Brookline Infill and Small Developments

Looks like all those Green Line D via E street running schemes you guys came up with are DOA.
 
BLDUP said:
New Brookline Hills apartment building proposed at 111 Cypress Street: http://www.bldup.com/projects/111-cypress-street

111-Cypress-Street-Brookline-Apartment-Development-HDS-Architecture-Rendering.png
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If I sat on a design review board, I'd let it be known that any proposal in that design vernacular will be turned away at the door. It's not really that ugly, but it's way too ubiquitous.
 
A little more color on this proposal is in this article from last month:

Brookline girds to fight housing plan near high school

Highlights include --

  • It's a 40B and Brookline is apparently almost maxed out on 40B (nearing the 10% threshold for affordable housing)
  • Neighborhood opposition driven by the usual suspects, development size/height, and also by the 107 parking spaces (Bldup now says 105) that would empty into an intersection with Route 9, even though the parcel abuts the Brookline Hills stop
  • The town is studying how it could acquire the current building/parcel and use it to expand the high school campus, and has even tossed about eminent domain
 
No retail planned it looks like? It's right next to existing retail on Boylston and also a T stop, so it seems like it would be a good thing. Or does Brookline zoning not allow that?
 
Brookline's Fisher Hill Reservoir Park was dedicated last Friday. Relatively small at 10 acres, but beautiful with a walking trail, preserved historic gatehouse, sculptural play equipment, and what will eventually be used as an athletic field.

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^--- That looks beautiful, but I can just hear my mother saying, "Don't let your kids play there without the DEET spray, so many deer ticks in that long grass!!"
 
Wonderful pictures. Thank you. Anyone know who the designer is?
 
Whoa. Where did that come from?

Some details:

Architectural Narrative:
The proposed mixed use building at 1299 Beacon Street consists of age-restricted market-rate and affordable residential rental units, and retail. The narrow site is a ½ acre thru block lot connecting Beacon Street to Sewall Avenue. The 108 residential units occupy 12 floors and sit over a 2 story retail and residential amenity base. The two levels of below-grade parking are accessed via a pair of vehicle lifts. This building has MBTA train and bus stops at its front door and Coolidge Corner provides most tenants service, retail, grocery, social, and entertainment needs within walking distance. Being located on the south side of a major street, the shadows from this building almost entirely fall on parking lots and commercial roofs.
Along Beacon Street, the thru block ground floor retail visually connects to the public way by a welcoming full height glass storefront and signage system. The Residential Lobby is located off of both Beacon Street and Sewall Avenue and has good visibility out to the sidewalk. It has a seating area and a Lobby Gallery that accesses Mail, Recycling, Bicycle Room, and other resident amenities. The two story podium continues the adjacent building heights and then steps back at the third floor for a terrace that serves the residential units along Beacon.
Off Sewall Avenue, orientated between Trader Joe’s Loading and Parking and the USPS’s loading docks is the Car and Loading activity for this building. The arrival from Sewall Avenue is covered, screened and landscaped. It’s removed from the busy Coolidge Corner intersection. Here, the Valet serves a Resident’s and Retail Entry that connects pedestrians thru the block, with Beacon Street. The Valet coordinates vehicle lift and the 5 surface Retail parking spaces.
Overhead, the residential component is scaled down through the use of multiple massing techniques. The first is the use of three stepped masses that suggests three smaller buildings arranged together: a podium, a north, and a south buildings. Second, a frame system with double and triple height expressed openings. The third is the use of alternating the percentages of façade materials on the north and south building forms. Within these frame openings, the composition of mullion patterns and infill panels that span multiple floors contribute further to the reduction of scale as well as the to the frames visual depth. Allowing the frames to wrap and open at the corners, creates a horizontal expression necessary to balance the buildings overall verticality. At the rooftop, all the mechanical areas are screened for visual and sound control.
On the 2nd floor, the Retail Space connects to the first floor via an open stair. The Residential Amenities share this level and include Fitness, Pantry, Group Kitchen & Dining, Game and Screening Rooms, and a Deck. On the upper, residential levels, the residential units are accessed by a double-loaded corridor with egress stairs at each end. A central core contains elevators, trash chute, and building support spaces. Typical one and two-bedroom units are designed with open kitchen/living areas, comfortable bedrooms that feature large walk-in closets, and large windows to provide abundant natural light. In addition to high-quality
finishes and individual environmental controls, each unit will contain energy-efficient appliances, in-unit laundry, and low-energy lighting fixtures that, in combination, offer a sense of luxury.
Materials:
Overall, the building is composed around a multi-story “frame” expression which wraps two different height building masses. This frame system nearest to Beacon Street (north 10 floor half) is mostly terracotta rain screen panel system with a composite aluminum panel infill. Aluminum frame windows system with operators and clear glass make up the balance of the slightly recessed infill areas. The frame system (south 14 floor half) closest to Sewall Avenue is composed of the same materials except that the proportion of terracotta is reduced and the composite metal panels are increased.
At the pedestrian level, the Beacon Street retail has a full height glass storefront entry system and a 2 story terracotta surround. The retail signage system is integrated into the glass entry vestibules. Along Sewall Avenue, the ground floor is composed of composite aluminum panels, steel paneled doors at the vehicle lifts, and aluminum glass storefront entry system. Open aluminum privacy panel screens the off-street loading area from the USPS property.
At the first two levels where the solid portion of the building is nearest to the side property lines, insulated horizontal aluminum panels are used that meet Fire Code requirements.
The rooftop mechanical areas are screened with an articulated metal panel system.
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Two levels of retail with an internal stair, so I doubt they're looking for bank branches or dry cleaners. Big restaurant or store.
 
