Emerald Court

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Anyone have photos of the proposed design?

City backs condos but not their look
Developers say they will work on design of S. Boston project

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | February 14, 2007

The Emerald Court condo project, planned for a fast-changing part of South Boston, won the Boston Redevelopment Authority's backing yesterday -- even though one public official calls it "one of the most unattractive projects I've ever seen."

But because further approvals are needed, the unusual design -- ordered up as part of a now-abandoned plan to blend in with an industrial district -- will have to change.

Emerald Court would straddle two distinct neighborhoods: on the north, old industrial lands that eventually give way to the emerging Seaport District, and on the south, established residential blocks. The site is between C and D streets and West First and West Second streets.

To accommodate planners at the BRA, who wanted the industrial side of the 245-unit property to blend in with its neighbors, the developers came up with a design for that side that has a cold, uninviting feel.

Paul F. McDonough Jr., vice chairman of the Boston Civic Design Commission, which reviews projects for their impact on nearby public spaces, said the design for the 500-foot stretch along West First Street would "guarantee" that no pedestrian would go there.

At a hearing last week, McDonough told the project's New York architect that the West First Street side "has to be about the worst public realm experience anyone could endure."

Commission member Michael Davis issued the "unattractive" judgment.

While the upper floors of the building would have windows, at ground level there would be long, monotonous slats for ventilation for the indoor parking, and no entrances, save for the garage and for loading. No street-grade lawns or yard space would encourage pedestrian or residential activity or break up a barren streetscape.

The developers went through a two-year planning-and-review process with city officials and neighborhood residents. The four- to six-story complex would sit on 2 acres, have 318 parking spaces, 3,000 square feet of retail space, and a large interior courtyard.

One reason for the building's two faces is that developers originally envisioned industrial tenants on the West First Street side, to accommodate city officials' wishes to see the property generate blue-collar jobs.

But they were unable to find businesses that would pay for space in the new building, and converted the whole project to residential.

Yet they kept the warehouse-like design on that side.

"We have a split personality within the project," said K. Jeffries Sydness of Sydness Architects, who designed Emerald Court for the developers, MCL Cos. of Chicago and Douglas E. Palermo of Boston.

The design for the side that would face residential South Boston looks more comforting -- an updated version of typical Boston brick row houses, with some fancy height variations and visual alterations tucked in.

Despite the complaints about design, the BRA board yesterday gave the developers permission to proceed.

But even the BRA's acting director, Paul McCann, acknowledged Emerald Court's look will have to change. "You'll see this project again," he told BRA board members.

Indeed, the project is still subject to reviews and approvals from the design commission and the Zoning Board of Appeal. And along the way, the developers said, they will work on new design to try to make everyone happy.

"We're going to get this right and make every effort to do so," Palermo said.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
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I'd like to see it too. Maybe there's one in the Globe.
 
South Boston condo project gets design commission OK

Emerald Court, a South Boston condo development criticized by the Boston Civic Design Commission in February for its appearance, won unanimous approval from the commission following a redesign that adds a friendlier surface to its 500-foot-long First Street facade. Developer MCL Cos. of Chicago and Sydness Architects PC of New York removed unsightly ventilation louvers from the exterior and added planters and locations for art work, a spokesman said. The 245-unit project between C and D streets still needs city zoning approval. In other action, the commission approved the design for the new tower and redevelopment of the historic former Filene's department store block at Downtown Crossing, a project of John B. Hynes III and Vornado Realty Trust of New York. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)


Link
 
Good scale. The residents complaining about the 50ft hight saying the standard is 35ft seems a bit ridiculous. We just need some larger renderings to see if it's any good.
 
According to the article, the interior courtyard of this development will be open to the public during daylight and early evening hours. I wonder if this was a requirement due to neighbor's requests and if so...do the neighbors allow any person walking the street to sit out on their front porch or sit in their back yards? I guess if these are developed as apartments, then the future residents would have no say in policy but if these are developed as Condo's, I'd certainly never buy there.
 
A blurb from the Boston Business Journal:

The Boston Business Journal said:
Friday, February 29, 2008
Soft market leads to delay at Emerald Court project

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman Journal staff


New condos in the South Boston market aren't exactly flying off the shelves, leaving developers to think twice before investing in more inventory.
One developer, Daniel McLean, is taking his time building the 242-unit condo project called Emerald Court. McLean, chairman of the Chicago-based real estate development company MCL Cos., said he's not in a rush to build in Boston or anywhere else. Originally he planned to break ground on Emerald Court this spring. He's decided to wait until the market improves, and he's targeting a ground breaking the beginning of next year.
"Quite frankly, there's not a need to be in hurry on any project in the U.S.," said McLean.
McLean owns a 2.5-acre parcel on D Street in South Boston and received permits from the city to build the condo project last summer. Instead of building, he's working on clearing the site, which was home to several trucking companies and related industrial businesses. For now, he'll get the land ready and wait out a market comeback.
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This is disappointing but not shocking. At least he isn't walking away.... yet.
 
