Shreve may get reprieve
Move to stop building demo
By Greg Turner | Saturday, October 18, 2008 |
Photo by Herald file photo
A group of art deco advocates have another shot at saving the former Shreve, Crump & Low building in Boston?s Back Bay.
The 104-year-old building at Boylston and Arlington streets - across from the Public Garden - is set for demolition by Hub developer Ronald Druker, who plans to replace it with a luxury office and retail complex.
Druker?s $120 million project won approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority Thursday - but just the day before a group of petitioners filed a request for landmark status for the building.
The Boston Landmarks Commission shot down a similar bid two years ago, saying the structure?s art deco architecture was not significant beyond the city.
The new petitioners offer a more worldly perspective, after gathering letters of concern and outrage from art deco societies from as far away as Australia.
?The rarity of such buildings (and the need for preservation) is increasingly being understood around the globe and it would be tragic if such a fine example in Boston was inappropriately redeveloped (or worse, demolished),? states a letter from the head of the Art Deco Society in Melbourne.
Diana Eckstein, an attorney who lives nearby and leads the petitioners, said the Landmarks Commission, in its October 2006 rejection, noted it would reconsider ?should new information that elevates the building?s significance above the local level be discovered.?
Eckstein said the commission has already scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 10 at City Hall.
?I?m treating it as if it?s the last chance to save the building,? said David Friend, a longtime Back Bay resident. ?The block has some real character. When you look at all the handcarved stonework . . . it?s not an architectural masterpiece, but it?s certainly worth saving.?
Druker has ruled out as too expensive a renovation that would keep the Shreve facade intact. He could not be reached yesterday.
If the Landmarks Commission backs the petition, the site would still need approval from the city council and mayor to become an official Boston landmark.
Mayor
Thomas M. Menino has ?always respected the Landmarks Commission process,? said Dot Joyce, the mayor?s spokeswoman.
?However, the Landmarks Commission has already heard (a petition) and denied it, and right now he supports the current proposal? for the site, she said.
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