Renovations / Conversions

BAC is moving into that building and will have a dormitory in the Trinity Financial air rights project next to Dillons.
 
Funny they should want to move into such a criminal building.
 
They have moved in. The first floor lagged behind in renovation for some reason.
 
Yes, sort of.

One of the running complaints on the board is that architecture schools are hidebound to the cult of Modernism.

I didn't say it was a good joke.
 
I suppose it is a rather relevant joke, considering the BAC is HQ'ed in a Brutalist ...thing... on Newbury St.
 
bbfen said:
They have moved in. The first floor lagged behind in renovation for some reason.
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Yeah, the entire building has been occupied for 2-3 years now except for the front half of the first floor. No idea what the hold up has been. Rumor has it the BAC has dibs on the firehouse next door should they ever move as well.

The BACs historic preservation program is very, very good. However the architecture program does still hail courbusier, etc as gods among men
 
Holy shit. I honestly didn't know that. I managed to make a two-layer joke without even realizing it.
 
statler said:
Holy shit. I honestly didn't know that. I managed to make a two-layer joke without even realizing it.
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Lol, eat and/or have drink at Dillons sometime. It's great. They have a bunch of historical pix and info about the police/fire station combo too.
 
datadyne007 said:
Lol, eat and/or have drink at Dillons sometime. It's great. They have a bunch of historical pix and info about the police/fire station combo too.
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That whole complex is pretty awesome actually. It was built on Gravelly Point as the Back Bay was still being filled, so for a while it and some fishing shacks were the only things standing out there on the muddy peninsula. Gravelly Point is also the reason the small group of streets around Hemmingway and Westland are at an odd angle, as it follows a much older street plan. Buildings have historically also been a bit taller right there, you have firm ground to build on instead of pilings.

I believe it was one of the first combo fire / police stations, which is why in part they recruited Richardson to design it. To attract people to the Back Bay the city made a point of building/encouraging grandiose public buildings on the new land. There is a reason why there is such an abundance of churches in the area (most of which predate the adjacent homes), as well as very well designed and luxurious public buildings. As the area grew in the 20s they built the addition next door (now Dillons), before the precinct was shut down as beat cops got automobiles.

There is an an amazing book Houses of Bostons Back Bay that chronicles almost every single building built in the back bay, as well as the history of the Mill Dam and Gravelly Point. The only thing he leaves out are the carriage houses on Newbury and the commercial buildings on Boylston, as they were deemed insignificant at the time the book was researched and published. A fascinating read for any local history buff. I reccomend reading it on the Comm Ave Mall, so you can walk around to various places to see what is being talked about.
 
Always luxury... I don't get it, when is Boston going to run out of people who can pay 3k/mo for a one bedroom? Most new apartments being built in the city are "luxury"...
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Always luxury... I don't get it, when is Boston going to run out of people who can pay 3k/mo for a one bedroom? Most new apartments being built in the city are "luxury"...
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Well, it superficially makes sense- pay the most to live in the newest building. Theoretically, if luxury demand is saturated, the least desirable luxury buildings will be converted to cheaper status. (I'm not sure if this actually happens, though?)
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Always luxury... I don't get it, when is Boston going to run out of people who can pay 3k/mo for a one bedroom? Most new apartments being built in the city are "luxury"...
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Thats the problem down here , we don't need anymore luxury...enough with the 1700-4000+ apartments what we need is Middle Class apartments priced between 700-1500$. Even in cities like Stamford , New Haven , and Providence new buildings have super high rents like between 1700-2500 on average who can really afford that. I don't have a problem with rent like that in a CBD or Waterfront neighborhood but when its out on the outer fringes of a city or a satilite city its just ridiculous... Even in some suburbs....and then developers wonder why they can't lease half there properties....of course they never learn and get tax credits so the cycle goes around and around.... The Stigmatized cities due have cheaper rents for now , but I wonder how long that will stay.... Will Cities like Newark , Philadelphia ,Wilmington all have average rent prices at 800-900 in good areas...but for how long...
 
novitiate said:
Well, it superficially makes sense- pay the most to live in the newest building. Theoretically, if luxury demand is saturated, the least desirable luxury buildings will be converted to cheaper status. (I'm not sure if this actually happens, though?)
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But if these luxury apartment buildings are going unfilled after YEARS, how is it not already saturated? And why don't these unfilled units go down in price?
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
But if these luxury apartment buildings are going unfilled after YEARS, how is it not already saturated? And why don't these unfilled units go down in price?
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It does seem like there's a floor under which the owners would rather see the apartment unfilled than to go for a lower price. I wonder if this is to keep the perceived values of the units that have been filled up?
 
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