North End Cross Street Boutique Hotel | 42 Cross Street | North End

Wow, this is worth going through...the pics are scattered throughout. It's great to see the effort to fill a weird space and to keep the street's curve. If built as illustrated it will be a great addition. Only one regret: the small shops it will be replacing will be missed, though I'm not sure of their quality anymore, inasmuch as they must be getting most of their clientele from tourist trade. Thanks ccole for posting! (Now if we can get the police to give up their privileged parking further down Cross St., near the tunnel entrance. That would be a perfect development to fill up Cross Street as originally intended when it was created a century ago to improve traffic flow in the area.)
 
Some screenshots from the PNF

Cross Street Boutique 01.png


Cross Street Boutique 02.png


Cross Street Boutique 03.png


Cross Street Boutique 04.png


Cross Street Boutique 05.png


A bit bland overall, but I like this pedestrian passage that cuts through to Morton Street and Cutillo Park:

Cross Street Boutique 06.png


I'm also very happy that they are preserving the buildings that face onto Endicott and Salem Streets:

Cross Street Boutique 07.png


Cross Street Boutique 08.png


Many of the renderings in the document include an "alternate roof configuration" version. I didn't bother to capture them all, but here's one:

Cross Street Boutique 09.png
 
It's not as bad as a lot of the generic boxes going up around town. It could be nicer but I'm ok with it. As long as they don't go too cheap on the materials and use the terra cotta shown here it should be a nice background building.
 
Getting a little tired of background buildings. Especially for such a prominent site that has a lot more potential than what's being utilized here.

Also side note, the two women sitting at the table at the left in the renderings are shifted out of their chairs haha
 
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The cut-through to Morton Street is nice, but we're getting just two retail spaces. There are five such spaces there now, and each one of them is the type of tiny retail space conducive to hosting unique local businesses (Maria's* was a gem, and far better than both Modern and Mike's). And we don't even get any housing out of it. Frankly, I'm not sure this project is an improvement over what's there now.


*Yes, I know Maria retired and the shop is already closed, but my point is that the existing retail spaces were able to host cool places that like. What we're going to end up with now are yet more bland, generically trendy restaurants.
 
BronsonShore said:
The cut-through to Morton Street is nice, but we're getting just two retail spaces. There are five such spaces there now, and each one of them is the type of tiny retail space conducive to hosting unique local businesses (Maria's* was a gem, and far better than both Modern and Mike's). And we don't even get any housing out of it. Frankly, I'm not sure this project is an improvement over what's there now.


*Yes, I know Maria retired and the shop is already closed, but my point is that the existing retail spaces were able to host cool places that like. What we're going to end up with now are yet more bland, generically trendy restaurants.
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I really don't understand the booming demand for more hotels. One's going up across the greenway at Haymarket. Now this. We need housing, not more rooms sitting empty 70% of the time...
 
This is a project where the materials will make all the difference. In my opinion the massing and choice of colors looks good, it just depends on whether the materials are quality or not as to whether it looks good or generic. The colors in the rendering look a bit cheap, but it could just be the rendering.
 
The driveway for this development needs to go. Not only does it present a dangerous mobility issue for vehicles to bypass the Cross Street and Sudbury signalized intersection, but it also gobbles up the largest southern sunlight-exposed parcel of land in the North End that could be used for outdoor dining. We already knew (during non-Pandemic circumstances) that Cross Street at Salem & Hanover is one of the most heavily trafficked by pedestrians in the region. Constraining that land area further with surface vehicle drop-off and parking instead of maximum al fresco dining, patio seating, or a podium for musical gatherings is dumb. (Nevermind inviting vehicles to disrupt the safe path of travel for people on bikes.)

If a drop-off point is so critical to the hotel, they should consider directing vehicles down Morton Street from Salem Street, or to be dropped off on Endicott Street after the light, or install a more modest curb drop-off that doesn't eat up 40 feet of linear geometry.
 
dshoost88 said:
The driveway for this development needs to go. Not only does it present a dangerous mobility issue for vehicles to bypass the Cross Street and Sudbury signalized intersection, but it also gobbles up the largest southern sunlight-exposed parcel of land in the North End that could be used for outdoor dining. We already knew (during non-Pandemic circumstances) that Cross Street at Salem & Hanover is one of the most heavily trafficked by pedestrians in the region. Constraining that land area further with surface vehicle drop-off and parking instead of maximum al fresco dining, patio seating, or a podium for musical gatherings is dumb. (Nevermind inviting vehicles to disrupt the safe path of travel for people on bikes.)

If a drop-off point is so critical to the hotel, they should consider directing vehicles down Morton Street from Salem Street, or to be dropped off on Endicott Street after the light, or install a more modest curb drop-off that doesn't eat up 40 feet of linear geometry.
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You're right, that's awful. They took the parcel's single best asset and ruined it. I officially hate this project.
 
What all this discussion is really saying is that this is a lousy place for a hotel.

You cannot short change a hotel curb cut, all you do is generate double parked and standing vehicles. (The cars don't magically go away.) So if the traffic generated by a hotel is going to be detrimental to the plaza effect here, don't put a hotel here. Find a different use for the parcel!
 
Isn't there a net gain of plaza space since the existing layout has that street passing through the whole site? The stretch in front of the bank is gone here.
 
Reading the comments I'm wondering if there's more benefit to abandon the curve. Cross Street needs better frontage in order to give the Greenway more definition spatially. You could tuck a small tree shaded piazza behind the building for outdoor dining which I think would be more cozy than sitting on the sun blasted existing plaza that abuts the surface artery that is the Greenway. A small passage between the new and existing buildings would lead to this spot, which would flow into a redesigned Cutillo Park. Morton St could be reimagined as a woonerf instead of a back alley and provide more of the charming nooks and crannies that used to be so prevalent in this city, particularly this neighborhood.

This proposal just seems so... boring...
 
I find it not a good entrance to the North End. I would prefer a little more flow to the rest of the North End. High quality, darker Brick. Maybe a floor lower (4-5 stories) with complete first floor dining and patios. This looks very corporate and uninviting. They have a lot of work to do.

I think it's a little too big for the North End.
 
Bananarama said:
I really don't understand the booming demand for more hotels. One's going up across the greenway at Haymarket. Now this. We need housing, not more rooms sitting empty 70% of the time...
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But there is demand for hotels which is why people rent apartments and then them into AirBnBs. so the market will find a way around regulation. Restricting supply won’t. I get this might not be a great spot for a hotel but demand is clearly there for hotels.
 
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