Nubian Sq. Parcel P-3 (nee Tremont Crossing) | Roxbury

I dunno? First proposal has potential and fits in with the overall vibe of the neighborhood.

Second one is definitely lazy. Office park lazy.
 
Proposals available here:


And yeah, it looks like only one of these has any effort in it.
 
I hate to say it, but both these proposals are ridiculous and not worth a second thought.

The first one; you're going yellow, brown, green, and orange, for real? No no no. The second one; whether you like it or not history says that this part of a vibrant LOCAL community and should NOT be turned into a lab park. Please. We all know those apartments will be grabbed by post docs if offered. I'm sure their will be a yoga studio and a dog walking service... I digress, it's late, yuck.

The first one looks like a carnival funhouse. The second is too jammed together - build one tall tower with more open space. Both are subpar at best.
 
Two competing bids:


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The first bid has better massing but horrible designs. The second bid has really lousy massing but no real eyesores. The tallest building in the first one is like combining the MassArt Treehouse with MIT's new grad dorm, except it doesn't work here.
 
The first bid has better massing but horrible designs. The second bid has really lousy massing but no real eyesores. The tallest building in the first one is like combining the MassArt Treehouse with MIT's new grad dorm, except it doesn't work here.

The first one looks better in other renderings in the set. They're going for Nubian weaving.
 
The first one has the right mix of uses (mostly housing), connections with Roxbury institutions, and something that can be fit into the neighborhood (and hopefully its design improved). The second one is far too heavy on lab, creates a lottery ticket for people who buy affordable condos but get to sell at much higher market rate in the future, and has a bunch of previously unknown nonprofits supporting it; it feels much grosser.
 
This parcel's just set up for failure and relies too heavily on the developer to figure out what's right for the neighborhood, which their own highest and best use analysis will dictate against, leading to this...

The city needs to break this up, provide some planning, and put some of their money into this. The taxes in return will be worth it.
YES. Why are we stuck in 1960s superblock thinking? Feels like all urban planning in Boston, from transit to real estate, has never evolved from 70 years ago. Boston doesn’t have a jobs problem. It doesn’t have a culture problem. It has a housing problem. Cut this thing up into five pieces, put up bids for residential and some retail essentials, and that’s it.
 
I’m just sad that none of the proposed buildings seem to “face” Tremont Street.
 
HYM's is significantly better in terms of plan, at least to me. I want a full service grocery store, Market Basket could crush in this location.
 
HYM's is significantly better in terms of plan, at least to me. I want a full service grocery store, Market Basket could crush in this location.
Market Basket doesn't lease any of its stores to my knowledge. It makes being in a City or even part of any sort of development project that it doesn't construct itself rather difficult.
 
Market Basket doesn't lease any of its stores to my knowledge. It makes being in a City or even part of any sort of development project that it doesn't construct itself rather difficult.

Further Roche's expansion maybe? They already have DTX and North Station.
 
It's quite remarkable the weird cross subsidization they're proposing here. It's also a bit of an issue that we keep only building aff housing in Lower Roxbury, ensuring continued segregation. Just build a ton of market rate apartments there and stick some affordable onsite (or pay for it elsewhere). This is way too risky.
 

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