Shreve, Crump & Low Redevelopment | 334-364 Boylston Street | Back Bay

Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

If anyone here thinks they would like to contribute to the Save the SC&L Building blog just give me a PM and I can try to set you up. Since Itchy can't be everywhere at all times and there seems to be enough passion on this board, it may help to have other contributors.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

I think that the blog should be set up to have an online petition.
 
Let's reopen the landmark designation

It appears that the best way to forestall demolition is to find a reason to reopen the landmark application. As Paul Carlson points out, we need something new on these buildings that wasn't considered as part of the original application. Diana Eckstein Diana Eckstein [diana.eckstein@gmail.com] from the NABB has the original application.

Who knows enough about this process to study the original application and find some new information? It's hard to believe that with all the beautiful ornamental stonework and the history of this building as the home of Shreves that the application did not get approved first time around.

Ron
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

I think I'll look into the original building permit and see what information is available about the architects.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

uploaded the 2006 BLC report to a file sharing service. It can be downloaded HERE. Big thanks to Diana and Lauren for obtaining a copy and scanning it. Let me know if anyone has any trouble with the download.

I agree with Ron that the best way to forestall demolition is to reopen the landmark application. It would be great if we could get some historians and other academics in the architecture or urban planning fields involved.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Shadow over Shreve?s
Critics stall plan to redevelop gem of a site
By Scott Van Voorhis
Tuesday, August 12, 2008


Hub developer Ronald Druker?s dream of building one of the city?s most elegant and luxurious office projects is being put on hold.

City Hall?s development arm is expected to vote today to delay a decision on Druker?s proposal to replace the old Shreve, Crump & Low building with a Cesar Pelli-designed project twice its size overlooking the Public Garden.

Instead, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is expected to vote to take the project ?under advisement,? triggering a fresh round of reviews focused on the $150 million building?s design.

The impending decision is a modest setback for Druker, who represents one of Boston?s oldest development families and who has built such well-regarded projects as the nearby Heritage on the Garden and Atelier 505 in the South End.

The proposed nine-story building, which would take shape at the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets, features curved-glass bays, wood storefronts, high ceilings and a major glass corner overlooking the Public Garden.

?There is some concern it isn?t sympathetic enough with the existing built environment,? said John Palmieri, the development authority?s director. ?It would serve us well to . . . step back and take a breath.?

City Hall?s decision to delay approval comes after dozens of letters and comments on the Druker project.

The design of the new building has sparked a lively debate, and so has Druker?s plan to take down the 103-year-old former Shreve building that now sits on the site.

The Boston Preservation Alliance has taken aim at Druker?s proposal, calling it ?monolithic, static and ill-proportioned.?

Meanwhile, the neighboring Arlington Street Church, an historic landmark which dates to 1861, is complaining that its world-renowned Tiffany stained glass windows will be cast into shadow four months of the year if the new project is built.

Druker yesterday was taking the criticism - and the potential delay - in stride.

?This is Boston,? Druker said. ?Everybody has opinions. It is one of the things that makes the city a great city. People care.?

The developer said he has reached out to representatives from the Arlington Street Church to discuss concerns about shadows. But Druker noted that the project fits within the city?s current zoning rules for new development.

?We have a great location and a lot of tenant interest,? he said.


Link
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

City wants new design for project near park
Neighbors seeking to save facade of ex-Shreve building

By Casey Ross
Boston Globe Staff / August 12, 2008

In a rare rebuke for developer Ronald M. Druker, city officials are instructing him to rework his proposed luxury office-retail complex at the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets as neighbors mobilize to save the facade of the former Shreve, Crump & Low building.

Druker's project, designed by a noted architect, Cesar Pelli, is expected to be put on hold today by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which has been deluged with letters from residents of the Back Bay who object to the plans for the property.

The BRA has picked up on residents' complaints that the design does not match the streetscape and would leave a wall of glass looming over passersby, without anything to signify the prominence of the location, across from the Public Garden and facing Arlington Street Church.

"The design we have seen is not sympathetic with the existing historic environment," said BRA director John Palmieri. "It's healthy to take a breather at this point."

Druker wants to tear down the 103-year-old building and three others he owns on Boylston Street, including the Women's Educational and Industrial Union building. He aims to replace them with a nine-story, 210,000-square-foot office building that would occupy about one-third of a city block, with shops on the ground floor.

An artist's rendering of the initial design shows prominent window bays with floor-to-ceiling glass, framed in light gray limestone. The building would have a lobby on Boylston and terraces on the upper floors.

Druker, who has won acclaim for the Heritage on the Garden condo complex and other prominent projects, said he is working to refine the design with Pelli. But he made clear the concept should remain modern and reflect current urban aesthetics.

"We have an obligation to do a contemporary building and not to do a cartoon of a Back Bay building from the 19th century," he said. "Office buildings require consistency, and that's what we're in the process of creating."

From the outset, Druker has faced opposition from neighbors and preservationists who want to save the building's original decorative cornice and an Art Deco portion added in the 1930s, when Shreve, Crump & Low moved to the property.

Shreve has since moved a block away to the corner of Boylston and Berkeley streets.

The city's Landmarks Commission has rejected requests to classify the former Shreve building as a historic structure, saying it lacks renown beyond Boston. But as the project inched closer to city approval, critics stepped up their attack, circulating petitions and pushing for design changes.

"The building is too monolithic," state Representative Marty Walz, Democrat of Boston, wrote of the proposed structure. She also said the design does not reflect the historic surroundings and "could be located in virtually any city in the country."

Druker said it would be a disservice to the city to break up the building into a "hodgepodge" of old and new designs. "That doesn't work," he said. "This site deserves a better building than that."

