South End Infill and Small Developments

CBCArch61 said:
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.
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At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?
 
curcuas said:
At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?
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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.
 
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curcuas said:
At the very least you could probably match the height of Eva White on Tremont. That might be enough depending.

Who owns Castle Square?
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As of rights you get 70 ft. height, multi-family residential (which means some neighborhood ground floor businesses.)
 
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.
 
Justbuildit said:
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.
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I thought I was the only one who liked Church Park. Serious post-war Europe vibes on that block.
 
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

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

 
mssrro said:
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

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Those night shots are great!
 
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.

bpda.app.box.com

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

bpda.app.box.com bpda.app.box.com


1717439905632.png

1717439973623.png


1717439929591.png




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."


1717439999539.png
 

MPZ Development’s 34 East Springfield St. Awarded 2024 Preservation Award from Preservation Massachusetts​




“BOSTON – On June 28, MPZ DevelopmentLLC (MPZ) will be honored by Preservation Massachusetts with a 2024 Preservation Award for its project 34 East Springfield St., a 100% affordable apartment community for formerly homeless veterans located in Boston’s South End….”

“34 East Springfield St. is a 150-year-old Italianate-style brick rowhouse in the South End’s National Register Historic District which sat vacant and in disrepair for more than a decade before MPZ began re-developing the Boston Housing Authority project in 2020….”


https://bostonrealestatetimes.com/m...vation-award-from-preservation-massachusetts/
 
This story focuses on a planned office-residential conversion at 95 Berkeley, which it identifies as being located in Bay Village, but seems more South End given its location south of the Pike?

www.wbur.org

Converting Boston’s offices to housing is tricky, but it’s starting to happen

Advocates say conversions could kill two birds with one stone, warding off vacancies while adding desperately needed housing.
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org
 
#bancars said:
This story focuses on a planned office-residential conversion at 95 Berkeley, which it identifies as being located in Bay Village, but seems more South End given its location south of the Pike?

www.wbur.org

Converting Boston’s offices to housing is tricky, but it’s starting to happen

Advocates say conversions could kill two birds with one stone, warding off vacancies while adding desperately needed housing.
www.wbur.org www.wbur.org
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Definitely South End. Interesting that this is actually a third order conversion, as the building is originally a manufacturing facility, converted to offices.
 
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