North End Garage

palindrome

palindrome

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
2,266
Reaction score
117
How has this not been developed yet?
What type of development could we see here? Another Merano/Victor/Avenir?
KwL5vIC.jpg
 
palindrome said:
How has this not been developed yet?
Click to expand...

Why would it be redeveloped?

That garage has a very good business going providing a valuable and in-demand service to the neighborhood and getting paid significantly for it.

I can't imagine a redevelopment here any time soon.
 
I was curious to know the history of this garage, it seems oddly wedged into the North End. I was guessing it resulted from a tentacle of the BRA's tear-down mania of the 60s that reached a bit farther afield from Govt Center and West End. Nope, wrong. According to Wikipedia it dates from the 1920s. It was also the site of the Great Brinks Robbery in 1950, if Wikipedia is to be believed (never a certain thing). It's on the National Register of Historic Places, per Wiki.

Anyhow, to your question,
How has this not been developed yet?
Click to expand...
the pedantic answer is, it has been developed, into a garage, in the 20s. OK, OK, sorry, I understand very well you mean why isn't it being developed to something bigger / grander. If the owner(s) is (are) happy with the cash flow, the answer is very simple: the owner doesn't want to sell. That's not a pedantic or snarky answer. Happens all the time, owners do things with buildings that some of us perceive as nutty. (There's a former Barnes and Nobles space on Washington street near my office that has sat empty for an idiotic length of time, e.g.) They're allowed to do so. You're allowed to think they're nuts.

What type of development could we see here? Another Merano/Victor/Avenir?
Click to expand...

That seems highly unlikely, given the height of buildings across the street in most directions. This parcel might not be way deep inside the fabric of the traditional North End, but it's not in former Big Dig land either.

Remember that back in the day, the BRA wanted to do to the North End what they did to the West End and Scollay Sq. I can be impatient with NIMBYs like many others here at aB, but in places like the North End, NIMBYism is informed by an exceptionally contentious history. I'm guessing trying to go big with this parcel would be a case where the whole West End nightmare would get thrown in any developer's face, and might well get a sympathetic hearing at the BRA. Maybe with me, too: I don't believe we need to go tall(er) everywhere.
 
Mods, can we change the title to the "North Terminal Garage" since a) that's the structure's name and b) there are other garages in the North End, so for the sake of being specific.

If the structure is to be developed (and that's highly unlikely), why change anything other than the function? It's a good looking structure, over 90 years history serving the same function, the brick and painted concrete fit in well with the North End's environment - something that 1920s-1930s-era garages did fairly well across the city (the Motor Mart, for example, which was the largest in the US - I think the world - when it opened), even though in this case the concrete was only painted mid-century at the earliest. You could probably do something sleek on the roof, sure, but developing this parcel for something else seems more like a solution in search of a problem. There are far more parking garage sites deserving of redevelopment and, if some of this garage's relatives are any indication, these early 20th century garages can be updated for different uses without demolishing them.


More History:

The the burst tank that led to the Molasses Flood was located in close proximity, so the garage didn't displace much other than the wreckage gas holding tanks as the site of the garage was in the possession of the Consolidated Gas Company since the mid-1800s and wasn't a contiguous part of the North End residential district.

The garage also has a substantial economy of space because there's no interior ramps. It's the only garage in Boston where the parking decks (originally 3, now 4 as roof parking added later) are accessed by different bays on the street with no interior vertical circulation. That arrangement allowed the garage to house more automobiles on a smaller footprint than contemporaneous garages and certainly than later garages.
 
CantabAmager said:
The garage also has a substantial economy of space because there's no interior ramps. It's the only garage in Boston where the parking decks (originally 3, now 4 as roof parking added later) are accessed by different bays on the street with no interior vertical circulation. That arrangement allowed the garage to house more automobiles on a smaller footprint than contemporaneous garages and certainly than later garages.
Click to expand...

Heh... That is so cool. What a great way to integrate the hill.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.367...4!1sdydwZ0SWZSEKHPoMUQyoNg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
Its also where the Brinks Robbery happened. Pretty sure it's actually on the Historic Register. I'm in there a few times a month using the zip cars on the second floor. It's functional, and probably one of the best designs we could hope for in terms of a parking garage. I'd rather there be three more of these and zero of the surface lots in the NE.
 
Great posts, interesting topic. You know, despite the concrete, this building actually looks like it was built in the 20's. The facade has a bit of that classic Philco radio form, giving it a definite art deco vibe.
 
I think it's an almost impossible site to redevelop. You can't go even moderately tall here to offset the land acquisition price because the hilltoppers in the North End will go ballistic over views and without the ability to go tall-ish (like 15 stories) it is going to be difficult to recoup the investment over just operating the garage indefinitely.
 
You could put a row of lofts around the perimeter behind those nice block windows - or even just at the corners - with minimal structural work - and keep some parking on the ground floor and the interior - but not clear if that would be more profitable than just keeping the concrete.

Could maybe put a penthouse on the roof too (in the sense of a dwelling unit that's not structurally integrated into the frame of the rest of the building - just bolted to the roof, so to speak).

Parking pays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top