers treats to all the public events where the university insisted there was stuff happening in Allston. That little parcel has been the iconic "first crocus of spring" in that neighborhood since 2012. And the Gov Rel people were quick to point to Swiss Bakers as a mighty beacon of progress. Nice to see in the PNF that things haven't changed. Swiss Bakers forever!
 
Solid stuff from Samuels, again. Just homes for people to live in. I'll never applaud any development for off-street parking, but at least it's all tucked on the inside of the block and fits neatly within the same 1.5 floor height of the retail frontage.

78 spaces to 273 units is a decently acceptable .29 parking ratio. It's not exactly the most transit-rich neighborhood, but it sits on two very high-frequency routes (70 and 66) that connect directly with the Red Line, there's very bikeable access to the Red Line, and it's about 800m/.5mi from the future West Station (whenever that happens).

Yeah... that gas station on the adjacent corner ought to be next to go. It's really amazing to see the transformation of this part of Allston...even if it's more of Elkus Manfredi mediocre-but-solid architecture. It's more housing to go around.
 
^Exactly^

0 parking may be ideal, but I don't see much use in pushing numbers lower in buildings like this when there's many project on the subway with a space or more per unit. If every project were at < 1 space/unit, we'd be in a much better place.
 
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DigitalSciGuy said:
Solid stuff from Samuels, again. Just homes for people to live in. I'll never applaud any development for off-street parking, but at least it's all tucked on the inside of the block and fits neatly within the same 1.5 floor height of the retail frontage.

78 spaces to 273 units is a decently acceptable .29 parking ratio. It's not exactly the most transit-rich neighborhood, but it sits on two very high-frequency routes (70 and 66) that connect directly with the Red Line, there's very bikeable access to the Red Line, and it's about 800m/.5mi from the future West Station (whenever that happens).

Yeah... that gas station on the adjacent corner ought to be next to go. It's really amazing to see the transformation of this part of Allston...even if it's more of Elkus Manfredi mediocre-but-solid architecture. It's more housing to go around.
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.29 is a really great parking ratio for the area, and lower than many new projects proposed in recent years in Allston Village, which has better transit access generally!

Given the planned improvements to Western Ave for people biking (as well as the new cycletracks going in with the Harvard SEC building), this area should continue to see bike counts go up as people take advantage of it to access the Charles river bike path to go downtown. My old commute sometimes took me through that area on a bike and it always impressed me how many folks cycle there despite the general lack of good infra. Franklin St to the ped overpass over the Pike is a great connector!
 
#bancars said:
Would love to see that gas station disappear at some point. If you built another 6-8 story MF mixed use project in its place, that would round out a really nice, active square of sorts, along with a nice corner park.
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The gas station is a small plot that I imagine would be a challenge. Maybe replace that triangle intersection with a roundabout to simplify traffic patterns and add the freed up space to the Dunkin parcel so that can get some decent redevelopment. More room is needed anyway to gracefully transition into the residential neighborhood.
 
I don't know, this similarly sized triangular lot with a gas station in West Roxbury is being developed as apartments. If it can be done in West Roxbury, it can be done in Allston.
 

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Benson said:
The gas station is a small plot that I imagine would be a challenge. Maybe replace that triangle intersection with a roundabout to simplify traffic patterns and add the freed up space to the Dunkin parcel so that can get some decent redevelopment. More room is needed anyway to gracefully transition into the residential neighborhood.
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I've wondered about that too--get rid of Spurr Street to make a more developable site. Usually I'd fight for more roads, not fewer, but in this case the trade off might be worth it.
 
This is a Harvard Business School neighborhood, so extremely transient population. There are 1800 HBS students at a time, and about 35% of them live off-campus (many with families). Mostly a walking lifestyle, and ubering into town on nights out. While the Cambridge side of campus has embraced the town-gown border, this side has always held a pretty stark divide.

Would be great to see a few more fast-casual restaurants, future dive-bars, bookstore, and a full-on graduate collegetown vibe (that the rest of the Harvard Square landlords have been chasing away).
 
Wow a continuous street wall along the main road uninterrupted by office park seating areas. Nice!
 
274 units
55 parking spaces
250 interior bicycle spaces
12,000 sq ft of retail. Down a bit probably because they moved the building footprint away from N. Harvard St.
 
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