Maxwell | 35 Garvey Street | Everett

king_vibe said:
Prisons are built more solidly are have more amenities.
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How many cigarettes does a 1BR go for there? Tell me and I’ll put some money in your commissary account. Okay, fine… a few ramen flavor packs too.
 
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Lrfox said:
I don't know if these are part of the Vero or a separate project (or projects), but there are a lot of units (looks to be 3 or 4 separate buildings) currently under construction across the street (9/2022 photo) from the occupied building(s).

*Edit* Construction signage says "V2 Apartments" and has a web address. Coming 2023.
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Yep, Vero II.

I know that the city (chelsea) was also trying to have another development project behind Vero II but it would come with very limited off-street parking. No other updates available since last summer.
 
To the negative aesthetics comments, I know it is not inspiring or exciting, but it is badly needed new housing. These projects might not last 500 years, but while they look cheap, they are fairly well made vs stuff built in the 1970's and 1980's.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
To the negative aesthetics comments, I know it is not inspiring or exciting, but it is badly needed new housing. These projects might not last 500 years, but while they look cheap, they are fairly well made vs stuff built in the 1970's and 1980's.
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Nobody is living for 500 years. These are going to look crappy for the duration of our lifetimes, and that's not really debatable.
 
DZH22 said:
Nobody is living for 500 years. These are going to look crappy for the duration of our lifetimes, and that's not really debatable.
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Sure, they're not going to win prizes for their aesthetic or innovative design, but I'm not sure why that's necessarily an issue? They're infinitely better than a lot of the multi-unit residential development we've seen in working class areas over the last 40-50 years. And they're infinitely better than what they're replacing in that location (even earlier shot). It's not realistic to expect cutting edge design on formerly industrial land in a working class town surrounded by suburban retail, light industrial development, and high volume roads. And there is always a need for large scale, non-luxury (regardless of how it's branded) urban housing. This is still fairly uncharted territory. If these first few developments are successful in attracting residents and a precedent is set, then we can talk about the merits of building something with more architectural gravitas. But until that point, I think it's kind of silly to malign the appearance of large scale, high-density urban development in a former industrial wasteland. This is exactly what the Boston area needs a lot more of.
 
Lrfox said:
Sure, they're not going to win prizes for their aesthetic or innovative design, but I'm not sure why that's necessarily an issue? They're infinitely better than a lot of the multi-unit residential development we've seen in working class areas over the last 40-50 years. And they're infinitely better than what they're replacing in that location (even earlier shot). It's not realistic to expect cutting edge design on formerly industrial land in a working class town surrounded by suburban retail, light industrial development, and high volume roads. This is still fairly uncharted territory. If these first few developments are successful in attracting residents and a precedent is set, then we can talk about the merits of building something with more architectural gravitas. But until that point, I think it's kind of silly to malign the appearance of large scale, high-density urban development in a former industrial wasteland. This is exactly what the Boston area needs a lot more of.
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Is this archboston.com or purelyutilitarianboston.com?
 
Lrfox said:
They're infinitely better than a lot of the multi-unit residential development we've seen in working class areas over the last 40-50 years. And they're infinitely better than what they're replacing in that location (even earlier shot).
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Those are pretty low bars. Are there not urban, non-luxury homes being built elsewhere in the world that we could use as a design model? I think I lean more towards DZ’s side here in that surely something better must be possible somehow.
 
If Boston was not one of the most expensive places in the US and on Earth to rent an apartment, largely driven by the scarcity of apartments, I would give more F's that this place is dull and cheap looking. This 5 over 1 stuff is very cost-efficient and if we have to have lots of dull stuff in places that were vacant lots / under-used, then I am ok with it.
 
Eliminate design review, make development by right, greatly upzone. These things will drive costs down and enable better design. There's simply no way to look at what happens in reviews and say that encourages design --- it has been well documented it makes it more conservative, formulaic, and bad. Just look at the Aubry on Newbury st where the Civic Design Commission and the "Neighborhood" killed any hint of new or interesting design.
 
Blackbird said:
Those are pretty low bars. Are there not urban, non-luxury homes being built elsewhere in the world that we could use as a design model? I think I lean more towards DZ’s side here in that surely something better must be possible somehow.
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There may be nicer non-luxury developments in the world, but I wouldn't try to draw too many parallels unless they are also being built on similarly underutilized space, are subject to similar zoning laws and permitting processes, and are subject to similar labor and materials costs, etc.

I don't think the bar needs to be much higher in this location (uncharted territory for this type of development) and at this time (during a major housing crunch). Bringing a ton of units to the market and a design that creates an urban street wall (with ground floor space that can generate activity on the street level) are about as good as we should be expecting here right now. If all of these new developments are quickly occupied and some semblance of a functioning neighborhood begins to develop, then I think we can put some weight into calls for better design. But for now, I'm OK with what we're getting here.
 
And from a living perspective, aside from the fancy high rises I have lived in NYC, my first residence when I moved to Minneapolis was a brand new 5-over-1 development - the kind we all cringe over (I literally saw Alucobond branding on panels, etc.) - it was the nicest place I have ever lived in after so many century's old dumps in Boston and NYC. Everything was new, it all worked, nothing falling apart, no crabby landlord, and a heated garage under the building. It was really nice and not bc of luxury details, it was just so refreshing to not have all the dilapidated apartment problems we all deal with to live in places like Boston, SF, Chicago, NYC.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
And from a living perspective, aside from the fancy high rises I have lived in NYC, my first residence when I moved to Minneapolis was a brand new 5-over-1 development - the kind we all cringe over (I literally saw Alucobond branding on panels, etc.) - it was the nicest place I have ever lived in after so many century's old dumps in Boston and NYC. Everything was new, it all worked, nothing falling apart, no crabby landlord, and a heated garage under the building. It was really nice and not bc of luxury details, it was just so refreshing to not have all the dilapidated apartment problems we all deal with to live in places like Boston, SF, Chicago, NYC.
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Yeah... same. Aside from living in a couple new construction residence halls at Northeastern University (man do they take great care of their properties!), the nicest rental apartment I lived in in Metro-Boston out of 7-8 places has been Modera Medford next to Wellington Station--a recently constructed multi-family to the same quality/investment as these projects down Route 16 in Everett. They work. And with the steady clip of 6-figure salaries across multiple industries in Greater Boston (we create jobs faster than housing up here), it'll be a very long time before the demand for these falls out of fashion.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
And from a living perspective, aside from the fancy high rises I have lived in NYC, my first residence when I moved to Minneapolis was a brand new 5-over-1 development - the kind we all cringe over (I literally saw Alucobond branding on panels, etc.) - it was the nicest place I have ever lived in after so many century's old dumps in Boston and NYC. Everything was new, it all worked, nothing falling apart, no crabby landlord, and a heated garage under the building. It was really nice and not bc of luxury details, it was just so refreshing to not have all the dilapidated apartment problems we all deal with to live in places like Boston, SF, Chicago, NYC.
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Right..."Luxury Apartment [Condo]" is just code speak for "everything works and you don't have to think about anything." Unfortunately, this codespeak is problematic both due to being misunderstood by housing equity advocates and armchair architecture/real estate critics alike. In the case of the former, its outrage over "why is everything we're building 'luxury'?"...and in the case of the latter, it's "what's so luxury-caliber about the architecture/build quality of this mass produced, run-of-mill stuff?" It's a problematic category name; sigh.
 
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