Kenmore Square North (WHOOP) | 533-541 Commonwealth Ave | Fenway

[Beton Brut]

^ I'm glad to have met you; your knowledge and advocacy are exemplary.

In regard to the September 11th BCDC meeting at City Hall, there's currently nothing that I could find listed on the BPDA online calendar.

I did see (and post) about the Suffolk Downs/IAG meeting, scheduled for the same evening; I'll be attending that meeting, as the site abuts my neighborhood.

 

[stevebikes]

Nothing is happening, but I ran through Allston on Allston Christmas so indulge me:

 

[Drubinoff]

IMPORTANT: There is a Boston Landmarks Commission hearing tomorrow evening (Tuesday, September 11, 2018) at 6 pm where the 90-day demolition delay will be proposed and voted upon. The hearing will be held at Boston City Hall room 900 (9th floor). There will be an opportunity for public comment, so if you are able to attend and comment about preserving #541 Commonwealth (and possibly integrating its heritage façade into the proposed new building), that would be very helpful and appreciated. Here is the meeting info: https://www.boston.gov/public-notices/48616 .

Please email me at inquiries@derekrubinoff.com if you are interested in encouraging the development team to preserve this Arthur Vinal-designed facade.

 

[Beton Brut]

^ For good or ill, I'll be at a BPDA meeting in my own neighborhood tomorrow evening.

Suffer no fools tomorrow night. And call out BU's leadership under John Silber for their incompetent stewardship of this handsome building.

 

[odurandina]

This is an absolute travesty.

One of the most valuable pieces in this part of the City.

if could be there i'd be talking about sectioning this facade up in pieces to allow

for the new taller floors, then re-installing it--and the gaps properly filled.

costly, but effective egress to move forward w/ the facade preserved.

 

[Justin7]

IMPORTANT: There is a Boston Landmarks Commission hearing tomorrow evening (Tuesday, September 11, 2018) at 6 pm where the 90-day demolition delay will be proposed and voted upon. The hearing will be held at Boston City Hall room 900 (9th floor). There will be an opportunity for public comment, so if you are able to attend and comment about preserving #541 Commonwealth (and possibly integrating its heritage façade into the proposed new building), that would be very helpful and appreciated. Here is the meeting info: https://www.boston.gov/public-notices/48616 .

Please email me at inquiries@derekrubinoff.com if you are interested in encouraging the development team to preserve this Arthur Vinal-designed facade.

^ For good or ill, I'll be at a BPDA meeting in my own neighborhood tomorrow evening.

Suffer no fools tomorrow night. And call out BU's leadership under John Silber for their incompetent stewardship of this handsome building.

Godspeed.

 

[Drubinoff]

Good news; the Boston Landmarks Commission voted for a 90-day demolition delay last night. Some of us spoke in the hearing to encourage Related Beal to integrate the Westgate (541 Commonweath Ave.) into the new design rather than demolishing it. Several voices on the Commission spoke in favor of this, as well.

 

[shmessy]

Good news; the Boston Landmarks Commission voted for a 90-day demolition delay last night. Some of us spoke in the hearing to encourage Related Beal to integrate the Westgate (541 Commonweath Ave.) into the new design rather than demolishing it. Several voices on the Commission spoke in favor of this, as well.

Fantastic (and encouraging) news Drubinoff - - many thanks to you and the others up there who stood up and made your voices heard. It sounds like there are some enlightened powers that be who may be able to redirect this in a great trajectory. Kenmore Square should be spectacular and uniquely Boston.

 

[cjbski]

This is terrific news! Nice work.

 

[statler]

Thank you everyone who attended and spoke up at all the meetings!

Hopefully this one goes back to the drawing board.

 

[jass]

Great news

 

[Shepard]

Question: Though I totally get the preservation-minded response, what's so special about this building? Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...? (Asking for a friend, of course)

 

[JeffDowntown]

Question: Though I totally get the preservation-minded response, what's so special about this building? Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...? (Asking for a friend, of course)

Prominent location at a high visibility corner of Kenmore Square (where much of the older urban fabric has been destroyed)?

 

[tangent]

Fantastic (and encouraging) news Drubinoff - - many thanks to you and the others up there who stood up and made your voices heard. It sounds like there are some enlightened powers that be who may be able to redirect this in a great trajectory. Kenmore Square should be spectacular and uniquely Boston.

Hopefully they can be made to preserve this facade.

Sad that the city can apply so much pressure and they can be made to preserve a corporate citgo sign from a terrible company just 'cause people like the big red triangle and they don't really want to think about the state run big oil and repressive dictatorships that it represents.

And an aesthetically pleasing architecturally detailed facade in a prominent location has been so easily disregarded in the planning up until now.

 

[JumboBuc]

Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...?

With this level of copper and stonework ornamental detailing? No, there aren't.

This is the kind of building that cannot and will not be built today. My rule of thumb is this: if a building's signature architectural elements cannot be recreated using contemporary methods (either for technical reasons or reasons of realistic economic practicality), then those elements should be preserved in any redevelopment. If a building's signature architectural elements can be recreated using contemporary methods, then feel free to tear it down.

Under this approach, the corner "West Gate" facade should be saved, while the "New England School of Photography" and "Bertucci's" buildings next door can be destroyed.

 

[jass]

Question: Though I totally get the preservation-minded response, what's so special about this building? Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...? (Asking for a friend, of course)

Thousands?

Care to share 2-3 other examples?

 

[chrisbrat]

Question: Though I totally get the preservation-minded response, what's so special about this building? Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...? (Asking for a friend, of course)

not many -- certainly not thousands -- with copper-clad bow windows and the detail work throughout, no. this is closer to the charlesgate hotel (obviously not AS nice) than it is to just some run-of-the-mill (non) brownstone like what you see from 1100-1700 comm ave. and having lived in all of those areas mentioned other than roxbury, i can attest to having seen all-too-many of these types of buildings go bye-bye in my lifetime. it's important to keep these around -- especially in kenmore, which already lost a whole block of neat-o (non) browstones in favor of the gross, preclad, disney/vegas hotel commonwealth.

 

[odurandina]

Thank you.

Aren't there thousands like it across Brookline, Allston, Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester...? (Asking for a friend, of course)

No. When it comes to fine exterior details such as this one,
in such a prominent area; assigning the number;

Whatever the number we have, let's keep it that way.

At some point you have to draw a line.

 

[BronsonShore]

I would go even further than those suggesting that this building should be saved because of it's particular quality and detailing (though it is); I'd say that, even if there were thousands of other's like it around Boston, it should still be saved because it's the accumulation of these buildings that makes Boston what it is.

Great urban fabric is not solely a result of having a collection of uniquely beautiful/interesting buildings. If it were, then we'd be saying that places like Dubai and Vegas are the best urban environments in the world. In fact, a great urban fabric is precisely the result of of having thousands of smaller buildings like this one. They might not be particularly eye-catching, but they activate the environment and create human-scaled spaces.

99% of the North End is made up of boring, cheap, dime-a-dozen buildings. But the North End provides us with the best urbanity in Boston (and probably all of America) because there are just so many of them and they're all scaled perfectly. You might think it isn't such a big deal to tear down a random tenement on Fleet Street, but if you eventually tear down 100 of them, then you'll have irrevocably damaged the neighborhood.

 

[Hufer]

Good news; the Boston Landmarks Commission voted for a 90-day demolition delay last night. Some of us spoke in the hearing to encourage Related Beal to integrate the Westgate (541 Commonweath Ave.) into the new design rather than demolishing it. Several voices on the Commission spoke in favor of this, as well.

Thank you!!