Hotel Buckminster Renovation | Brookline Ave & Beacon St | Kenmore Square (Fenway)

DBM said:
These questions are generally answered quite quickly by cursory investigations of the BLC page ... as you can see from the map, the property/parcel is nearly enveloped on the east and north by the Bay State Road historic preservation district, and then Fenway Park to the south has landmarked status. But it itself is totally at the mercy of the proverbial wrecking ball!

Also, BLC site maintains the list of all landmark petitions submitted thru last May, and their statuses. Annoyingly it is non-sortable being a static PDF, but still.

Finally, I'm noticing that the tax designation/status of this parcel is very weird

(suspicious?)

Apparently, as a "Condo Main Building" usage, it hasn't been taxable (i.e., commercial) property, in DECADES. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Perhaps someone with some expertise in this realm can make some informed speculation. I sure can't...
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Looks like the rooms and restaurant spaces are each taxed as individual commercial units.

https://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?q=645+beacon
 
Just from walking past this thing and looking in the windows it definitely looks like a major interior remodel / refit is ongoing here. Just about all of the interior rooms appear demo'ed, and not in a way you would demo if you were planning on tearing the whole building down. They're also clearly using the open space on this site for staging and access to the air rights project behind it.

My most optimistic take is that they'll convert the interior space of Hotel Buckminster to traditional office, restore the exterior but not mess with the design, and tie the whole thing in to the lab building behind it via a new wing at the old garage space on Beacon.
 
kmp1284 said:
Looks like the rooms and restaurant spaces are each taxed as individual commercial units.

https://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?q=645+beacon
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Ah! Of course--thanks for having pointed that out. In my defense, I have to think that's a pretty unusual model--a hotel that's set-up like a residential condo tower, essentially, in terms of having dozens of taxable parcels embedded within the main structure. Which makes me think it wasn't functioning like a "normal" hotel at all, otherwise, it would have been like all the others, just one commercial tax parcel.
 
DBM said:
Ah! Of course--thanks for having pointed that out. In my defense, I have to think that's a pretty unusual model--a hotel that's set-up like a residential condo tower, essentially, in terms of having dozens of taxable parcels embedded within the main structure. Which makes me think it wasn't functioning like a "normal" hotel at all, otherwise, it would have been like all the others, just one commercial tax parcel.
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Definitely quirky... any other hotels in the area setup like this?
 
That's probably not the most typical, but it's definitely not unique. Many hotels essentially are just condos, with each room individually owned by an investor. That appears to have been the case with the Buckminster.
 
JumboBuc said:
Just from walking past this thing and looking in the windows it definitely looks like a major interior remodel / refit is ongoing here. Just about all of the interior rooms appear demo'ed, and not in a way you would demo if you were planning on tearing the whole building down. They're also clearly using the open space on this site for staging and access to the air rights project behind it.

My most optimistic take is that they'll convert the interior space of Hotel Buckminster to traditional office, restore the exterior but not mess with the design, and tie the whole thing in to the lab building behind it via a new wing at the old garage space on Beacon.
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Looking at the building permits they did spend a decent amount to gut the building to exterior walls on the interior (including removal of all utility/electricity/gas/installing temporary heat, etc). I guess I would agree if they were planning on a tear down it wouldn't make much sense to do that versus-es, well, just tearing the building down. They still would have needed to cap the naturual gas and what not, but, it seems like they went much further than needed for a demo. One can only hope they are converting it to open floor plan office or lab space or something and the building will live on.
 
kingofsheeba said:
How Taco Bell rose to the top of the quick food chain is beyond me. Qudoba all day for me
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Many of us have fond memories of getting taco bell while blasted out of our minds on alcohol or weed back in college. It is cheap and delicious for what it is which is shit-tier Mexican food that you shovel down your gullet at 4am and then proceed to destroy a toilet the following morning with.
 
Just for the record, the old Pizzeria Uno was the hotel's *flagship restaurant amenity,* no? I wonder what that space might get converted to as part of this redevelopment process...
 
It's still hard to believe that the Pizzeria UNO is HQ'd in Boston. Feel like they've been disappearing as of late especially around these parts. I always enjoyed their deep dish pizza. Their Chicago classic was always solid.
 
kz1000ps said:
Fixed that for you!
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Linguistic question, does basic "or" imply exclusivity. My programmer brain always says no, and there is a perfectly reasonable English construction for exclusive or in "either $x or $y".

From my perspective say "blasted out of our minds on alcohol or weed" implies that we were either blasted on alcohol, blasted on weed, or blasted on both.
 
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