Brookline Infill and Small Developments

Rumor mill: Durgin Garage has sold, proposed to be torn down for a high-rise (?) hotel.
 
I thought Chestnut Hill Realty bought that garage a few years for $11M? They own the abutting parcels as well but they're not in the hotel business.
 
Yeah, I have no way to verify this, and certainly haven't seen any hard news. This was heard through someone who knows the owners of the Middle Eastern restaurant in the building.
 
Emerald Island Overlay District zoning passed on Tuesday at town meeting. The developer of the Homewood Suites at 111 Boylston now has the zoning change needed to build an 11-story Hilton Garden Inn on the site of the former Gulf station on the corner of Brookline Ave and Route 9.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/r...route-hotel/3xqaBAshmO63xoqlgGwJgP/story.html

Please note, that is not at all a rendering of the proposed building. I have seen more up to date renderings and they are much better. It still needs to go through the design review process and obtain a special permit but this will probably break ground sometime in Summer 2017
 
Big development being proposed on the Holiday Inn site (1200 Beacon). Hotel, apartments and retail. Will be seeking zoning change at November town meeting.
 
Bergeron37 said:
Big development being proposed on the Holiday Inn site (1200 Beacon). Hotel, apartments and retail. Will be seeking zoning change at November town meeting.
Click to expand...

NOVEMBER town meeting?

I'll put it in my calendar.
 
Who's making the request, is Holiday Inn planning to expand or was it sold to someone? I have to admit I have always liked walking past their building and looking into their tropical forest walkway.
 
Scipio said:
Who's making the request, is Holiday Inn planning to expand or was it sold to someone? I have to admit I have always liked walking past their building and looking into their tropical forest walkway.
Click to expand...

Haha, seriously - isn't that such a bizarre thing! You're walking along Beacon and there's this random stretch of big windows and tropical plants that goes on for like a block. A wave of nostalgia will overtake me if that goes away (...not sayin' I won't get over it).
 
Scipio said:
Who's making the request, is Holiday Inn planning to expand or was it sold to someone? I have to admit I have always liked walking past their building and looking into their tropical forest walkway.
Click to expand...

It was sold awhile ago to Westbrook Partners
 
Bergeron37 said:
Big development being proposed on the Holiday Inn site (1200 Beacon). Hotel, apartments and retail. Will be seeking zoning change at November town meeting.
Click to expand...

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/re...clude-hotel/d11ctpR1Z7OXRw3adwKebI/story.html

Clipboard-2305.jpg
 
The rendering style makes it feel like one of the Lego Architecture kits.
 
Globe article doesn't give details, but from the render it looks like they are essentially keeping the Holiday Inn structure, but building these hulking precast things on top of it. I'm calling it right now: this will be the worst of the worst. God-awful crapitecture and a stupefyingly nasty pedestrian experience at street-level.

Don't get me wrong. The current Holiday Inn should be replaced with something more dense and urban. Hopefully, though, not this. Unfortunately, the article seems to hint that Brookline will enthusiastically allow this one to spite Chestnut Hill Realty.
 
Group One partners is the architect, the same architect as the Homewood that was recently built on Rt. 9. The developer of the Homewood switched to Cambridge 7 architects for their new project on Brookline Ave.
 
Group One also did the lobby interior design on the Residence Inn next to the Arsenal Mall as well. Turned out pretty well.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Haha, seriously - isn't that such a bizarre thing! You're walking along Beacon and there's this random stretch of big windows and tropical plants that goes on for like a block. A wave of nostalgia will overtake me if that goes away (...not sayin' I won't get over it).
Click to expand...

Yes, those tropical plants AND the Tron red gridded glass made for a pretty neat WTF moment in your day. Alas, the red paint has really taken a beating from the sun and is now a sickly pink-white. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Onward to precast crap!
 
Until now, coming west on Huntington under the Riverway bridge you felt like you were exiting the urban fabric. This and other developments nearby are extending the urbanity a few important blocks down Route 9 into Brookline Village and beyond (there have been some noticeable new developments all the way down to Cypress Street). And, for whatever it's worth, Route 9 itself is getting a makeover through this corridor.
 
^ Ditto to everything you said. Route 9 developed much like Comm Ave near Packard's Corner or Boylston in the Fenway did: too late to catch the late 19th/early 20th century boom, and instead slowly filled in with marginal auto-centric buildings. It's long overdue to become something more than just a traffic sewer.
 
Where Brookline Ave meets Rt 9 will soon have the new Children's development as well as a 10 or 11 story Hilton-flagged hotel across the street on the old gas station.
 
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