Harvard - Allston Campus

This is my neighborhood, I literally live right next to Brighton Mills, and I think the proposal sucks, I can handel the higher density and want it. IMO from a macro level society perspective, leave untouched land, or less developed land as pristine as possible and start maximizing city's potential to house people. Allthough there is not a T stop, there are busses frequently driving to Harvrd and Central Sq, and also Allston center, so public transportation is quite adaquate. Plenty of open space (Charles River Park/ Harvards public playing fields). So let's not make a part of boston subruban, lets make it urban. If people really want a suburb then MOVE, there are thousands of square miles of suburbs. Enough of bending everything for 40 people's short-sighted quite often suburban desires. No one is having a gun to anyone's head. If a truely urban, or atleast higher density development was to be built, people who actually want that lifestyle would move in. Too many people, especially women, have been brainwashed by HGTV's message of: anyone who dosn't live in a single family home, or something that looks like one, is a loser.
 
I would find it quite interesting if the Charlesview Board rejects the latest design. In fact, I hope they do. The neighbors who live nearby should not be dictating how this project is designed. Their concerns should be heard and mitigated against to the extent possible, but to de-densify the entire design because of them seems very unfair and short-sighted.
 
^ They're just idiots.

No one should take them seriously.
 
The BRA is scheduled to vote on the revised Charlesview plan today (Thursday).

This vote was postponed from last month because Harvard had not yet committed to developing an adjacent parcel, the one acre Brookline Machine building and land, which is to the immediate south of the new Charlesview site. Harvard acquired the Brookline Machine property a year or so ago, and at the time of the purchase, Brookline Machine was to continue operating in the building on a lease basis, the duration of the lease not stated.

Some neighbors began clamoring for Harvard to develop the Brookline Machine property as affordable housing. Apparently, the President of Harvard in a lengthy meeting with Mayor Menino last week agreed to build at least 10 units of affordable housing on the site, and this agreement has put the Charlesview relocation back on the BRA calendar.

Some neighbors want further revisions to the Charlesview proposal to provide, inter alia, more open space (even though directly across the street is Smith playground, one of the largest in the city, and Harvard is already building a new 1+ acre park next to the recently built community library); to move the current stand-alone McDonalds on Western Ave into the ground floor of one of the new apartment buildings; to lower the building heights along Western Ave.; to lessen the overall density; to provide more units for larger families; to mesh homeowner units in with the rental units; to increase the number of affordable units available for ownership; to ensure that construction is high quality; to ensure that the non-profits operating Charlesview have the fuinancial means to maintain the comples; improved pedestrian access to the MDC parkland along the Charles. (I think that covers most of what some of the neighbors want).

Harry Mattison has mused that the existing Charlesview is not in such bad physical shape after all, so why the rush to relocate it?

I guess the question is how much of the continuing community opposition is really economic discrimination; i.e., some neighbors really don't want the current residents of Charlesview moving any nearer to them. (The current Charlesview is really an oupost at the fringe of residential North Allston.)

It probably doesn't help some of the opposition that they appear to have publicly supported the mayuh's opponents in the Fall elections.
 
I actually support moving the mcdonalds into ground floor retail, but not if it is to become a park.

As stated, the area is already saturated with parks. If they want more parkland for Charlesview, then they should be willing to give some of smith field to Harvard. I think some AB member suggested this earlier using google maps to show how developing a small tract of smith field would make for a much more urban barry's corner.

I do expect the current plan will be approved tonight. The question is if there will be a legal challenge to follow.
 
Harry Mattison has mused that the existing Charlesview is not in such bad physical shape after all, so why the rush to relocate it?
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People in this city would have voted to stay in the gulags after Stalin died.
 
It was approved.

Housing project?s relocation OK?d

By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | December 18, 2009

Boston officials last night approved a controversial project to relocate and rebuild a low-income housing complex in Allston to make room for Harvard University?s planned expansion in the area.

The Charlesview complex, currently located a short walk from Harvard Stadium, will move about a half-mile away, into more than two dozen buildings to be constructed near the former Brighton Mills Shopping Center. The complex, to be built by Community Builders Inc., will include 240 apartments and another 100 ownership units. The work is expected to start in spring 2010.

