South End Infill and Small Developments

[curcuas]

Transitional zoning would make total sense here. The phase 1 above could be your height location (maybe a developer also grabs that parking lot at Herald Street), and then transition down to heights of Dwight Street and beyond.

At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?

 

[Stlin]

At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?

Castle Square is majority owned by its tenants, the Castle Square Tenants Organization (CSTO), and minority by Winn Developments. This manifests in databases as CSTO Winn Owner LLC. CSTO/Winn are also the current managers of the Eva White. In 2011 when Winn ceded majority control of the LLCs that own/manage the property to CSTO, and as far as I know all 500 units are low-moderate income restricted. Given that, I'm not sure what would need to happen before any redevelopment hits the table; I don't know that the tenants would be pro-densification. I wouldn't necessarily blame them; I wouldn't want to give up a townhome in this area.

 

[JeffDowntown]

At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?

As of rights you get 70 ft. height, multi-family residential (which means some neighborhood ground floor businesses.)

 

[Justbuildit]

Haven't been into any of the units, but I really like the post-war Parisian feel of Castle Square and Eva White, at least right along Tremont. The carriageway road and great little mix of businesses is decidedly not classical brick-era South End, but it's a nice little pocket of urbanism. Having parking tucked back off Tremont also helps. Church Park on Mass Ave near Symphony has a very similar feel, in my opinion.

 

[BronsonShore]

Haven't been into any of the units, but I really like the post-war Parisian feel of Castle Square and Eva White, at least right along Tremont. The carriageway road and great little mix of businesses is decidedly not classical brick-era South End, but it's a nice little pocket of urbanism. Having parking tucked back off Tremont also helps. Church Park on Mass Ave near Symphony has a very similar feel, in my opinion.

I thought I was the only one who liked Church Park. Serious post-war Europe vibes on that block.

 

[curcuas]

Its the retail that makes it

 

[BronsonShore]

Its the retail that makes it

Not the mention the pedestrian cut-through to the street behind it, the extra wide sidewalks, and stately tree canopy. Urbanistically, it's as good as a landscraper gets.

 

[mssrro]

5/7:

593-595 Albany Street








O'Day Playground Renovations






Peters Park - Little League Field Renovations






85 West Newton Street

This project is on the former site of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, built in 1899 and substantially rehabilitated in the 1980s as a cultural center. It recently fell into disrepair and was demolished in 2020. Since the site is now vacant, the proposed replacement building was allowed to be of a thoroughly modernist design despite being in a historic district.





Former church



New building

 

[Suffolk 83]

Theyre finally moving on that new building where the church was?!?! Wow its been years

 

[mssrro]

1395-1405 Washington Street (33 units)

This morning:



This afternoon:








Site History

1814 (On the water)



1852 (As neighboring area is being built up)



1868 (Current buildings now extant)



1899 (During construction of the Washington St. Elevated)



1956



2000s



New building

 

[curcuas]

Incredible how long Morse Fish was there. Also that it was always one story

 

[Plen-T-Pak]

5/7:

593-595 Albany Street








O'Day Playground Renovations






Peters Park - Little League Field Renovations






85 West Newton Street

This project is on the former site of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, built in 1899 and substantially rehabilitated in the 1980s as a cultural center. It recently fell into disrepair and was demolished in 2020. Since the site is now vacant, the proposed replacement building was allowed to be of a thoroughly modernist design despite being in a historic district.





Former church



New building

Those night shots are great!

 

[johnmcboston]

Incredible how long Morse Fish was there. Also that it was always one story

Unfortunately no update to the design on the BPDA pages from the original rendering. https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/1395-washington-street

Curious how they solved the Window problem.

 

[Justbuildit]

By gum, there's another applicant for the office to residential conversion program. Located in the "South End" (not at all BUMC or Mass/Cass) it's a tidy conversion of underused office space in a brick building to 24 residential units (with the addition of some new rooftop square footage). Costs are estimated at $4,000,000, but I'm assuming that's just the renovation cost, not including the purchase price of the building. Great someone is converting a decent brick building to housing, but I worry there won't be many takers for the Albany district given its...everything.

2024-06-03_Small Project Review Application (SPRA)_615 Albany Street.pdf | Powered by Box

bpda.app.box.com

Note that this is outside of the formal zone of the conversion program, but the administrator of the program has said at least once at a public meeting that they encourage applicants with projects outside the boundaries and that they can use some amount of discretion. On page 3 the applicant states:

"The project has applied for and is seeking to participate in the downtown boston [sic] Office to Residential Pilot program."