Exchange South End ( Boston Flower Exchange) | Albany Street | South End

Is there seriously no residential here? In the middle of the urban core in 2018? This is no place for an office park.
 
There are like 9,000 units planned, proposed, approved or u/c within 5-8 blocks of this project.
 
odurandina said:
There are like 9,000 units planned, proposed, approved or u/c within 5-8 blocks of this project.
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And? The city is in the middle of a housing crisis and actively trying to turn all parts of the core into mixed-use. This is a 5+ acre site, nearly the size of 2 South End blocks--there should be housing here and it's some 1980's era shit that there isn't.
 
it's a catalyst for 43 more projects within about a 3/4 mile radius.
 
Since this project is right next to BMC, you do end up with a substantially large area with no housing. I'd say the two combined are about 8 blocks worth of employment-centric structures. I guess there are other similar areas around the city, but this one also has the Express Way/Mass Ave. connector cutting it off from a large area that could otherwise fulfill residential needs. The BMC area already suffers to an extent from the self contained aspect of the hospital -- employees don't leave except to go home, nobody lives there, so there is not as high a density of service oriented businesses as you'd expect in such an urban area. I don't think this project will help with that at all.
 
Precisely. Don't get me wrong: I'm in favor this project and it's better than what's there now. But "better than what's there" is a weak standard. We should have certain reasonable expectations about all major new developments in the city, one of which should be: if a development sits in the urban core and is nearly the size of two city blocks, it should be mixed-use.
 
There's several more long blocks between Harrison and Albany that could be redeveloped Harrison-Albany block style. This is a good place for taller office - block out the expressway; Albany is a purely commercial street. Let people live closer in towards the South End.

There's also huge potential SW on BMC into a rather industrial part of Lower Roxbury
 
HenryAlan said:
Since this project is right next to BMC, you do end up with a substantially large area with no housing. I'd say the two combined are about 8 blocks worth of employment-centric structures. I guess there are other similar areas around the city, but this one also has the Express Way/Mass Ave. connector cutting it off from a large area that could otherwise fulfill residential needs. The BMC area already suffers to an extent from the self contained aspect of the hospital -- employees don't leave except to go home, nobody lives there, so there is not as high a density of service oriented businesses as you'd expect in such an urban area. I don't think this project will help with that at all.
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Methadone Mile would need to be cleaned up before BMC/BU employees will stroll off campus.
 
One would think with such poor transit access that they'd do more bike infrastructure on the streets.
 
elemenoh said:
One would think with such poor transit access that they'd do more bike infrastructure on the streets.
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If that area is still in rough shape, I dunno if you would want to bike there. Seems like it's going to have to be car-centric for the most part for the time being, although maybe they could run a shuttle from the Red Line stops.

Maybe over time they could get a stop built on the CR tracks that's near Widett Circle.

As for no housing, yeah it sucks but it'd be a tough sell to blow a mill with wonderful views of 93 and/or meth addicts (?) and next door to an infectious disease lab.
 
Harrison Albany block is literally going up across the street from this with 974 apartments. With 1-4 people per apartment that can be 3,000 more people +/- living on this one single block alone diiiiiirectly across the street. Did people forget about this? This is damn near a transit desert here too, but this one block is adding thousands upon thousands of housed people here. 1 block... with the possibility of 3,000+ people.
 
jklo said:
If that area is still in rough shape, I dunno if you would want to bike there. Seems like it's going to have to be car-centric for the most part for the time being, although maybe they could run a shuttle from the Red Line stops.

Maybe over time they could get a stop built on the CR tracks that's near Widett Circle.

As for no housing, yeah it sucks but it'd be a tough sell to blow a mill with wonderful views of 93 and/or meth addicts (?) and next door to an infectious disease lab.
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Huh? Do you have any idea what condos cost in the South End?
 
JumboBuc said:
Huh? Do you have any idea what condos cost in the South End?
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The lab might be a bigger problem than the meth heads...

Most of the properties look like they are on the other side of BMC. I don't know if that makes a difference.
 
I think theyre moving the right direction. Mid rise office towers against 93 to block the sight/noise, housing along the streets (Harrison, Albany). Thats pretty much exactly what you would want. Again this is another one of those look out into the future things where Harrison and Albany are just a catalyst for the many things going on in the area into the future that will make it mixed use. The only real glaring problem here is transit for these tens of thousands of new people in the surrounding area.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Methadone Mile would need to be cleaned up before BMC/BU employees will stroll off campus.
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I get that concern, but I don't agree with it. I work in a building just off campus and I often leave during the day. What I don't like about these excursions is the lack of anything built with a focus on the street level. Sure, there are plenty of junkies stumbling about, but the real issue is poor urban form. Fix that and the junkies would soon become outnumbered.
 
The junkies just need to start calling themselves an "artists colony" and they'll instantaneously become a neighborhood asset instead of a detriment!
 
Lol Rover, I get that this is supposed to be a joke but it doesnt make any sense... I mostly agree with Henry that if this were a more dense urban neighborhood towards the hospital/Melnea Cass that the junkies wouldnt stick out so much. That's why I'm all for the Hotel Alexandria being as tall and dense as they want to outnumber the crackheads
 
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