The project, approved last night by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, has faced opposition from some Allston neighbors, who have argued it does not include enough open space or ownership units. Their concerns are part of a broader push to get the city and Harvard, a large landowner in Allston, to follow through on plans to revitalize the area with new homes, stores, and offices. But Harvard said last week that it will halt construction on the first of its major projects in the area, a $1 billion science center, because of money problems.

The centerpiece of the university?s expansion into Allston, the science complex was expected to be a catalyst for additional development. Overall, Harvard owns about 350 acres in the neighborhood.

University officials have pledged to consider other ways to get the science complex and other projects back on track.

Meantime, the new Charlesview will replace bunker-like concrete units built in 1971 that had become dated. The new units will be spread among 26 buildings on nine acres between Western Avenue and the Charles River. Also included in the project will be 26,000 square feet of commercial and community space, and four acres of parks and other open space.

?The residents of Charlesview have waited long enough for new housing,?? Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement.

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/12/18/housing_projects_relocation_okd/
 
Will something ever be done with the MASSIVE concrete slab that sits to the right off of Cambridge Street?
 
mass88 said:
Will something ever be done with the MASSIVE concrete slab that sits to the right off of Cambridge Street?
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I think this is the site of the former Sears warehouse. I'm not sure when the warehouse itself was vacated -- there was a massive fire there in the 1960's -- and at least 20 years ago, Sears was no longer operating there. Harvard apparently acquired the land early in the 1990s, through its straw, the Beal Companies.

In the most recent draft of a master plan for this area, Harvard proposed building graduate housing on the westernmost part of the site, to be built in the next 20 years. Thirty to fifty years out, most of the old Sears site would be used for science.

However, Harvard very recently announced that it would be looking for partners to help develop some of its land in Allston, so its quite possible if this became a major initiative, the Sears site would be developed and built on sooner, and perhaps not by Harvard acting alone.
 
stellarfun said:
Harry Mattison will probably have conniptions if Harvard used the Charlesview. IIRC, he was among those objecting to Harvard siting some of the new athletic facilities at Barry's Corner; noise, crowds, rowdiness.
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Stellarfun - You have my concerns exactly backwards. The problem with locating new Harvard athletic facilities in Barry's Corner is the lack of crowds that they would create. See http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-much-public-life-would-harvard.html
 
I'm going to miss the Charlesview -- low income brutalism should be preserved. Turn it into luxury condos or student dorms.
 
ablarc, Harry Mattison rightly corrected my erroneous recollection that the objection to moving the athletic venues to Barry's Corner was that the attendees at such contests would be boisterous. Mr. Mattison's concern was that they wouldn't populate establisments in Barry's Corner, but would run back to Cambridge.

He may have a point: again, IIRC, the Boston zoning laws prohibit certain uses in any property that Harvard develops (and owns). These prohibitions cover establishments that promote social sins, or transgress the mores of the current era, or a past one. Again IIRC, bars or saloons are verboten, as are tattoo parlors, theaters screening films of a certain genre, liquor stores, etc.

I am too lazy to go back and re-read the restrictions, but it may be that Harvard is even precluded from housing an establishment that serves any alcohol to the general public, writ large.

bdurden, the Charlesview space was intended to be the site of Harvard's contemporary art museum, as well as other cultural / media facilities. The idea being that visitors and attendees would provide some life to the future Barry's Corner, day and night.

I'm pretty sure Harvard needs swing space to house undergrads during the decade-long reconstruction of the residential houses. It wouldn't be out of the question IMO that Harvard might use Charlesview, remodeled, for such.

The original sequence was to build new athletic venues at Barry's Corner, tear down the current venues, and then construct a new residential house on the south bank of the Charles where the present athletic venues stand. This new house could have served as the swing space during the reconstruction decade. But all that new construction seems to be on hold, but plans for the reconstruction are proceeding apace.
 
Why would Boston have a zoning law that applies only to Harvard? In Cambridge I'm sure that Harvard is landlord to some bars, and they show all kinds of movies at Harvard Film Archive.
 
Ron, sounds like Harvard has a long-standing specific plan for the area that addresses certain concerns unique to this area. The city has implemented plan strategies in the zoning code. Happens all the time everywhere.
 
BU used to own the Nickelodeon cinema on Cummington Street (they just rented it to Sack/USACinemas/Loews), and they showed lots of non-family movies.

The page you cite also prohibits gymnasiums, which is pretty absurd considering that this is Harvard's athletic area.

This part of the zoning code could easily be amended if such an amendment is mutually beneficial to Harvard and the city.
 
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