Developers take note as Walsh seeks bold design
Mayor Martin J. Walsh struck a chord last month when he told an audience at the Boston Chamber of Commerce that the Hub needed more innovative architecture.
The city is enjoying a major building boom, yet the design of many recent buildings is bland and boxy, or as the mayor called it, “merely functional.”
Walsh urged developers to “reach beyond your comfort zone” to create new buildings that reflect the city’s culture of innovation. “Boston can do better,” he said.
“What the mayor said certainly made a lot of developers sit up and notice,” said Tom O’Brien, managing director of HYM Investment Group, which has proposed a bold, iconic glass office tower designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli for its One Congress St. project on the site of the Government Center garage. “Developers will now be looking at how to create a revenue benefit from the extra expense of creating better designs to add to the skyline.”
Bolder design, especially on larger projects, are a gamble for developers, as construction costs in Boston are high, around $500,000 per unit for the recent spate of luxury apartment buildings, even using less expensive materials such as precast stone, O’Brien said.
“We also need to change some of the industry standards on floor-plate sizes, elevator cores and corridors that constrict better design,” said Tim Love, principal of Hub architecture firm Utile and president of the Boston Society of Architects.
Love, whose firm has done a lot of innovative architecture in South Boston, says city regulators need to be tougher on changes to approved projects that are value-engineered to cut costs, often to the detriment of design details.
He also suggests developers of bigger projects hold design competitions, which would spur larger architectural firms to add some emerging designers to their teams to inject some fresh ideas.
“The talent is here. It’s been here,” said Elizabeth Whittaker, founder of Merge Architects, who is getting widespread attention for her bold designs such as the Marginal Street Lofts in East Boston. “And more and more of it will stay here if emerging architects begin to trust that they will be able to engage in more contemporary work in the city.”
“Many developers do not have a design background and tend to be risk-averse when it comes to architecture,” adds Kamran Zahedi, president of Urbanica, a Hub developer whose firm has brought contemporary architecture to a number of small projects on Fort Hill in Roxbury and just-approved larger complexes in Jamaica Plain and near Dudley Square.
He says that innovative design is possible for the thousands of moderately priced housing units the mayor wants to see built in the city.
“We should take the example of countries like Germany and the Netherlands, who have been able to produce mass housing with innovative architecture within tight budgets,” Zahedi said. “It would be sad if we do not also create beautiful 21st century architecture here in Boston.”
