Shreve, Crump & Low Redevelopment | 334-364 Boylston Street | Back Bay
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
Could this use a face-lift ala Wharf St. in Portland, ME? I don't love Portland at all, but Wharf St. could serve as an example to any loading dock st/ back alleyway in line for development. I don't expect anything here, but it's just a thought.
a picture of Portland's Wharf St. for reference from baronalejandro on flickr:
Could this use a face-lift ala Wharf St. in Portland, ME? I don't love Portland at all, but Wharf St. could serve as an example to any loading dock st/ back alleyway in line for development. I don't expect anything here, but it's just a thought.
a picture of Portland's Wharf St. for reference from baronalejandro on flickr:
czsz
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
...or we could just leave it like it is. Is there something inherently wrong with empty alleys with a vaguely prewar industrial aesthetic? So much of Boston is already "cleaned up..." We could use these spaces for mob fight scenes in films done for the new Plymouth studios, if nothing else.
...or we could just leave it like it is. Is there something inherently wrong with empty alleys with a vaguely prewar industrial aesthetic? So much of Boston is already "cleaned up..." We could use these spaces for mob fight scenes in films done for the new Plymouth studios, if nothing else.
Ron Newman
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
If you pedestrianized it that way, could it still be used as a service alley? I'm happy to leave it as is.
If you pedestrianized it that way, could it still be used as a service alley? I'm happy to leave it as is.
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
^Yes it can/is there's a gate on one end that I presume is open for load/unload and access to the street on the other end. I had a few when I made the observation about Providence St. The truth of the matter is, I was making an observation that it COULD happen there, not a suggestion that it SHOULD. Portland has a lot of open parking lots and little dense urban space so due to Wharf Street's location in the core of the city, it made sense to utilize that area for pedestrians as well as load/unloading. There are a few restaurants down on Wharf and the VAST majority of Portland's nightlife is along it (or across the way as OPT and Bulfeeny's are) as well. Due to the fact that Boylston and St. James are on either side, and Newbury is very close as well, the benefit of making Providence a pedestrian only street (with the exception of trucks loading/unloading during certain hours) isn't nearly what it would be in a Place like Portland.
I'm not redacting my drunken words, just clarifying that it's possible to do, although clearly unnecessary.
^Yes it can/is there's a gate on one end that I presume is open for load/unload and access to the street on the other end. I had a few when I made the observation about Providence St. The truth of the matter is, I was making an observation that it COULD happen there, not a suggestion that it SHOULD. Portland has a lot of open parking lots and little dense urban space so due to Wharf Street's location in the core of the city, it made sense to utilize that area for pedestrians as well as load/unloading. There are a few restaurants down on Wharf and the VAST majority of Portland's nightlife is along it (or across the way as OPT and Bulfeeny's are) as well. Due to the fact that Boylston and St. James are on either side, and Newbury is very close as well, the benefit of making Providence a pedestrian only street (with the exception of trucks loading/unloading during certain hours) isn't nearly what it would be in a Place like Portland.
I'm not redacting my drunken words, just clarifying that it's possible to do, although clearly unnecessary.
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
The biggest.
Why has no one rented the first-floor space, by the way? It's been available for months. I imagine Druker has the rent set astronomically high to keep anyone from renting the building and derailing his plans.
The biggest.
Why has no one rented the first-floor space, by the way? It's been available for months. I imagine Druker has the rent set astronomically high to keep anyone from renting the building and derailing his plans.
stellarfun
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
This is 185 Post St in San Francisco, which just won an architectural award. I was thinking if you retained the Arlington-Boylston corner facade, but used an approach similar to 185 Post for the additional floors above at that corner, and also for the remaining Boylston facade above a ground floor.
Photo courtesy San Francisco Chronicle.
This is 185 Post St in San Francisco, which just won an architectural award. I was thinking if you retained the Arlington-Boylston corner facade, but used an approach similar to 185 Post for the additional floors above at that corner, and also for the remaining Boylston facade above a ground floor.
Photo courtesy San Francisco Chronicle.
stellarfun
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
This is described as the 1949 facade. The original building dates from 1907. The building was to become Prada's American HQ, before Prada abandoned the project, and thus leading to the award-winning iteration. From other pictures, it was a facadectomy. DeBeers has leased ground floor retail space for $400 a sq ft.
Steel cage for facade? This may be the building.
The 1949? Facade
The Prada proposal, which was to rise up to 10 stories.
A 2001 article in the San Francisco Chronicle kind of foretelling that Prada's design would run afoul of design guidelines for the area, and coincidentally mentioning that Shreve & Co. was right across the street.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/06/14/MN228361.DTL
This is described as the 1949 facade. The original building dates from 1907. The building was to become Prada's American HQ, before Prada abandoned the project, and thus leading to the award-winning iteration. From other pictures, it was a facadectomy. DeBeers has leased ground floor retail space for $400 a sq ft.
Steel cage for facade? This may be the building.
The 1949? Facade
The Prada proposal, which was to rise up to 10 stories.
A 2001 article in the San Francisco Chronicle kind of foretelling that Prada's design would run afoul of design guidelines for the area, and coincidentally mentioning that Shreve & Co. was right across the street.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/06/14/MN228361.DTL
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Beton Brut
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
I'm bumping this thread up because the BRA meeting is this Thursday. If you care about this building and seeing this block revived, please attend.
I'm bumping this thread up because the BRA meeting is this Thursday. If you care about this building and seeing this block revived, please attend.
Beton Brut
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
I'm gonna try to be at this -- so should you...
I'm gonna try to be at this -- so should you...
Beton Brut
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
I'm at the meeting now. This looks like a done deal. The updated renderings look even more insipid than what we've seen.
This project makes me sad.
I'm at the meeting now. This looks like a done deal. The updated renderings look even more insipid than what we've seen.
This project makes me sad.
Beton Brut
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
No worries, statler. There's gonna be a Landmarks Committee meeting in late July that could tie up the demo, but I'm not confident that that will change the result.
Bring on the "cast limestone."
No worries, statler. There's gonna be a Landmarks Committee meeting in late July that could tie up the demo, but I'm not confident that that will change the result.
Bring on the "cast limestone."
statler
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
All you need to know right there.
All you need to know right there.
Beton Brut
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop
I met Sarah Kelly, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance. I suggested that they work with the loons in the Back Bay and propose adaptive reuse of Shreve's as a boutique hotel, in trade for added height at mid-block. She didn't say it was a bad idea.
Also ran into Myron Miller, Principal at Miller Dyer Spears, DFCI's "house firm." He's bummed about Shreve's, seemed underwealmed with Pelli's design, but feels that this is a done deal.
More later -- on a deadline.
I met Sarah Kelly, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance. I suggested that they work with the loons in the Back Bay and propose adaptive reuse of Shreve's as a boutique hotel, in trade for added height at mid-block. She didn't say it was a bad idea.
Also ran into Myron Miller, Principal at Miller Dyer Spears, DFCI's "house firm." He's bummed about Shreve's, seemed underwealmed with Pelli's design, but feels that this is a done deal.
More later -- on a deadline.