East Boston Infill and Small Developments

Boston neighborhood poised for 'turning point' with long-delayed waterfront project

About 10 years ago, the city of Boston put out a bid to revitalize 112 Border St., hoping to catalyze activity and spur development along the East Boston waterfront site that was vacant for decades.

After a slew of delays sparked by the Great Recession and municipal backlogs, a project on the Boston East site is finally getting underway.

Trinity Financial is spearheading development for the project, which is slated to be a 200-unit apartment complex with six “live-work-sell” units for artists, a 400-foot harborwalk with kayak launch, a community gallery and an acre of open space.
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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...ighborhood-poised-for-turning-point-with.html
 
^
It's jusd unbearable to watch the entire east Boston waterfront fill up with these unspeakably ugly and cheap looking developments. Where was kairos shen for all of these things? Doesn't anyone at the bra give two shits about how hideous these waterfront buildings look?? We are gonna be stuck with them staring right across the harbor forever...
 
My girlfriend and I walked around Portside at Pier One yesterday afternoon, my first up-close look. It is truly the architecture of cynicism, a product of venal public officials and the agencies they're wrapped up in.

As a life-long East Bostonian, I've long believed that too may of my neighbors suffer from a terroir-specific version of the Stockholm Syndrome with our elected officials and Massport. The forecast is for more of the same...
 
The Clippership Wharf development was approved by the BRA Board tonight.
 
"The BRA also approved Clippership Wharf, a residential project by Lend Lease that’s set to bring 492 residential units and create four acres of open space on the East Boston waterfront. The 12-acre Clippership Wharf site sits along the Boston Inner Harbor near the Maverick MBTA Blue Line station, offering views of the Boston skyline from Charlestown to South Boston.


The site has been fallow for 25 years, and Lend Lease had faces some initial obstacles in the project’s design review. But the BRA board commended the project team on its amended project proposal and development plan.
Nick Iselin, the general manager of development at Lend Lease, told the BBJ in April that the project was slated for a fall 2017 delivery."

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...rmative-projects-in-downtown-east-boston.html
 
Is there any hope for having any part of the Eastie waterfront being an active waterfront – namely the type of place where one could grab a drink along the promenade while looking at the downtown skyline, while also not being accosted by bizzarely suburban residential architecture adjacent to the harbor?
 
Shepard said:
Is there any hope for having any part of the Eastie waterfront being an active waterfront – namely the type of place where one could grab a drink along the promenade while looking at the downtown skyline, while also not being accosted by bizzarely suburban residential architecture adjacent to the harbor?
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What a sad, sad waste of some of the most promissing waterfront potential in the city. Each addition is more banal than the previous.
 
JeffDowntown said:
What a sad, sad waste of some of the most promissing waterfront potential in the city. Each addition is more banal than the previous.
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Nah, Clippership Wharf looks better than Portside at East Pier. But that's not very hard...
 
I wholeheartedly apologize for presenting this new development:

1181 Bennington St.
44 two-bedroom residential units, 7 "affordable"
PNF here: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/e5ab9364-fad1-413e-a7bc-77fdd841c179

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Ugly for sure, but adds density and market-rate affordable housing. I for one don't object.
 
Shepard said:
Is there any hope for having any part of the Eastie waterfront being an active waterfront – namely the type of place where one could grab a drink along the promenade while looking at the downtown skyline, while also not being accosted by bizzarely suburban residential architecture adjacent to the harbor?
Click to expand...

Well there's alsways KO pies, if you don't mind your downtown view perforated a bit by some vibrant light industrial activity. And the Hyatt, I guess, if you'd rather be accosted by bizzarely suburban commercial architecture.

But yeah, this is all pretty insipid. At least it's not shore plaza.

But actually, yeah, it kind of is shore plaza - with a better fit and finish.
 
Real comment from Universal Hub board (emphasis mine):


By Q-3 (not verified) on Fri, 08/07/2015 - 4:15pm
This is at the corner if I'm not mistaken next door from OH Mbta station, does Eastie actually need more of these large scale apartment buildings, in the next 5 to 10 years predictability rental vacancies in Eastie will reach an all time high, saturation of new apartment buildings.
 
It's spitting distance from the Orient Heights Blue Line stop, and a five minute walk from my family's home.

I'm comfortable in saying that this will be the the nadir of design ethos for this development cycle anywhere in Greater Boston.
 
It's ghastly, but has little impact on the neighborhood. The site is on the most auto-friendly street (not counting highways) in Eastie, and is wedged between a marsh, the Blue Line yard, and a casket company.

The truly urban part of Eastie and where most of the redevelopment focus has been extends from the harbor to Day Square (including Jeffries Point, Eagle Hill, and the areas near Maverick and Airport stations). Not saying the new construction has been great there either. But beyond Day Square (Orient Heights, etc) the neighborhood becomes more suburban, or so fragmented by transportation infrastructure and bodies of water, that it may be unrealistic to expect good development in the foreseeable future.
 
The amount of negativity on this forum amazes me. This isn't stuck in the middle of the Back Bay, or even the Seaport. It's sandwiched between a coffin factory and a swamp, and it's better looking than the shit-brown triple deckers next door and the utterly boring apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

What exactly is wrong with development like this? From my non-architect perspective, this looks like somewhere I'd be fine living. The varied colors, non-flat front, and varied heights look neat to me.
 
Water main break last night on cottage st.

http://www.universalhub.com/2015/east-boston-street-fills-water-after-main-bursts

I've got a bad feeling about this, especially with the heavy rain today already underway.

The reason I'm concerned is that there have been at least a half-dozen buildings with imminent-collapse interventions in the last twelve months in the flat part of Jeffries Point - two on Sumner, a couple on Bremen, one on Maverick just last week...and there are more that look like they're in bad shape; I'm amazed anyone can still get the front doors to close. The manhole covers on Sumner got re-mounted a year or so ago, and they're already an inch or two below the street surface.

All the land below the hill is very crappy and irregular fill with a very funky history, and all this new water isn't going to help things.
 
Sale of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in East Boston closed today, $3,025,000. Seller was the Archdiocese. Buyer was corporation named Franklin Gove (the cross-streets the church is located on).

Anyone know anything about the buyers? Their names are Richard Egan and Timothy White. They seem to be active in the neighborhood, purchasing 69-71 Chelsea Street and 173-177 Maverick Street, recently. The parcels are not connected, so not all were purchased with the intent of putting together for a big development.
 
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