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

O-SHIT! Way to go guys!!!
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

The 'world famous' Tiffany windows in the Arlington St. church could become a critical factor in how tall he can go. Does anyone know how much he would have to chop off the submitted design to remove the four months of shadows?
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Does anyone know how much he would have to chop off the submitted design to remove the four months of shadows?

From an "inside the box" the point of view of, enough that the project may not be financially viable. Heliostats similar to what Behnisch used at the Genzyme Center in Cambridge (to focus sunlight into the building's atrium) may solve the shadow problem on the church.

O-SHIT! Way to go guys!!!

Thanks, van -- The lion's share of the credit should go to itchy.

But this isn't time for an end-zone dance -- what's next? It's easy to stop a project -- how do we educate Druker, the City, and several disparate communities toward a better solution?
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Druker said it would be a disservice to the city to break up the building into a "hodgepodge" of old and new designs. "That doesn't work," he said. "This site deserves a better building than that."

A generic precast shoebox?

The Globe really should have put "limestone" in quotes.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Public comments will be allowed at the 2:00 pm BRA board meeting today (this project is a "hearing" item, not just a "meeting" item) so you all have a chance to tell the City, the public and the press your suggestions for preservation, adaptive reuse, project redesign, etc. I hope many of you come to testify.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

I also just wanted to offer up congratulations and thanks to those of you who worked to oppose Druker's development plan. It was an amazing and inspiring effort. It is especially remarkable considering how far down the road to approval this project was before you took the cause to the public realm. Undoubtedly your advocacy will lead to a far better design than the uninspired box Pelli seemed to have plucked from a file of failed 80's designs.
 
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Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

New Design for SCL Development
To provide an update on our MassDebate articles opposing and "meh"-ing the proposed redevelopment of the Shreve, Crump & Low building, it seems that Back Bay residents have united in strong opposition to the proposed modernist design, prompting the Boston Redevelopment Authority to put the project on hold. Citizens say there's too much glass, not enough tribute to the way the building used to be, and nothing "Boston" about it. Developer Ronald Druker says "We have an obligation to do a contemporary building and not to do a cartoon of a Back Bay building from the 19th century... Office buildings require consistency, and that's what we're in the process of creating." Consistent with what, we ask--genericness?

Link
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

The bit about the Tiffany windows was interesting. Arlington St. Church hasn't been bought off?

Are they still paying off the renovation they did a few years ago?
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Wow! I'm totally impressed that this project has been sent back to the drawing board like this! Way to go. Surely this board should get a lot of credit for this. Yay!
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

From Wiki:

The sanctuary, with its beautiful Corinthian columns and graceful rounded arches, was modeled after the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato in Genoa, Italy. The panels on either side of the choir loft, containing the Ten Commandments and the Lord?s Prayer, were brought from the Federal Street Church, as was Dr. Channing?s pulpit, which stands in the Hunnewell Chapel. The box pews, made of chestnut with black walnut rails, were at one time deeded to members of the congregation. Enclosing each pew signified that they were privately owned and kept drafts from blowing in from the aisles.


Originally, all of the sanctuary windows contained clear glass. In 1898 the congregation voted to install memorial stained glass windows created by the studios of Louis C. Tiffany. The last of the 16 windows was installed in 1930. The church archives contain designs for the four windows that were never installed, because the Tiffany Studios was liquidated in 1937 and thereafter new Tiffany windows were unobtainable.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Shirley Kressel..?
Surprise.
Welcome.

Is this forum changing??

Congrats to all who spoke up. Well done. This is good for Boston.

However Mr. Druker describes his building, it does not honorably replace what he wants to tear down. It's not a fair trade.
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Tower plan gets face-lift
Jury still out on Ronald Druker?s pitch over old Shreve?s site

Hub developer Ronald Druker has massaged the facade of a proposed luxury office building across from the Public Garden, but it?s still unclear if the design modifications will sit well with the masses.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority reviewed the changes yesterday, a month and a half after the agency delayed its review of the 350 Boylston St. project because of complaints about its design.

?There has been substantial progress? since then, said David Carlson, a senior architect at the BRA. ?It is in its character more of a Boylston Street building.?

In the new design, the upper levels of the nine-story building are ?more recessive,? Carlson said, and the corner facing Arlington and Boylston streets is set back and not rounded.

The Boston Preservation Alliance dubbed Druker?s original design - created by noted architect Cesar Pelli - as ?monolithic, static and ill-proportioned.?

Others bemoaned the planned demolition of the 103-year-old, former Shreve, Crump & Low building. In his December 2007 project filing, Druker noted a renovation is not economically feasible.

Sarah Kelly, the preservation group?s executive director, said yesterday it was too early to comment on the redesign.

State Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) attended yesterday?s BRA meeting, but was not ready to fully back the project.

?My view on it is that the revised design is an improvement over the original design, but it?s still very much a work in progress,? she said. ?We still don?t know the materials for the facade or the color of them.?

Walz said she was alarmed to learn late Tuesday that the BRA planned to vote on Druker?s project yesterday, saying a decision ?would have been premature.?

But Jessica Shumaker, a BRA spokeswoman, said the board had never planned to vote on the project yesterday.

The BRA may vote on the project at its Oct. 16 meeting

http://bostonherald.com/business/ge...ver_old_Shreve_s_site/srvc=home&position=also
 
Re: Shreve, Crump & Low bldng may be replaced w/ new develop

Time to get ready for another fight. Looks like Druker is back:

EDIT: Looks like 12345 just beat me to it...

This is one of those buildings that, no matter what is designated to replace it, I probably wouldn't be for the proposal. Unfortunately, other than e-mails, I can't really do anything since I am at college.
 

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