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

[FK4]

In the 1920's BU purchased the land for the Charles River campus. They owned the land down to the river's edge. In the 1930's as campus construction began the state took half the land by eminent domain to build the Esplanade and then decided to build Storrow Drive.
Otherwise BU today would have a magnificent riverfront campus.

Brookline, would, too... if Boston hadn’t annexed Brighton. Brookline had the riverfront by Cottage Farm, but the land had to be taken for a land connection to Allston (so what neighborhood is BU central part of, anyway?)

I was looking at the 1917 Bromley atlas and I never knew this before, but the same company that developed a lot of Bay State Rd actually had plans and measured lots for what was then river and now is SFR and the Embankment. If you take a look, most of the lights have names on them, which means they were already purchased… So further land expansion into what’s now the basin must have been the original plan. If you take a look, most of the lots have names on them, which means they were already purchased… So the filling project must have been pretty much in the final stages of planning. Since this would’ve predated Storrow by many years, and I think Back Street was what eventually did get built, I wonder what was the fate of those plans? (You can see it on mapjunction.com)

 

[Equilibria]

They chucked the design, at the BCDC's insistence. These are better, but why can't they just keep the facade?

http://www.bostonplans.org/document...ore-square-redevelopment-bcdc-presentation-(1)

Also, mod, please change the title to "Kenmore Square Redevelopment | 533-541 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square".

 

[JumboBuc]

They chucked the design, at the BCDC's insistence. These are better, but why can't they just keep the facade?

http://www.bostonplans.org/document...ore-square-redevelopment-bcdc-presentation-(1)

Also, mod, please change the title to "Kenmore Square Redevelopment | 533-541 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square".

Fixed link (pdf)

I agree 100%. These plans for the corner "Commonwealth Building" are way better, but they should still be keeping the corner facade.

Also, I didn't realize that the plans called for replacing the "Beacon Building" (where Cornwall's is now). Is that new? I thought it was just going to be a reno.

 

[Gameguy326]

There is really zero excuse not to give this thing a facadectomy.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I like this much better than before. Gotta go with Scheme 2 and A.

 

[Smartiro]

I like 2 and C.
But much better to keep the commonwealth facade, remove citgo sign and build a tower with a setback...

 

[shmessy]

I like 2 and C.
But much better to keep the commonwealth facade, remove citgo sign and build a tower with a setback...

Really? Isn't C the one with the empty 6th floor - - eyeglasses without the lens? To each his/her own, I guess.

 

[type001]

What an improvement. I would take any of the schemes. C is my least favorite, but still good.

Regarding the facade, at least there are plenty like them just down Beacon Street up to Adubon Circle.

The CITGO sign exposes so many ironies. My biggest one is that my favorite part about is the view of it the further you get.

 

[fattony]

I'll take a #1 with a side of C please, thank you.

 

[bdurden]

I like Scheme 2 for the Commonwealth building, although I wish they'd ditch the red terra cotta (very Dana-Farber) and use a limestone veneer.

Scheme A or B on the Beacon building are both winners (leaning to B though as it breaks up the glass in a more appropriate scale with its neighbors).

 

[Justin7]

It has been very disheartening to watch, in less than a decade, this forum go from "Facadectomies are shit. This is a great building. Save the building" to "This really needs to be a facadectomy!"

 

[odurandina]

i like the new renders. But i want a facadectomy. No problem seeing a modern building w/ all the advantages, safety behind its facade. That's certainly what the marketplace demands. Did low existing floor heights prevent a facadectomy being offiered?

 

[Beton Brut]

It has been very disheartening to watch, in less than a decade, this forum go from "Facadectomies are shit. This is a great building. Save the building" to "This really needs to be a facadectomy!"

We've pivoted into a sad understanding of economics. I remain skeptical about the practice, but even doing work on my own home (a 2-family, circa 1934) has made me better aware of the cost of bringing older buildings up to code, allowing new uses.

With all that said, I'd prefer to see the corner building repurposed as part of a larger residential or hotel development, with additional square footage in a modest tower positioned at the back of the lot (above the podium). All of the schemes as presented are, at once, too thoughtless and too timid.

 

[HenryAlan]

Scheme 2 and option B are my preferred treatments, but I agree with the consensus that the existing facade should be saved. I spent many years seeing that as the entrance to Kenmore from the West. It should remain so, especially as most of the other approaches have now changed.

 

[odurandina]

Maybe you can save the facade by adding bricks between levels or doing a reproduction.

Spare no effort and just get it done.

 

[jl326]

All around better than what was proposed before (any conspiracy theorists out there thinking that was intentional?? ). I would go with 2 and B. Though I wouldn't mind A either.

 

[cadetcarl]

Echoing what others have said above, keep the facade. But failing that, Scheme 2 and Option A are my choices. The only one I wouldn't be happy with is Scheme 3 for the corner building--it just gets something slightly wrong about the proportion of glazing to solid. Overall, nice effort and well-presented. I think this scale of building is something the city can and should be doing more; it's something that Washington does particularly well.

 

[tocoto]

Move the CITGO sign to the top of the green monster at Fenway Park and build a good looking tower in Kenmore with facadectomy and setbacks

 

[xec]

One thing Kenmore Square really needs is some monumental fountain or statue or something to focus the space. Here's one posibility: an obelisk of some sort. It would need to be taller than the Citgo sign and it could be covered in LEDs to light up in sync with the sign.It could be three-sided with one side lighting up in white, one in red and one in blue. Or it could be all white then all red then all blue. Or some other pattern that synchronized with the sign. Here's a crappy MS Paint illustration showing the basic idea.

You could even get rid of the sign altogether and leave the obelisk since some people object to the sign as being out of context. I think it looks better with the sign though.

 

[Equilibria]

They picked the best design, but why not in the red/orange?

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/c6fc0a2a-ec3b-43fa-a9ae-4481630c4f64