Belmont Developments

[Equilibria]

Not really seeing the alleged awfulness of this. It's updated institutional Bauhaus – there may be some corporate chilliness and might appear thin in places but overall it's fine. Also there is no landscaping yet to soften the edges.

It looks like no pride or effort went in to the design, which is fine if this is an office park, not so much for a prominent civic building.

 

[kz1000ps]

 

[RandomWalk]

Did they blow all their budget on bricks and forget to save some for trees, or is there some new school security rubric I have missed?

 

[Charlie_mta]

This looks like Son of Kenmore Square North, which is not a good thing.

 

[stefal]

Did they blow all their budget on bricks and forget to save some for trees, or is there some new school security rubric I have missed?

Actually, police and fire reviews of school designs sometimes result in reconfiguration or removal of trees that block sight lines from the main office to the exterior or other views the police may find necessary.

That's not to say that's what happened here, but there is a "security rubric" on trees now...

 

[RandomWalk]

Ugh…. There’s nothing organic higher than a blade of grass within 20 feet of the building. That’s unpleasant to look at.

 

[Equilibria]

It looks like a juvenile detention center more than a high school. I guess with the old Newton North gone, there had to be one somewhere.

 

[RandomWalk]

Architectural firms that specialize in schools tend to have an aptitude for prison projects.

 

[DZH22]

Did they dust the design off from 1970?

 

[Charlie_mta]

Did they dust the design off from 1970?

Something from 1970 would have been infinitely better. For one thing, they would have used real brick instead of these cardboard looking pukey pink panels.

 

[Equilibria]

Something from 1970 would have been infinitely better. For one thing, they would have used real brick instead of these cardboard looking pukey pink panels.

Even Newton North did that.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Even Newton North did that.

The brickwork on Newton North is nicer looking than Belmont HS. It still looks like prefab panels, but done much better.

 

[Equilibria]

The brickwork on Newton North is nicer looking than Belmont HS. It still looks like prefab panels, but done much better.

I meant the 1970s one

 

[theSil]

Funnily enough, the building they tore down for this was from exactly 1970. Wasn't the prettiest high school either, but it had a certain modernist charm to it.

 

[jklo]

This looks like Son of Kenmore Square North, which is not a good thing.

It's the tiny windows, isn't it.

 

[RandomWalk]

They specifically designed this building to capture as much daylight as possible for the classrooms. However, it doesn’t look that great from the outside.

 

[kz1000ps]

 

[Charlie_mta]

I like the massing and the area over the main entrance. Even the rest of the windows look fine. What I can't get over, though, is the flimsiness and cheap look of the allegedly "brick" panels. They're the same kind of crappy looking panels that ruined Kenmore Square North.

 

[dhawkins]

Looking back thru the Belmont thread I read about the Cushing Square project for the first time! 8 years of fighting to get the project in the ground- Wow! It took a lot of determination to get this project approved. What factors were the neighbors so worried about??? Do people really not like change or is it really about quality of life during construction for 2 - 3 years ? This project improved the street scape tremendously! I put together before and after photos for comparison from maps. I see the last comment about the project is 2018, does anybody have an update if the building is fully occupied or if it's struggling?

 

[curcuas]

Listening to the neighbors is the road to madness and why our system fails to build adequate housing