Rose Kennedy Greenway

briv said:
Look at that rendering. What are we using as a model here, a strip mall? Why are we building single-story commercial strips along the Greenway? Is it to preserve the European-like vistas of the N. End? You know, European as in Dresden, circa 1945.
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Isnt the only change just the facade? Bricks for glass?

Its already one story, they just arent adding floors.... a change that would surely lead to a long and expensive complaint process.
 
I'd rather a drawn out process that leads to a 3-4 story building within the next 10 years than a half-assed redo that leaves us stuck with that pile of bricks for the next 30.
 
No, that would probably be Ikea or an Apple store. (And yes, I'm an Apple customer.)

A better place for Trader Joe's would be the still-vacant ex-Buck-a-Book on Hanover St.
 
Ron Newman said:
No, that would probably be Ikea or an Apple store. (And yes, I'm an Apple customer.)

A better place for Trader Joe's would be the still-vacant ex-Buck-a-Book on Hanover St.
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An even better place would be in the long vacant ground floor retail space of the Haymarket Garage at Hanover and Congress.
 
^^Shh!
The longer that remains empty the better chance of the garage being torn down.
If you put something popular and useful there, the more people will whine when they try to get rid of it.
 
Part of that garage serves as a vent shaft for the Big Dig, so I doubt it will be torn down any time soon.
 
Ron Newman said:
No, that would probably be Ikea or an Apple store. (And yes, I'm an Apple customer.)
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There's room under the bus for those guys too.

Given the number of small family-owned grocery stores in the North End, wouldn't it be better to see something other than a Trader Joe's? This is especially true in considering the impact of a supermarket opening (in 18 months?) on the other side of the Greenway.

Trader Joe's would be a better fit in (or near) North or South Station. It's ideal for suburbanites who don't have time, inclination, or cultural investment to visit shops in the North End.
 
I'm not sure the TJ's product line overlaps that much with the small Italian grocers. North Enders like their little markets, but they have also for many years loudly demanded that supermarket.
 
Who in fuck cares what goes in it; this strip mall on the edge of our brand new six-lane cheaply-landscaped surface freeway is just the icing on the disgusting Greenway cake. Spit it out! I never thought I'd see the day when Jackson Square was faring better urbanistically than the edge of the North End.

And, dear god, the tacky tourist maps. Strip mall meets tourist trap theme park. Practically everything that is wrong with Boston's current planning regime is encapsulated by this building.
 
czsz said:
Who in fuck cares what goes in it
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I agree with your assement of the aesthetics, but use is equally important in an urban evironment.

This use doesn't certainly doesn't excuse the aesthetics but as an overall package it could be a hell of a lot worse (CVS, DnD, AT&T store, etc.)
 
Use vs. aesthetics.

In some ways, this is a rerun of the "should we replace one-story commercial buildings by gleaming new towers" debate that we had with ablarc regarding Mass. Ave. in Cambridge. Sure you can tear down these one-story strips, but can Caffe Graffiti or the Plough and Stars afford the rents in a brand-new building?
 
I agree with your assement of the aesthetics, but use is equally important in an urban evironment.
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Yes yes yes I know. In this case, though, I think we should be more concerned about the scale of what's being built. Tenants cycle more often than buildings, and here we have the opportunity - and need - to build big. A larger building doesn't preclude small tenants, anyway.

In some ways, this is a rerun of the "should we replace one-story commercial buildings by gleaming new towers" debate that we had with ablarc regarding Mass. Ave. in Cambridge. Sure you can tear down these one-story strips, but can Caffe Graffiti or the Plough and Stars afford the rents in a brand-new building?
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Ugh, no, it's not the same, because Cafe Graffiti etc isn't in there currently. You could just as easily build a 12 story building here an install Cafe Graffiti at the base - functionally, it's the same as renovating this building. None of the mom and pop stores going in this building now are threatened by redevelopment - they're enabled by it - so why not use the opportunity to make the redevelopment better, knowing that it won't affect the perhaps desirable tenancies of these places? (I say perhaps because it's questionable whether a hip cafe, expensive clothing store, and a big bank are really better for the North End, but the point is building bigger wouldn't mean there's a Best Buy instead of these places, necessarily)
 
The bank is not moving into this building. They are only installing an ATM. There's already a Citizens Bank branch a block away.

The caffe and the clothing store are not currently in this building, but they are local businesses that were very recently displaced from their previous homes. They would likely not survive waiting for this building to be torn down and a new one built.

Perhaps the best of both worlds can eventually occur -- add new floors on top of what's already there?
 
czsz said:
Who in fuck cares what goes in it; this strip mall on the edge of our brand new six-lane cheaply-landscaped surface freeway is just the icing on the disgusting Greenway cake. Spit it out! I never thought I'd see the day when Jackson Square was faring better urbanistically than the edge of the North End.
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Man I'm dying laughing...You are right! Truly this is architecture the equal of our Greenway!
 
There seems to be a lot of peeing and moaning about this building, but whomever the owner is they are not interested in building more stories for the near future. As the Herald article states, Citizens has a 10 year lease. So the bank nor its tenants own the building.
 
If the new building will offer rents low enough for the current neighborhood businesses, there's no reason why a larger iteration couldn't offer similar rates for similar new businesses. In fact, the new building would be more capable of doing so, given it would have other tenants. I wouldn't mind seeing Caffe Graffiti die if we could have essentially the same business in a structure more appropriate for the site.
 
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