Suffolk Downs Redevelopment | East Boston/Revere

Vagabond said:
Really disappointing lack of effort on the first building. Even Assembly and Ink Block started with higher quality materials and designs to allow for good placemaking, and then the later "filler buildings" aren't as nice. This looks like on-sale vinyl siding, and barely an air-sealed building. Hello 60's - will the next building go for perma-stone or masonite?
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VE strikes again?
 
I hate to say it, but I would expect more buildings like this for the next little while as developers and suppliers adjusts supply chains and investors adjust profit expectations. If you think about this Globe story from a couple weeks ago (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/07/business/new-construction-greater-boston/), then think about a building's balance sheet....if the amount you have to pay to investors *and* lenders is going up, and the amount you have to pay for construction labor *and* land isn't going down, you don't have a lot of options to cut from other than finishes.

In HYM's case, sure they bought the land a long while back and have a single, seemingly very patient investor who underwrote their pre-development and capital costs, but they're not immune to labor costs and the interest rates banks and non-bank lenders are charging.
 
Aprehensive_Words said:
I hate to say it, but I would expect more buildings like this for the next little while as developers and suppliers adjusts supply chains and investors adjust profit expectations. If you think about this Globe story from a couple weeks ago (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/07/business/new-construction-greater-boston/), then think about a building's balance sheet....if the amount you have to pay to investors *and* lenders is going up, and the amount you have to pay for construction labor *and* land isn't going down, you don't have a lot of options to cut from other than finishes.

In HYM's case, sure they bought the land a long while back and have a single, seemingly very patient investor who underwrote their pre-development and capital costs, but they're not immune to labor costs and the interest rates banks and non-bank lenders are charging.
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The life sciences building has a construction loan of $350 million for 280,000 square feet.

"Washington, D.C.-based National Real Estate Advisors said Tuesday that it has committed $775 million in equity financing to develop 4,200 housing units over the next eight years at Suffolk Downs. The first of those projects will be a 475-unit apartment building, called “Amaya,” near the Beachmont MBTA station in Revere."

Source, the Globe, May 2022
www.bostonglobe.com

Money, projects starting to flow at Suffolk Downs - The Boston Globe

Developers at Suffolk Downs, the 161-acre former horse racing track that straddles East Boston and Revere, have landed major financing deals to move forward with a lab and biomanufacturing facility and several thousand housing units.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
 
Aprehensive_Words said:
I hate to say it, but I would expect more buildings like this for the next little while as developers and suppliers adjusts supply chains and investors adjust profit expectations. If you think about this Globe story from a couple weeks ago (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/07/business/new-construction-greater-boston/), then think about a building's balance sheet....if the amount you have to pay to investors *and* lenders is going up, and the amount you have to pay for construction labor *and* land isn't going down, you don't have a lot of options to cut from other than finishes.

In HYM's case, sure they bought the land a long while back and have a single, seemingly very patient investor who underwrote their pre-development and capital costs, but they're not immune to labor costs and the interest rates banks and non-bank lenders are charging.
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The problem with this exact building imo isnt necessarily the low quality materials, though that can be argued another time, the problem here is the use of obnoxious colors that dont fit into the built environment whatsoever.

You can use party panels for a building facade and still make a fairly good looking building, take this development up the street in Lynn. Even if they have to cut some corners on the facade to try to save some money if they just pick some inoffensive colors it doesnt have to look horrible. Something like this isnt gonna win any awards but its neutral and fits in nice with its neighbors.

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I guess it was always there, it just was hidden by more interesting design concepts. It's still a central pillar of the neighborhood though... Will be hard to obscure that cheap of a build, but I guess the Cheerleader Effect is real...

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Come on people, don't be so negative! Clearly the intention is to create a modern version of the Painted Ladies!
 
This reminds me of nothing so much as the eyesore in East Cambridge that's thankfully now getting covered up by the NorthPoint development.
 
With the exception of that one corner and one staggered side, most of the facade is really flat. Among the flattest I've seen in a recent development. No window detailing, few/no bays or bump outs, certainly no cornice, almost nothing to push this from the 2D into the 3D. So I can't help in reading all the alternating colors as a way to "cheat" the flatness of the facade. Which, in turn, reads as a cheap shortcut.
 
OPTIMISM (I have to imagine that's what the leasing agents say every morning.)

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They just need to land the first 4 buildings (3 residential) and I'll call this a TOD win. The little "shared work" retail shack is a timber structure I'm still hoping is not VE'd of any awesomeness -

Leers Weinzapfel Associates Architects​



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Vagabond said:
OPTIMISM (I have to imagine that's what the leasing agents say every morning.)

They just need to land the first 4 buildings (3 residential) and I'll call this a TOD win. The little "shared work" retail shack is a timber structure I'm still hoping is not VE'd of any awesomeness
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The leasing agents don't need optimism -- we're so under-supplied for housing I'd be shocked if the apartments don't lease up quite quickly.

OTOH, I think you will have to drop your optimism for the "shared work" space. Check out the render the official Fb account posted earlier this month.

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I kind of like the wild colors on the apartment building, but as @bigpicture7 states, the flatness and cheapness of the materials is a big turnoff for me. My first thought on the colors was that they were trying to go with a somewhat summer beach theme being located near Revere Beach. I look at quite a bit of architecture built in the 1960's and think it's pretty bad. I wonder if we will all look back in 20-30 years and think the same thing about this timeframe of the early twenties?
bigpicture7 said:
With the exception of that one corner and one staggered side, most of the facade is really flat. Among the flattest I've seen in a recent development. No window detailing, few/no bays or bump outs, certainly no cornice, almost nothing to push this from the 2D into the 3D. So I can't help in reading all the alternating colors as a way to "cheat" the flatness of the facade. Which, in turn, reads as a cheap shortcut.
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