South End Infill and Small Developments

joebos said:
That looks much bigger than I expected it to be from the rendering. Just an observation.

bostoncchevronr1.jpg
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That looks amazing.
 
That beautiful church is being turned into condos?

:/
 
jass said:
That beautiful church is being turned into condos?

:/
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There are more churches around than there are congregations to fill them. Lots of area churches have been turned into housing. There's one next door to me in Union Sq. Mount Auburn St through Watertown has several. It's a fairly common trend, and mostly preserves the buildings.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
There are more churches around than there are congregations to fill them. Lots of area churches have been turned into housing. There's one next door to me in Union Sq. Mount Auburn St through Watertown has several. It's a fairly common trend, and mostly preserves the buildings.
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Id think there would be better ways to preserve the building that keep it open to the public.
 
Well, it was sold... a community organization could have purchased it. Unless they seriously alter the structure somehow, usually you can't even tell that a church has been converted from the outside.
 
That rendering is of the Worcester St side. I walked by yesterday and saw that they had removed some of the stonework between the windows.
 
Hard to re-purpose a church for any other use. Neighbors anywhere would complain / have complained about traffic and parking issues so making it into any sort of market would be a hard sell. (There was that rumor about turning the church on Harrison into a Whole Foods but that may have been bunk.)

Of course, you could always turn it into a disco, a la Limelight!
 
Used to be, churches would sometimes be repurposed as theatres, or vice versa.
 
Spiritualist Temple to Exeter St Theatre to Waterstones to whatever is in there now.
 
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the Concord Baptist church is also under construction and slated to be condos. I noticed last month when I walked by. Can't seem to find anything online...

Condo conversion plans have been floated for years and the church sits at the corner of Warren Ave and W. Brookline Street. Great location.
 
Reznor said:
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the Concord Baptist church is also under construction and slated to be condos. I noticed last month when I walked by. Can't seem to find anything online...

Condo conversion plans have been floated for years and the church sits at the corner of Warren Ave and W. Brookline Street. Great location.
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There was a brief discussion about the church two years ago. It should be somewhere in this thread.

The developer said there would be more dormers added. I love that building and hope they don't destroy the roofline.
 
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Geez, I hope they do something worthy of the building. The SoWaBoston.com post suggests the building will be retained/re-adapted - does anyone have any additional info to confirm/reject this hypothesis?

Boston, I will say, is much luckier than Chicago, NY or particularly Philly when it comes to historic churches. In recent years those cities (again, emphasizing Philly in particular, which seems to be devastated in this regard) have razed a staggering number of 100+-year-old, and even many 150+-year-old churches. Most, naturally, are getting replaced by prefab condos.

Horrible to see neighborhoods in this day and age lose the greatest and most historically significant architecture they have, built generations ago on the blood and sweat of people giving money they didn't have as donations to build these glorious structures that equal many of Europe's (smaller) churches. Here's hoping Boston's churches all live on - whether it be as condos, theaters, marketplaces, or other reuses.
 
Obviously there's a stronger market for this sort of thing in Los Angeles but this would be a great model for the Immaculate Conception property:

http://www.vibiana.com/
 
I am sure glad the sweat and tithes of poor Irish Immigrants in the 1850's gets made into some fab party space!
 
The Irish are a resilient people, they'll get over it.
 
In other news of interest to the Irish (and anyone else that likes a wee drop)...

Five Horses Tavern has put up their sign at the old Columbus Cafe space. Looks like another month or two on the buildout, windows still boarded. Guess they want to start a buzz early.
 
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