South End Infill and Small Developments

kz1000ps said:
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Is he going to have window AC units?!?! Please tell me that's for flower boxes.
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
Is he going to have window AC units?!?! Please tell me that's for flower boxes.
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I wondered at first, too. It has to be for a flower box, a window a/c wouldn't fit in that ironwork - it's too far below the sill. Seems to be a good way to have a flower box along the sidewalk without blocking too much of the window.
 
I'd say Atelier is a fairly successful project. It's like a little Holyoke Center for the South End.
 
They can do more with the large, empty sidewalk, though, and really need to scrap those useless blue awnings.
 
What season was the photo taken in? I'd expect more use of the plaza (maybe more tables) as we get into warmer weather.

Atelier added several new live-stage theatres to the South End, which is enough reason on its own to like the project.
 
Yesterday. And, no, no more tables. Sibling Rivalry used to use the space to the right of the silver roofing but moved it around front, last year.
 
After fixing few little spots in the S.E., nothing more can be done.
I live here and I love it: fix few housing, little "corner gardens", AND MOST OF ALL CONNECT IT TO THE BACK BAY (and I know we're going back to the Columbus Center "GREAT PROJECT BUT NOT WANTED FIASCO" and this one's for you Ned!).....
fix the asphalt on the big street, like Tremont!
 
I travel the World as a fashion model, but when it comes to feel home:
I love Boston, the South End and I LOVE to stay here when I'm not working!
That's "how did I figure this" bdurden!

Remember: nothing is perfect, but you can live with it and try to make it better!
 
As an ornery neighbor whom should have gone to the various meetings and didn't bother (considering it a professional courtesy not to meddle in another architect's home):

Unfortunately that new townhouse isn't going to age very well. The material palette is going to weather quite poorly. The color choices, particularly the absence of mortar tinted to match the brick, hurt the overall concept of large planar forms. There is also startling lack of texture and intimate geometries at a human scale (no tricks with the brick or anything interesting with the fenestration patterning, and a rather antipathetic abstraction of a cornice line), which are the crux of architectural detail in the South End. In a decade it's going to have the same feel as most of the bad 80s infill in historic neighborhoods throughout Boston.

On the bright side it's no longer a parking lot and some window washer is going to make a fortune cleaning all the bird excrement off the windows each week. Not to mention the custom blinds and drapery orders, when privacy becomes a glaring issue, roughly one week after the architect moves in.

-Yes I'm not dead and it's good to be back.
 
Ditto, welcome back! I think we feared the worst. By the way, nice avatar.
 
Just wanted to comment on that little soccer field next to the Hurley School in the south end in between worcester st and springfield st. Below is the link to the parking lot prior to the new small soccer field put in a year or two ago. I played there yesterday and found the place to be such a great little area for the locals to play a pick up game of soccer on a beautiful sunday and a nice way to revamp an ugly parking lot.

Just thought i'd share.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q...code_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ8gEwAA
 
It's a great field.

The school was in the news, recently.

Hurley School fence stolen in broad daylight
by Kate Vander Wiede
South End News
Tuesday Mar 30, 2010

The Joseph J. Hurley school was the victim of a mid-February robbery after an unidentified white male stole sections of the school?s front fence in broad daylight.
The Joseph J. Hurley school was the victim of a mid-February robbery after an unidentified white male stole sections of the school?s front fence in broad daylight.

Just over a month ago, during February school break, around 40 feet of fencing was stolen from the Joseph J. Hurley School?s front yard.

And even though a school administrator spoke with the man stealing the fence, neighbors saw the crime happening, and it occurred in the middle of a sunny workday, no one can figure out who did it.

Part of the reason is the Hurley School fence had been damaged since July 2009, when a summer storm knocked a tree over on top of it. Since then, the school has been trying to find a way to fix the bent and damaged sections.

As people began to notice that parts were missing, they initially thought the fence was finally getting fixed.

"Everyone was praising the fact the fence was getting worked on rather than concerned that someone was pulling it off to the scrap heap," said Brian Marsh, a member of the Hurley Blocks Neighborhood Association.

Now that everyone knows the sections were stolen, there?s a lot of head scratching going on around the Worcester Street school.

"It?s probably at least $10,000 worth of fence [that was stolen]," said Marsh. "What they took is worthless ... they took junk. Why would somebody do that? It?s weird."

Marsh said his organization and surrounding neighbors watch over the school when it isn?t in session, and felt terrible that they didn?t stop the crime in action.

"It?s so embarrassing that an enormous chunk of fence was stolen and everyone was watching and here we can?t figure it out," he said.

One of those watching was Bill Kasel, Marsh?s upstairs neighbor. While working from home during the week of February 15, Kasel remembers seeing a late-20s to mid-30s white male taking apart the fence and putting pieces into his ruby red, flat-bed truck parked in the alley.

Kasel expressed his own frustration that he didn?t think to write down a license plate number, or go ask the man some questions.

"You assume they?re supposed to be there, but how do you really know? I just assumed they were hired by the school because it was in the middle of the day and sunny. ... I?m kicking myself that I was watching someone rob and I didn?t know it," he said.

Alberto Molina, manager of extended learning services at the Hurley School, felt similarly.

"He was torching everything, cutting it, and why would I think he?s stealing it out in the open?" he asked sitting in Principal Marjorie Soto?s office Tuesday morning. Molina was walking to his car while the thief was using a torch to sever off sections close by; they had exchanged waves and smiles.

Molina corroborated Kasel?s description, though he recalled the man was in his late 30s and was wearing blue jeans. Neither man remembers what the writing on the truck said.

"It?s kind of surreal," said Soto. "It really is hard to believe that someone has this kind of nerve, big-time nerve."

Soto felt angry that someone would steal from a school that the community, the parents, the district and the city had worked so hard on.

"It just doesn?t make any sense," she said. "We?ve worked so hard here ... to really get this school in good working order. The parents raised all that money to build a beautiful soccer field and we?ve had very generous folks provide us with donations. We have new bathroom stalls. Everyone has kind of come and worked together to really fix the physical place, and then somebody steals our fence? It?s a really big deal."

The Hurley School had been working on a grant application that would have supplied the money to refurbish the fence in question. Now that sections are missing, Soto doesn?t know if the school will still qualify for funding. Without the money, she says they won?t be able to fix the fence, and will just have to live with the 40-foot eyesore.

By telling more people about what happened, Soto hopes that neighbors who witnessed the event will come forward and offer more descriptions that could lead to the thief?s unveiling.

"I would love to have the person, or organization, or company, or whoever it was who took it, identified," she said. "You shouldn?t be able to get away with this. ...We?ve had so many people give to the Hurley and this is just such a slap in the face."

Anyone who witnessed the fence being stolen or has information that could aid in finding the thief should contact the District 4 Police Department at 617.343.4250.
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Made it here about 15 minutes too late in the day, doh!

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20 foot drapes. They must be on an electronic track, otherwise they'd never get them closed all the way . . .
 
It could use some tastefully pruned ivy to soften the street level. Directly under the central bay to the deck and no more.

I'm also of the opinion that the aluminum should have been copper or even more interestingly cor-ten. The metal finishing is just too stark and perfect in the current incarnation, when the brick soils over time the metal is going to look horribly out of place, variation through the development of a natural patina with regards to the metal finishes would have added so much to this project.
 
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