Mildred Hailey (Bromley Heath) BHA Redevelopment | Jackson Square | Jamaica Plain

Man wtf is this, NOBODY is asking for buildings that look like this to go up in their community. Plenty of 5 over 1’s with fiber cement panels come out just fine in every city across america when it isnt a collage of random colors thrown all over the place. The old brick buildings were actually better. These already need a reclad asap.
 
stick n move said:
Man wtf is this, NOBODY is asking for buildings that look like this to go up in their community. Plenty of 5 over 1’s with fiber cement panels come out just fine in every city across america when it isnt a collage of random colors thrown all over the place. The old brick buildings were actually better. These already need a reclad asap.
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Façade design by AI? Or interns?
 
Serious question because I have very little if any knowledge of architecture. Is this design related to some cost-cutting/value engineering decision or is there an individual that actually thinks this looks good? At least with the value engineering I can see a rational explanation. I can't understand these buildings as designed. It's almost as if the cladding is meant to intentionally offend people.
 
Before and after
 

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stick n move said:
Man wtf is this, NOBODY is asking for buildings that look like this to go up in their community. Plenty of 5 over 1’s with fiber cement panels come out just fine in every city across america when it isnt a collage of random colors thrown all over the place. The old brick buildings were actually better. These already need a reclad asap.
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No. Those buildings are almost universally bad, but these are worse.
 
The basic design template was already in place by the time the developers submitted their initial PNF back in 2020...the explanation for the color choices at the time was basically "it creates visual interest and is cheaper to build."



 

Mildred Hailey Development Buildings 4A and 4B​


“Mildred Hailey Phase 4 includes the construction of two residential buildings (Building 4A and Building 4B). Building 4A, located on the northeastern portion of the Site, will be approximately 58 feet in height (five levels) and include approximately 78,500 square feet (“sf”) of residential space consisting of approximately 67 units.

Building 4B located on the southwestern portion of the Site, will be approximately 84 feet in height (seven levels) and include approximately 127,500 sf of space consisting of approximately 112 units and approximately 5,000 sf of non-residential space. The non-residential space may include uses such as retail, office, civic, community, and/or residential amenity.”

Mildred Hailey Development Building 4 | Bostonplans.org

Development Projects and Planned Development Areas (PDAs) that the Development Review division is coordinating.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org

















bpda.app.box.com

2025-09-12_Project Notification Form (PNF)_Mildred Hailey Development Building 4.pdf | Powered by Box

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-I think these look a lot better than the first two (1a and 1b) which have gone up. The colors are more coherent, theres a lot of brick, and the red and brown colors throughout just look higher quality and less gimmicky. The upcoming building 2 (below) looks a lot closer to these new buildings color wise as well, and helps block out that ugly speckled building (1b) from centre street and jackson square station.
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^This render from above showed the other side of building 2, so this will be what people see from centre street and jackson square station. Not bad imo.
 
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My favorite part of this project is how they just rebuilt the spiked metal fence with the spikes at the perfect height to impair bikers already at risk of falling due to a fence right against the bike path making this leg more dangerous that getting doored. Great thinking.
 
1/10

Buildings 1A/1B look to be nearing completion, with most (not all) fencing now removed. The Lamartine Street extension on the west side of both buildings has been opened up to traffic. No visual changes relating to Building 4 or any other phase.






















 
Luckily that blue building is the ugliest one and from here on out the rest appear to look better.

stick n move said:

Mildred Hailey Development Buildings 4A and 4B​


“Mildred Hailey Phase 4 includes the construction of two residential buildings (Building 4A and Building 4B). Building 4A, located on the northeastern portion of the Site, will be approximately 58 feet in height (five levels) and include approximately 78,500 square feet (“sf”) of residential space consisting of approximately 67 units.

Building 4B located on the southwestern portion of the Site, will be approximately 84 feet in height (seven levels) and include approximately 127,500 sf of space consisting of approximately 112 units and approximately 5,000 sf of non-residential space. The non-residential space may include uses such as retail, office, civic, community, and/or residential amenity.”

Mildred Hailey Development Building 4 | Bostonplans.org

Development Projects and Planned Development Areas (PDAs) that the Development Review division is coordinating.
www.bostonplans.org www.bostonplans.org

















bpda.app.box.com

2025-09-12_Project Notification Form (PNF)_Mildred Hailey Development Building 4.pdf | Powered by Box

bpda.app.box.com bpda.app.box.com


-I think these look a lot better than the first two (1a and 1b) which have gone up. The colors are more coherent, theres a lot of brick, and the red and brown colors throughout just look higher quality and less gimmicky. The upcoming building 2 (below) looks a lot closer to these new buildings color wise as well, and helps block out that ugly speckled building (1b) from centre street and jackson square station.
View attachment 66886
View attachment 66887
^This render from above showed the other side of building 2, so this will be what people see from centre street and jackson square station. Not bad imo.
Click to expand...

Much better without the stupid ass zig zags and flecks of random colors flung against the wall. Idk why they all couldn't look like this.
 
stick n move said:
Luckily that blue building is the ugliest one and from here on out the rest appear to look better.



Much better without the stupid ass zig zags and flecks of random colors flung against the wall. Idk why they all couldn't look like this.
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Don't get your hopes up - the initial renderings for 1A and 1B showed them looking normal too.
 
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