Hub developer Ronald Druker is free to demolish the former Shreve, Crump & Low property, after a judge rejected an appeal by residents who have tried for years to keep the wrecking ball away from the Back Bay building.
Massachusetts Land Court Judge Karyn Scheier dismissed the residents? challenge of the Boston Landmarks Commission?s vote in November to not accept a petition seeking special protection for the building.
The judge ruled the residents had ?no right of appeal? under state law because the commission had never made a ?designation? or ?determination? for the 330 Boylston St. building overlooking the Public Garden.
?The court was very clear that the Landmarks Commission acts to protect things, and if we don?t, there?s nothing really to appeal,? said Bryan Glascock, director of the city?s Environment Department, who was speaking for the commission.
The case pitted a lone lawyer, who lives near the building and took up the cause pro bono, against the city?s legal team and the Druker Co.?s hired guns at Goulston & Storrs.
?It?s a landmark and it?s going to be torn down,? lamented Diana (Eckstein) Viens, who filed the appeal. ?No matter what was said in the courtroom, it?s a landmark.?
The commission rejected a similar petition for landmark status in 2006. Fans of the 105-year-old building tout its original Beaux Arts architecture and the Art Deco facade added when the jewelry store set up shop in the 1930s.
?It?s a shame that (Druker) doesn?t recognize the value of that building,? said Tony Fusco, president of the Art Deco Society of Boston.
The appeal hasn?t really slowed Druker?s $120 million plan for a new nine-story building. Because of the deep recession, the third-generation Boston builder has been unable to line up financing or tenants for his proposed 230,000 square feet of luxury offices and street-level retail spaces.
?When the economic climate is such that this building can be developed, then we will move forward,? Druker said. ?Our intention is to build a building that will be a landmark for the next century.?