Josiah Quincy Upper School | 900 Washington Street | Chinatown

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JeffDowntown

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Community meetings are well underway for the new Josiah Quincy Upper School building, to replace the temporary structure on the site, as well as covering the rest of BPDA Parcel A and the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church site. This also opens up the old Lincoln School building in Bay VIllage for other uses.

This site is bounded by Washington Street, Marginal Street and Pine Street, along the Mass Pike, across the street from the Josiah Quincy Elementary School.

Recent presentation is attached.
 

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JeffDowntown said:
Community meetings are well underway for the new Josiah Quincy Upper School building, to replace the temporary structure on the site, as well as covering the rest of BPDA Parcel A and the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church site. This also opens up the old Lincoln School building in Bay VIllage for other uses.

This site is bounded by Washington Street, Marginal Street and Pine Street, along the Mass Pike, across the street from the Josiah Quincy Elementary School.

Recent presentation is attached.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will be great for the kids, but that's one ugly building. Makes Somerville High look like BFIT.

Even if you're a fan of the "1960s East Berlin" look for the upper floors, it's inconsistent to the ground. Meets the street like a jail. I genuinely can't believe this is what they're building, not what they're tearing down.
 
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Equilibria said:
I'm sure it will be great for the kids, but that's one ugly building. Makes Somerville High look like BFIT.

Even if you're a fan of the "1960s East Berlin" look for the upper floors, it's inconsistent to the ground. Meets the street like a jail. I genuinely can't believe this is what they're building, not what they're tearing down.
Click to expand...
I am not a huge fan of the architecture (and it will likely go through many more revisions).

But to be clear this is the decrepit modular structure being used on the site today (pic is from 2017):
1616605440065.png
 

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Equilibria said:
I'm sure it will be great for the kids, but that's one ugly building. Makes Somerville High look like BFIT.

Even if you're a fan of the "1960s East Berlin" look for the upper floors, it's inconsistent to the ground. Meets the street like a jail. I genuinely can't believe this is what they're building, not what they're tearing down.
Click to expand...
Also, we have been watching this school funding process play out for many years in Chinatown, waiting for JQUS's turn. Like what happened with Somerville High School, MSBA (the school funding grant authority) won't pay for serious architectural considerations. They pay for educational function only. So the resulting architecture tends to be pretty utilitarian.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I am not a huge fan of the architecture (and it will likely go through many more revisions).

But to be clear this is the decrepit modular structure being used on the site today (pic is from 2017):
Click to expand...
"It's better looking than the temporary modular structure that's there now" is a pretty low bar to clear.

The brickwork on the lower floors in the renders (see, e.g., PDF p 14) has potential, and as does the glass curtain portions of the upper floors. The design needs more cohesion, and hopefully they'll drop a façade material or six in design revisions. The glass-over-brick-podium design works for some of the currently-UC retrofits along Herald St immediately across the Pike from here.

In my crazy pitch dreams this school is built on a deck over the Pike immediately south of its location on the opposite side of Marginal Rd, but of course that's not going to happen.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Also, we have been watching this school funding process play out for many years in Chinatown, waiting for JQUS's turn. Like what happened with Somerville High School, MSBA (the school funding grant authority) won't pay for serious architectural considerations. They pay for educational function only. So the resulting architecture tends to be pretty utilitarian.
Click to expand...

Actually, I typically don't have much of a problem with the utilitarian buildings MSBA funds. They're simplistic but attractive. I'd be fine with this if it looked like Waltham High.
 
It needs to calm down some, but this is one of the most avantgarde designs I've seen proposed around here for awhile, not that that's saying much.

The rainbow of colors along the south facade should just match the orange of the ends.

Otherwise this has a pretty strong overall massing that clearly articulates the material volumes. Strong proportions.
The ground level is really unfortunate though. The two renderings along Pine street are miserable. Not sure why'd they'd bother showing them as they're clearly just side alleyways. The main entry is pretty good. BUT, they should be conscious of that angled face deflecting sound from the pike right down at people entering... Same thing happens at the Booth theater along Comm ave with its angled front bouncing the road noise back down.

So that people don't have to scroll through the presentation to the money shots (which are packed towards the end for some reason):
a.JPG
b.JPG

c.JPG
 
Whoa, no more courts? Sad - played a lot over there back in the day. They at least used to get a ton of use.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Indoor gymnasium and rooftop fitness activity area.
Click to expand...

No more late night rounds of 21 or 50, I guess. Probably will be better for playing in hurricanes/nor'easters, though. I wonder if they will keep the lower school's courts still open then as they were indoors.
 
bakgwailo said:
No more late night rounds of 21 or 50, I guess. Probably will be better for playing in hurricanes/nor'easters, though. I wonder if they will keep the lower school's courts still open then as they were indoors.
Click to expand...
Does seem to imply the need for additional basketball courts to open up nearby, decking over the pike could open a bunch of potential space for that and other park features right in front of this.
 
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Itll be a pretty big change with this getting built and if hopefully the residential next door also goes through.

0215D04C-6BA2-4651-983D-5AF616FF8AA5.jpeg
 
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