Hurley Building Redevelopment | 19 Staniford St | West End

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This just dropped.

I’ve no issue with the concept of “building up,” but the schemes rendered here are to my eyes lacking in an appropriate level of architectural rigor.

I can't think of a scenario that's much worse than this one. They technically keep the existing Hurley Building, but they just haphazardly slap some generic new boxes on top. They butchered the thing and they still did next to nothing to address the most problematic aspects of the Hurley Building - the absolutely anti-human scale of both the building and the site. If preservation and thoughtful modernization and renovation are not options, they need to just level it and start from scratch. Break up the block to create new pedestrian corridors, build a human scale streetwall with retail along Staniford and Cambridge, and utilize some of the dead plaza space to build upward, creating a stepped increase in height as you move away from Beacon Hill.

But man, this current proposal sucks.
 
I can’t help but assume it was the only submission or at least the only one that has a track record of public-private partnerships. Now that the state has announced the partnership is there any basis to submit a FOIA request to obtain information on the other submissions?
 
I can’t help but assume it was the only submission or at least the only one that has a track record of public-private partnerships. Now that the state has announced the partnership is there any basis to submit a FOIA request to obtain information on the other submissions?

Aren't LeggatMcCall the same folks who acquired from the state and are redeveloping the Middlesex County Courthouse in Cambridge? If so, you could be onto something about pertinent track record.
 
Aren't LeggatMcCall the same folks who acquired from the state and are redeveloping the Middlesex County Courthouse in Cambridge? If so, you could be onto something about pertinent track record.

Not sure about that one but I was thinking of the Charlestown housing project redevelopment they’re doing.
 
Demo the damn building, this is the worst of both worlds. Having a courtyard would be much more pleasant than slapping glass onto the city block length concrete wall thats there. Just demo it and start from scratch with something tasteful with good street level interaction and its a win.
 

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