Fenway Infill and Small Developments

My girlfriend lives on Queensberry, so I spend a whole lot of time directly across from this site.

The urban form of that area of the Fenway (Queensberry, Peterborough, etc.) is fantastic. I'd love to see more of the same here. Dense, 6ish story apartment buildings that draw design inspiration from the rest of Queensberry, and ground floor retail to extend the fantastic "Restaurant Row" stretch from Peterborough. It really doesn't seem very hard...

FenwayResident said:
I can see how my post would have read as sympathetic towards the developer, but I agree 100% that it's essential to have a dialogue with the neighborhood beforehand. I was just wondering what sort of benefits the neighborhood could get out of this project (besides the additional housing)?

- A much-needed touchup of The Fens
- Some sort of on-site public space
- Significant amount of retail
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I really don't see how The Fens should be this developer's responsibility. And as far as "some sort of on-site public space", the "Fenway Community Center" space in the Viridian is one of the deadest retail spaces in the neighbhorhood. Those sorts of things sound great on paper but typically don't live up to expectations.

Sign me up for more retail.

This is zoned to something like 7-stories, and I'd like to see the developer work within that. If he does, the community doesn't really hold much power over him. It's great that he's going to meet with them, but that shouldn't be considered an invitation to extort.
 
JumboBuc said:
The urban form of that area of the Fenway (Queensberry, Peterborough, etc.) is fantastic. I'd love to see more of the same here. Dense, 6ish story apartment buildings that draw design inspiration from the rest of Queensberry, and ground floor retail to extend the fantastic "Restaurant Row" stretch from Peterborough. It really doesn't seem very hard...

I really don't see how The Fens should be this developer's responsibility. And as far as "some sort of on-site public space", the "Fenway Community Center" space in the Viridian is one of the deadest retail spaces in the neighbhorhood. Those sorts of things sound great on paper but typically don't live up to expectations.

Sign me up for more retail.

This is zoned to something like 7-stories, and I'd like to see the developer work within that. If he does, the community doesn't really hold much power over him. It's great that he's going to meet with them, but that shouldn't be considered an invitation to extort.
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Agreed, this project would ideally bring an extension of the restaurant row on Peterborough with multiple restaurants along Queensbury. Fenway has plenty of non-restaurant retail, so it would be nice to see more restaurants pop up. Then Fenway could start to compete with Back Bay and South End on the restaurant front.

The public space I was thinking of would be something outdoors like a small park/garden akin to Ramler Park. There's certainly enough space on this parcel to build a small park and still have a significant development.

As for The Fens, The Greenway is getting additional funding from the Winthrop Square project, so maybe it's possible for The Fens to get similar funding?
 
The neighborhood could use a real playground. The one on Peterborough gets no maintenance from the City and has been a constant issue as the neighboring McKinley school takes no responsibility for it.

Mother's Rest is too far away and is underutilized. The Fens and Clemente field are covered in goose crap.
 
WestFens said:
The neighborhood could use a real playground. The one on Peterborough gets no maintenance from the City and has been a constant issue as the neighboring McKinley school takes no responsibility for it.

Mother's Rest is too far away and is underutilized. The Fens and Clemente field are covered in goose crap.
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Wouldn't it be easier to better maintain the Peterborough one than build another just one block away? And is the Harvard playground on Park next to the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral open to the public?
 
Nope - That is privately run by the Harvard Shattuck House and not open to the public at all. It would be ideal if it was maintained, but like I said, it is not. Though Peterborough Playground is undersized for the amount of children in the neighborhood now. Place used to be empty and is overflowing now.
 
Easy answer to all of your questions is .... wait for it ...

Superblock economics. That is what make cities souless, and nothing can stop it.


cca
 
cca said:
Easy answer to all of your questions is .... wait for it ...

Superblock economics. That is what make cities soulless, and nothing can stop it.


cca
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But, you can make a superblock less soulless. You just have to try to visually break it up by using the architecture.

Witness 345 Harrison.
 
JeffDowntown said:
But, you can make a superblock less soulless. You just have to try to visually break it up by using the architecture.

Witness 345 Harrison.
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Not really. The difference between how a multi-parcel block architecture works over time, and how a pile of "designed diversity" works is very different. Look at Assembly Square. It's a good stage set that reads as urban, but it will never age and rebirth itself into an urban environment that is anything like a true multi-parcel block will (i.e. Newbury Street, South End, Boston Wharf Distict, and about 1000 other places in our build environment).

This has been talked to death on many other threads. If you would like to talk more about it fee free to PM me to spare others having to read my opinions once again.

cca
 
Fenway, assembly, and the seaport and 3 very different areas and the architecture reflects this. The seaport is an extension of downtown, assembly is like a town center or small city downtown that has to stand on its own, and fenway is an extension of boylston st.
 
There is very little height diversity allowed in Boston. And on those few occasions when it is proposed (re Tremont Crossing, Bunker Hill, etc), it is quickly shot down, stunting the diversity. 2 Charlesgate W and Back Bay Station were proposed 100~150' low because the developers chose against wasting precious time fighting snarky neighbors.
 
BeeLine said:
Wow! Some one has a copper fetish.
https://flic.kr/p/W9AMTb
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Love these windows, big unobstructed views. Lived in an older building once that had decent size windows but they were 6 over 6 (12 panes altogether) The view was too blocked and it felt too much like prison bars.

50 Symphony is wonderful, a fine updating of the bricky context.
 
BeeLine said:
Wow! Some one has a copper fetish.
https://flic.kr/p/W9AMTb
Click to expand...

I may be mistaken but I swear I remember someone (cca?) saying that new copper will no longer patina naturally because the only reason old copper acquired the green tint was due to industrial pollution/acid rain?

Not sure if that is true but if so, it will be a shame in this case. That is just too. much. copper. However, if does patina I think it will soften nicely.

(Random aside: patina can be used as a verb and a noun, correct?)
 
statler said:
I may be mistaken but I swear I remember someone (cca?) saying that new copper will no longer patina naturally because the only reason old copper acquired the green tint was due to industrial pollution/acid rain?

Not sure if that is true but if so, it will be a shame in this case. That is just too. much. copper. However, if does patina I think it will soften nicely.

(Random aside: patina can be used as a verb and a noun, correct?)
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Look to the MGH Museum for an example of what happens to copper in current environmental conditions.
 
I heard about this last week. They are rumored to be looking at an HGI which is the same flag that's supposed to be going at the old Gulf site on Brookline Ave (Brookline).
 
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