South End Infill and Small Developments

There is one in Brookline, on Freeman Street near the corner of Freeman and Pleasant that you can't tell is converted from the outside at all.
 
The former church in the Back Bay, which was repurposed after a fire, is a nice example of reuse. This one looks like they are daring the BRA to see what they can get away with.
 
FK4 said:
... or - for bombed out City of London - and if not going for condo conversion - you get the awesomest park ever (but no private development benefits). Sorry for the shameless hijack here, but any excuse to share this place I'll take... it's wedged into the densest old streets of the eastern part of the Square Mile..

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About it...
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Wow, FK4 that's great. I'm taking the family to London this Friday for an 8 day trip. Where exactly is that? Would love to take a quick stroll if we're in that immediate vicinity/
 
shmessy said:
Wow, FK4 that's great. I'm taking the family to London this Friday for an 8 day trip. Where exactly is that? Would love to take a quick stroll if we're in that immediate vicinity/
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Billingsgate
 
More news on the Flower Exchange:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/04/06/boston-flower-exchange-center-developer-bidding-war/TWI4wz6vTyYncblSEbwffK/story.html#

A bidding war has erupted over the Boston Flower Exchange’s property on Albany Street in the South End, with three more developers matching or exceeding a $35 million offer for the land made last year.

The new offers on the 5.6-acre parcel, which analysts say is one of the city’s most sought-after properties, were disclosed in a March letter from the exchange’s board of directors to its shareholders that was obtained by The Boston Globe.
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Globe: Sale of Boston Flower Exchange property approved

"Shareholders of the Boston Flower Exchange have voted overwhelmingly in favor of selling the company’s prime South End property, likely heralding the end of the century-old flower wholesaling collective and clearing the way for yet another high-end development in the neighborhood."

The company has received bids of "at least $35 million" from five developers and now "intends to pursue negotiations with interested parties".

Some vendors intend to stick together and relocate to a new property "possibly in East Boston", others intend to close up shop, and others intend to go it alone.

Maybe they could find a spot over in Chelsea by the produce exchange?
 
Great. I love the look of this place, but I am, admittedly, a fan of the art of HR Giger. (That is non-sarcastic)
 
I hate this so project much. They might as well just demolish the whole church and build something else. Utter garbage.
 
meddlepal said:
I like it. Hopefully the glass is high quality.
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Seeing that such little thought was given to integrating a design that actually works well with the existing building and its surroundings in the first place, I highly doubt they'll spend any more on glass than they absolutely have to. It'll probably be just another poorly constructed a dump, like the Modern (where I lived for several years right after its construction) and other new buildings that were built on the cheap and marketed as "luxury". It will be covered in seagull shit and caked with diesel exhaust soot from the nearby Commuter Rail line and expressways before too long, but when that happens, I might actually like it, until someone bothers to wash it off, of course.

Patrick Keeley should rightfully be spinning in his grave at this. By the way, have I yet fully expressed here how much I hate this and would much rather see the church be completely torn down, have construction on something else begin, then for it to stop when the real estate market collapses again and sit as a hole full of fetid-malaria-EEE-and-west Nile-carrying-mosquito-larvae-infested-poopie-dumpster-diarreah-water for ten plus years, than for this monstrosity to happen? This makes that crime committed at Zero Worcester Square look appropriate for its surroundings. If I haven't let my thoughts on this be expressed clearly enough, I can go on, it's a wonderful exercise in creative writing.

Anyhoo, I am probably going to pan the hell out of it here for as long as it takes for my hate of melt into a blend of mere indifference and scorn.
 
Roxxma said:
I hate this so project much. They might as well just demolish the whole church and build something else. Utter garbage.
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I so agree! Knowing the history of this church, the destruction of the period interior and the addition of an unsympathetic steel and glass box I can only grieve. So much better has been done in the South End with church repurposing...this is just a slap in the face.
 
It might take some getting used to but this kind of "bipolar" grafting is certainly better than outright demolition. This is what makes cities interesting. Homogenous sameness is bad enough in the suburbs, it should be kept to a minimum in urban areas as much as possible.
 
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