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Equilibria said:
Two levels of retail with an internal stair, so I doubt they're looking for bank branches or dry cleaners. Big restaurant or store.
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My guess is it will still be Neena's lighting, as the owner of Neena's appears to be the developer.
 
bit of trivia... are any of you guys familiar with Elliot Playground? There used to be this really cool fenced off right-of-way linking the area just behind the tennis courts to Dean Rd....

https://www.google.com/maps/search/...1.1496577,561a,20y,4.03h,26.93t/data=!3m1!1e3

It was filled on all sides with thick hedge and vines creating dark green tunnel between two exquisite residences. We called it the 'secret passageway.' For a kid it was one of those cool little nooks, especially at dusk. Absolutely enchanting area for a little kid on an evening walk.... One of the truly beautiful neighborhoods of America. It was a paradise for a kid on Halloween night. :)(the booty filled a couple of pillowcases).

The playground and Warren field, along with the Eliot School little field/s are great parks. Does anyone know if the passageway is still there? i'll have to go see the next time i'm crusing near the neighborhood.
 
odurandina said:
bit of trivia... are any of you guys familiar with Elliot Playground? There used to be this really cool fenced off right-of-way linking the area just behind the tennis courts to Dean Rd....

https://www.google.com/maps/search/...1.1496577,561a,20y,4.03h,26.93t/data=!3m1!1e3

It was filled on all sides with thick hedge and vines creating dark green tunnel between two exquisite residences. We called it the 'secret passageway.' For a kid it was one of those cool little nooks, especially at dusk. Absolutely enchanting area for a little kid on an evening walk.... One of the truly beautiful neighborhoods of America. It was a paradise for a kid on Halloween night. :)(the booty filled a couple of pillowcases).

The playground and Warren field, along with the Eliot School little field/s are great parks. Does anyone know if the passageway is still there? i'll have to go see the next time i'm crusing near the neighborhood.
Click to expand...

ha.. one of millions of spots to smoke back in high school (not so innocent fun? actually we were pretty naive)... would wind up at eliot usually to meet people when their practice ended.

still there

Document
 
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Wow. Fantastic. Thanks.

you can see that right of way between the 4th and 5th parcel at the top of the page. :)
 
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