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.
