Hurley Building Redevelopment | 19 Staniford St | West End

Reading the article it does sound like theyre going to demolish the building when they talk about connecting the streets better. But since they dont say it outright it has me nervous. They talk about adding ground floor retail, a tower that “was in the original plan”, and adding pass through streets. This could mean they throw a tower in the courtyard, punch out a few walls for a couple cross streets, and add some ground floor retail. It wouldnt be too far off from that abomination of a render that came out before. I wish they would just come out and say directly “this building is going to be demolished” or “this building is going to be reused in some capacity”. Trying to read between the lines just makes it seem like theyre deflecting from the fact that they may try to save this trash can of a building. They need to just spell it out that way people can make their case for what should go here.
 
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A middle of the night thought, but this could be an opportunity to put a couple new streets in and chop up that megablock. Cambridge is doing that with the Volpe redevelopment, which is a similar size.

Here's what the area between Merrimac, Chardon, Cambridge, and Staniford Streets looked like before Urban Renewal.

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This feels premature (or perhaps too late from the last building surge) for posting an RFP. Very few projects are penciling right now with how rates are going and construction costs staying high. I can't imagine developers committing to a "redevelopment" that maintains the building, or a plethora of 600 foot tall towers replacing the complex.
 
Unless I’m missing something, there’s a big demand for more housing. This a prime location. I think a good handful of developers can pull this off if they tear the whole thing down.
 
Need to build a serious urban corridor on Congress St. With the bits there already, the bones are there for something great.
 
type001 said:
Unless I’m missing something, there’s a big demand for more housing. This a prime location. I think a good handful of developers can pull this off if they tear the whole thing down.
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Demand for housing =/= penciling out, unless you are charging quite a pretty penny for the housing. With how Boston's high end residential sales have cooled down, I'd be weary introducing a few hundred more to the mix.

It's been a struggle to design (albeit- simpler, smaller) residential reno projects that pencil out the past few years. Rates and construction costs are really hurting things from what I see.
 
-I fuckin knew it… NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Cutting holes in this thing and slapping a couple glass towers around it is not going to fix any of its core fundamental problems. Instead its just going to turn the concrete shitbox into a concrete shitbox with dangley shiny ornaments taped onto it.

If its a good building thats worth keeping then it would only need a refresh. If it needs to be completely hacked to pieces to try to fix whats wrong then its clearly a failure, so in that case why hamstring yourself by keeping anything? Start fresh with a blank slate and make something great.


“Mass. state officials hope the Hurley and Lindemann buildings on Staniford Street can still be preserved while the site is redeveloped for housing.”

Healey administration looks to redevelop Brutalist buildings downtown​

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“The state hopes the Hurley and Lindemann buildings, at 19 Staniford St. and 25 Staniford St. respectively, can still be preserved while the site is redeveloped for housing. Newly released guidelines for the project say that historic preservation and adaptive reuse will be “key considerations” in choosing which developers may win the right to build on the 5.5-acre site.

Balancing the property’s architectural heritage and the need for new housing could complicate the process for the Healey administration, which chose the property as the highest-profile of a group of state-owned properties it is making available for new homes, part of a series of steps aimed at addressing high housing costs.

The site has been made available for redevelopment before, but remains in the state’s hands. The 347,000-square-foot Hurley building is entirely empty, while the 222,000-square-foot Lindemann building includes offices for the Department of Mental Health……”

 
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Nonetheless, the state deems the Brutalist architecture “historically significant,” with the buildings eligible for listing on the State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.
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Does one person on this forum agree with this at all? Because if this claim has ANY truth to it, the proof is here.
 
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