While the upper floors of the building would have windows, at ground level there would be long, monotonous slats for ventilation for the indoor parking, and no entrances, save for the garage and for loading. No street-grade lawns or yard space would encourage pedestrian or residential activity or break up a barren streetscape.
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Doesn't really sound so hot anyway.
 
A short two years after announcing a delay, this project is now officially dead.

South Boston Warehouses Head To Auction Block

By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman

A strip of South Boston warehouses battered by recession, overrun by homeless squatters and blighted by fire will hit the auction block next week, ending a Chicago developer's dream of turning a 2.5-acre industrial parcel into a $100 million condominium development to be called Emerald Court.

Auctioneer Paul E. Saperstein Co. is set to auction off the city block-sized parcel Feb. 26, barring a late bankruptcy filing. The site, which contains three freestanding industrial buildings at 320 D St., 307 C St. and 220 West Second St., is near the rear of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Chicago-based developer MCL Cos. secured city approvals for a 245-unit condo project at the site in early 2007. MCL spent $12.7 million assembling the site. The company envisioned charging buyers up to $600,000 per unit.

But MCL found itself in the market for a massive construction loan at a time when credit markets were beginning to seize up, and lenders who had been throwing fistfuls of cash at luxury condo developers suddenly stopped doing so. As a result, the developer let the property sit - and, apparently, stopped paying bills connected to the site.

Suffolk Construction filed a lien for nearly $100,000 in unpaid work at the site last November. According to Suffolk's lien, MCL contracted $110,000 in work in June 2007, but had paid the Boston firm just $13,000. The City of Boston attached $52,000 worth of tax takings to the parcel two weeks ago in an effort to collect unpaid real estate taxes.

The site gained notoriety in December, when a fire in one of MCL's warehouses revealed the existence of more than a dozen homeless squatters at the site. Firefighters rescued one homeless man from the fire.

According to a Boston Globe report from the incident, the warehouse "was sectioned off by the squatters into several illegal mini-apartments that were strewn with debris and dozens of bottles filled with urine." The Boston Herald reported that arson investigators found hypodermic needles and dishes bobbing "in a basin of dirty water."

The foreclosing party is a Natick LLC known as Cottage Emerald Square that had financed MCL's land assemblage with a $9 million loan. According to paperwork on file with the secretary of state, Cottage Emerald Square is managed by Jay Swanson and Kevin Quinn.

Emerald Court is the second high-profile condominium development parcel to face the auction block in a month. In late January, lenders tried to seize the site of what was to have been the 242-unit Ocean Club in Revere. The Ocean Club's developer is currently fighting foreclosure in federal bankruptcy court.
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briv said:
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Nice that there's a corner store; and the streetscape looks OK, certainly contextually-inspired. But what a boring context to emulate! Gosh, some parts of Boston are terminally dull --and evidently determined to stay so.
 
From the architect's website:

Emerald Court is a residential complex in the St. Vincent neighborhood of South Boston, consisting of 245 one, two and three bedroom condominium units, an enclosed parking garage for approximately 318 cars and approximately 3,672 square feet of on-grade retail space. The complex comprises an entire city block.

The building is configured at the perimeter of the block to create a landscaped "green roof" courtyard in the open central portion that will be nearly one half acre in size. A two level parking structure is located beneath the housing and the courtyard, with one half level below ground and the second level at grade. Therefore, the courtyard is one story above ground, and the street frontage feels like a row of townhouses. Building materials for the project include brick of varying shades and pre-cast concrete decorative elements, aluminum and glass storefronts and window units. Limited use of natural stone is also planned in select locations.

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I don't know why they had to go all the way to NYC for such blah-chitecture.

And the courtyard looks like if autocad came with clip-art. FILE>INSERT>OPEN SPACE.
 
Can you really tell what the concept is? I can't read the plans, and I can't read the sidewalk-level sketches. Where is that ground-floor parking ... and more importantly, WHY ??
 
I would have liked this. Maybe its a bit blah, but at least they broke it up to look like seperate structures with some variety, rather than another dreaded Boston "landscraper"....
 
Concept? What I think I see is an entire block filled with a structure. Facing the street on all sides, the building presents artificial segmentation which gives the appearance of row houses. In the middle of the block, rather than a traditional series of through block alleys, with their attending parking and dumpsters, I see a low parking garage covered with an enclosed grassy courtyard.

If the facades looked like the Tontine Crescent recreation in Charlestown, I'd be thrilled.

The renderings showing that "corner store" are interesting; one is a story shorter than the other.
 
JSic said:
I would have liked this. Maybe its a bit blah, but at least they broke it up to look like seperate structures with some variety, rather than another dreaded Boston "landscraper"....
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true enough, i could kvetch all day about the default-ness of the surfaces, but the massing is so much better than the stuff being built and proposed around Canal Street and North Station.

And I will say in the perspectives from across the street the streetscape looks quite interesting, how the notches in the footprint seem to coincide with the planting to suggest actual spaces along the edge-- i don't know if that's the reality though, because the watercolor perspectives seem to suggest that its just a sidewalk with trees... i think the former could make for a very interesting and marketable retail block
 
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