Jamaica Plain Infill and Small Developments

coleslaw

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took some pics of infill projects around jp. I wanted to put them up and realized there is no thread like this for Jamaica Plain so I made this. Here are my pictures:
Seaverns Crossing



I love this project's neighbors


Ophir Condons
http://www.arborviewcompanies.com/ophircondos





 
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Those condos are fucking rad. I love small modern stuff like that. Those are the types are developments the city needs in mass quantities.
 
Those condos are fucking rad. I love small modern stuff like that. Those are the types are developments the city needs in mass quantities.

Yeah I really dig them too. Something about them is just right. I also like that they are all slightly different.
 
I like them. The modern rendition of the triple decker.
 
Im not that impressed by the Seaverns project, but those awesome homes next door always remind me of New Orleans for some reason. Two are so clean and updated, and then the last one is falling apart but still awesome.

I like those Ophir St ones - that road really gets a boost from those.
Probably more infill going on in JP than anywhere else other than Southie, and much of the Southie stuff isn't really "infill" so much as the total redevelopment of the industrial plan approaching the seaport...

Ophir looks a lot like the ones that went up on the scruffy end of Chestnut a couple years ago, you can see them from Lamartine and they look great (image - rendering - below, they look better in person). Just finishing up are a set of triplets at Danforth & Wyman that try to mimic this looks and end up looking like just OK boxes...
34-40-rendering-image.jpg

34-40_chestnut_ave_45.jpg


I kept thinking JP needed an infill thread but dont post my own photos cuz I have no account online account (lazy, I guess), but other new significant development is the reno/expansion with affordable housing tucked in around 114 Chestnut or so. New condos on Chestnut Square going in now, and recently finished building 4 townhouses at 207 Chestnut (sadly, with a hideous cement retaining wall).

If you feel like getting some decent shots of new development, they tore down the house at Lamartine and Hubbardston, and of course cut down every single tree. BUT the building going up looks pretty good so far.

Nearer to me, the corner of Lamartine Place & Lamartine is about to be torn down and two pretty large 4 stories going up soon.
 
FK4 I also love the ones on Chestnut. Every time I pass I comment on how beautiful they are. I am only going to be here for a week but felt the same way about a JP thread so I decided to make one. will try to get more pics but hope some others do the same.

I also get a kind of old timey on the water vibe from those houses.
 
FK4 I also love the ones on Chestnut. Every time I pass I comment on how beautiful they are. I am only going to be here for a week but felt the same way about a JP thread so I decided to make one. will try to get more pics but hope some others do the same.

I also get a kind of old timey on the water vibe from those houses.

i know what you mean - especially from lamartine, they sort of sit up on the hillside looking down into the harbor (stony brook valley)
 
I like the architecture of the Ophir condos but why is there such massive gaps in between the buildings? It looks from the pictures like it's paved aka surface parking. Seems like a waste of space to me.
 
I like the architecture of the Ophir condos but why is there such massive gaps in between the buildings? It looks from the pictures like it's paved aka surface parking. Seems like a waste of space to me.

I agree completely. That is my only complaint with the project. It is also too small to fill in later wich annoys me even more.
 
I agree completely. That is my only complaint with the project. It is also too small to fill in later wich annoys me even more.

It's not necessarily too small, though something like this will probably never happen;

SWA-01-818x545.jpg


On a somewhat separate note, I don't understand what this city's aversion to attached housing is, from either a historical perspective or the present day. I get that you need driveways and garages but why can't you build on top of them? It's one thing when you have a triple decker built 80 years ago, not much you can do there, but in new construction there is just no excuse to have that much space between homes when you are in the midst of a housing supply crises.

It seems culturally ingrained to have detached buildings compared with other northeastern cities with more rowhouses or even San Francisco which has some pretty poorly designed low density outer neighborhoods but has almost no detached homes anywhere. In Boston it's pretty much the opposite outside of the inner core. You find the sporadic rowhome street in places but it's mostly detached housing with driveway sized spaces between them and I don't understand why that is - cross ventilation can't be that big a deal. Does anybody know the historical context?

To bring it back on topic I will say that the townhomes on Lamartine are much better in terms of not wasting space, albeit with uninspired design.
 
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It's not necessarily too small, though something like this will probably never happen;


On a somewhat separate note, I don't understand what this city's aversion to attached housing is, from either a historical perspective or the present day. I get that you need driveways and garages but why can't you build on top of them? It's one thing when you have a triple decker built 80 years ago, not much you can do there, but in new construction there is just no excuse to have that much space between homes when you are in the midst of a housing supply crises.

It seems culturally ingrained to have detached buildings compared with other northeastern cities with more rowhouses or even San Francisco which has some pretty poorly designed low density outer neighborhoods but has almost no detached homes anywhere. In Boston it's pretty much the opposite outside of the inner core. You find the sporadic rowhome street in places but it's mostly detached housing with driveway sized spaces between them and I don't understand why that is - cross ventilation can't be that big a deal. Does anybody know the historical context?

To bring it back on topic I will say that the townhomes on Lamartine are much better in terms of not wasting space, albeit with uninspired design.

I agree. I have always found that strange. My comment was more that these arent built for something to be filled in.
 
Another angle of 213 Lamartine


242-246 Amory


These next two are across from each other and were recently finished. I am pretty sure there was a fire in one or both of them but I cant remember for sure. 37 Forest Hills was basically just a recladding as far as I remember 1-3 Peter Parley was more of a complete rebuild for some reason keeping the horrible design of the building that was there. this is what they replaced https://www.google.com/maps/@42.311095,-71.101935,3a,75y,303.8h,88.6t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1s68alXXRTTWUANt28vl3b3w!2e0!5s20110701T000000
37 Forest Hills street




1-3 Peter Parley Road

 
It's not necessarily too small, though something like this will probably never happen;

SWA-01-818x545.jpg


On a somewhat separate note, I don't understand what this city's aversion to attached housing is, from either a historical perspective or the present day. I get that you need driveways and garages but why can't you build on top of them? It's one thing when you have a triple decker built 80 years ago, not much you can do there, but in new construction there is just no excuse to have that much space between homes when you are in the midst of a housing supply crises.

It seems culturally ingrained to have detached buildings compared with other northeastern cities with more rowhouses or even San Francisco which has some pretty poorly designed low density outer neighborhoods but has almost no detached homes anywhere. In Boston it's pretty much the opposite outside of the inner core. You find the sporadic rowhome street in places but it's mostly detached housing with driveway sized spaces between them and I don't understand why that is - cross ventilation can't be that big a deal. Does anybody know the historical context?

To bring it back on topic I will say that the townhomes on Lamartine are much better in terms of not wasting space, albeit with uninspired design.


"Good fences make good neighbors" -- its a New England cultural artifact

Think of Capt'n. John Parker and his company of 77 on Lexington Green 240 years ago:

There the 77 individuals stood waiting for the approach of Col. Smith and His Majesty's Foot -- prepared to guard their homes and possessions

800px-Minute_Man_Statue_Lexington_Massachusetts.jpg


The yeomen of New England against the the Force of the British Empire

"
 
A restoration on 200 Amory Street and a new building 10-14 Boylston Place

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The color of this is the same color as the siding that is now going up on 213 Lamartine.

It is amazing that all of these are within a few blocks from my house.
 
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I live right up the street on Centre and pass Seaverns Crossing every day on my way to and from work. I definitely prefer the design of Ophir Condos; it adds a level of quirky modernity to the neighbourhood that Seaverns doesn't.

By the way, does anyone know what's going on with that stalled development one house in on nearby Cheshire Street?
 

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