Fenway Infill and Small Developments

Mike said:
Fenway Park zone eyed
City wants stronger development review
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This is a really horrible idea. The neighborhood is finally flourishing and an overlay district could slow that down or stop it. The Red Sox do not own Boston.
 
Farcical. Disgusting. Fenway is like the jealous older woman who doesn't want to see her daughter dating anyone. A few generally dive-ish bars notwithstanding, the area around Fenway has been a nightmarish hellhole of parking lots and dilapidated buildings for years. In seeking to eliminate all development -- and not just of buildings that would permit residents to be able to kind of see the occasional ballgame from their $3 million apartment -- Fenway is strangling whatever life it should be generating as a city landmark and entertainment center.

Personal favorite:

"Children?s Hospital, which owns property near Fenway, supports the district, as does ballpark preservation group Save Fenway Park!"

What in God's name is "Save Fenway Park" and why should anyone care? What about the 6 million people in the Boston metro area who want to go to Red Sox games and not empty out afterward into a dumpy, deprived swath of the city?
 
"Save Fenway Park" was a group that opposed the previous Red Sox ownership's plan for a new Fenway Park a few blocks down Brookline Ave. from the existing one. That plan died when the current ownership team took over. I'm not sure why the group is still around, since it has achieved its goal.
 
I didn't realize it was even possible for Boston to enact "stronger review" for development without bringing out the black leather and whips.
 
For $8.5M, Samuels Secures Fenway Block
By Joe Clements Email this story | Printer-friendly | Reprints

Trilogy
BOSTON-Now they have the end piece. Continuing an aggressive development and investment campaign near Fenway Park that has already dramatically changed the district this decade, Samuels & Associates has closed on a package of conjoined buildings where Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue converge. The $8.5 million purchase gives Samuels control of a key triangular site, having previously secured several connecting buildings on the parcel that abuts the firm?s signature Trilogy residential high-rise.
Fueled by an $11.2 million loan from KayBank, Samuels affiliate Fenway Ventures Point Properties LLC purchased 186-200 Brookline Ave. and the adjoining 1395-1399 Boylston St. The Brookline Avenue asset is home to D?Angelo?s Sandwich Shop, and fronts a major intersection at Park Drive leading into the Longwood Medical Area and onto the Jamaicaway. The acquired properties are across from the former Sears warehouse, a hulking art-deco building that now features a Best Buy and other shops, plus 450,000 sf of office space.

The seller of the Fenway buildings is Riverside Properties Inc. of Wellesley, whose faded sign on Brookline Avenue still advertises available space for lease in the low-slung structures. Riverside President Mark Levy did not return a phone call by press deadline. Levy?s firm paid $955,000 for the assets in June 1994.

Some observers predict Samuels will pursue a redevelopment play on the block. "Things are definitely going to change," opines one broker familiar with the new owner, and a spokeswoman for Samuels acknowledges as much, telling GlobeSt.com that the firm aims to "continue the spirit of Trilogy" on the parcel, although she says the vision remains undefined. "At this point, we have no specific plans and no timeframe for when we might submit something to the Boston Redevelopment Authority," the spokeswoman relays.
The $200 million Trilogy was the company?s first major undertaking in the Fenway, as Samuels acquired the site for $8 million in 1999 and constructed 581 high-end residential units in three towers of 12, 15 and 17 stories. Samuels sold 171 of the units to Harvard University for graduate students. The company is now putting the finishing touches on 1330 Boylston St., another mixed-use high-rise mere blocks from Trilogy and the newly acquired properties. The leasing office for units at 1330 Boylston St. is in the rear portion of the block now fully owned by Samuels. The firm purchased those buildings at 1383 Boylston St. and 176-184 Brookline Ave. in 2003 for $2.4 million.

The latest acquisitions by Samuels also follow the recent purchase of a Goodyear Tire operation at 1345 Boylston St on the opposite side of Trilogy. That $10 million deal was reported by GlobeSt.com.

http://www.globest.com/news/1169_1169/boston/171233-1.html
 
Samuels does a middling good job. If he built on all the parking lots in the area, I'd be OK with that. Place would revitalize.

Don't think it needs another layer of oversight. This ain't Beacon Hill, for gosh' sake.
 
Levy?s firm paid $955,000 for the assets in June 1994.

...and sold it for $8.5 million 14 years later. Very nice return on his investment!
 
For some reason I thought Samuels controlled that whole plot already. Anyway, even though glassy facades are becoming overused, I think this would be a good spot for one.
 
^ KZ I see why you would say that, but with the greenery from Jamacaway and the retro feeling of the Landmark center, all glass seems like a bad idea. I'd like to see them take some cues from the Landmark and give a classical traditional look (preferrably not brick and at least pre cast thats well masked) Is it impossible to build something like the Landmark these days and be economically efficient?
 
I just want the leading edge to be glass, e.g. the part that'll grab your attention as you're leaving Longwood. The rest of it can be covered in whatever.. probably precast brick.
 
Art Deco style buildings are economically feasible on the exterior. The massing and structure is quite simple to keep costs down. All of the ornament on Landmark Center is cast concrete with I believe some terracotta finials. Essentially that material is the same as brick or plain pre-cast concrete, it's just that someone cast it into a more detailed form-work. You must remember that despite the abundance of cheap labor during the 1930s, everything that could be done to keep costs down was, so most exterior ornament was cheaply and mechanically produced. A Neo-Gothic, or Art-Nouveau structure on the corner might even be a nice compliment and connection to the Fen/Riverway.

However, finding an architect still dumb enough to make the building something nice looking in general, rather than aiming to impress his handful of like-minded architect peers, while disdaining the general public and its tastes, that's bloody impossible. Samuels has been using Elkus and they have the same general generic developer style that's all the rage lately in the chattering classes.
 
TODAY WHILE DRIVEING
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Anyone drive up and yell at you for sticking your camera out of your car and casting a shadow on the highway?
 
These pics should probably go in the Lansdowne Street thread.. that's where all the Avalon/Axis updates have been up to this point.
 
kz1000ps said:
These pics should probably go in the Lansdowne Street thread.. that's where all the Avalon/Axis updates have been up to this point.
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I wanted to put them there but could'nt find it,Just being lazy I guess!
 
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