Hong Lok House | 11-31 Essex Street | Chinatown

Re: Hong Luk Project - Chinatown

dirtywater said:
The pictured building is not the Liberty Tree Building. The Liberty Tree Building is on the corner of Washington and Essex Streets and was restored many years ago for the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The Registry continues to occupy the building but apparently is moving to a new location in 2014.
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Yup. You should have seen it before the "restoration", so I guess some would say it looks better.

Just too bad the job wasn't better done. The whole block would be the better for it, including the currently denuded Hong Luk house.

"Next time" refers to its post RMV life.
 
Re: Hong Luk Project - Chinatown

FourBuildingsDown said:
Demolition of the building on the left, previously misidentified as the Liberty Tree Building, began in the last 24 hours. Front half of building is down as of 7:30am. I didn't realize demolition of this building was part of the project.
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New construction will replace the left hand building, but the stone façade will be put back on, and the street-front will keep the original building outline (with a taller new section set behind, like the other sections).

As an elderly housing and care facility, they really had to do all new construction to make this work.
 
Re: Hong Luk Project - Chinatown

I really hope there are plans to demolish and redevelop the plot that Kaze Shabu Shabu sits on. It's unusual for a dense area like Chinatown to have a 2 story building surrounded by a parking lot.
 
Re: Hong Luk Project - Chinatown

Hmm. Kaze Shabu Shabu appears to be owned by one person while the surrounding parking lots are all owned by another, so perhaps there is bad blood or simply the open market working, where the building's owner is waiting for the right price?

Seems to me, that building has housed a lot of tenants over the years. I think the current restaurant has been there for awhile but before that wasn't it opened and closed quite often?

 
Re: Hong Luk Project - Chinatown

JohnAKeith said:
Hmm. Kaze Shabu Shabu appears to be owned by one person while the surrounding parking lots are all owned by another, so perhaps there is bad blood or simply the open market working, where the building's owner is waiting for the right price?

Seems to me, that building has housed a lot of tenants over the years. I think the current restaurant has been there for awhile but before that wasn't it opened and closed quite often?

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There are lots of small parcels in Chinatown, often owned by family trusts with lots of trustees. It is very difficult to consolidate the parcels for development.
 
What, they knocked down the Registry of Motor Vehicles?
 
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I'm glad they saved the facade, but that should not give the developers free reign to build such an .....ummmm, 'unfortunate' architecture.
 
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blade_bltz said:
I'm so confused about what's happening here.
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They are building a modern assisted living facility for Chinatown residents.

Because they are replacing an older, smaller facility, they first built the new section toward the Common (to the right), behind one old façade and restoring a second. The existing residents of the old Hong Lok House, were then moved to this first new section.

Then they demolished the old Hong Lok House building (section to the left), after salvaging its façade.

Now they are building the second section of new construction, and will eventually restore the Hong Lok building façade on this section. The total new building will house 75 elderly residents, where the original, outdated building only housed 25.
 
I must have been following Beeline around almost the same pics but a few days later
 
Is that a parking garage entrance on the new building? Why do elderly Chinatown Residents need a parking garage?
 
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