The Bon | 1260 Boylston Street | Fenway

It would be nice to keep the facade of the current building. And Machine will need a new home.
 
I have been meaning to try to snag the 4x4 Billiards sign for awhile now.
 
Bolyston Street looking like corporate retail America. Congrads for the city of Boston which will continue to become uniformed under corporate America.
 
TheRifleman said:
Bolyston Street looking like corporate retail America. Congrads for the city of Boston which will continue to become uniformed under corporate America.
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It's going to be a huge dorm building, dude.

.
 
JohnAKeith said:
It here.

It meaning the PNF for 1252-1270 Boylston Street, Scape Student Housing, or, The Ramrod dorms.

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/ddafd84a-d058-4a39-bb4f-a32fc1fcea9d
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Thanks John. I didn't expect a PNF so soon.

I'm surprised to see that this includes the Baseball Tavern, but keeps that portion at current Baseball Tavern height. If they aren't going to go up I'd rather the current building just stay.

Also, the "Boylston Black Box" component is interesting (it'll be in the basement):

As a stakeholder dedicated to the long-term vibrancy and character of the Fenway neighborhood, the Proponent will be delivering the Boylston Black Box as part of the Project.
The Boylston Black Box will be an LGBTQ-centric venue for the performing arts – anchored by a 120-seat theater – which will be delivered and operated on a not-forprofit basis.

Commitment to an LGBTQ Identity

The Boylston Black Box will embrace the long-standing LGBTQ heritage of the Project Site. Since the 1970s, the Project Site has served as the location of various LGBTQ entertainment venues, including ‘The 1270’, ‘Quest’, ‘RamRod’, and ‘Machine’. These entertainment venues have been emblematic LGBTQ spaces and have often served – directly and indirectly – as a base for the LGBTQ community in the Fenway neighborhood.

The Boylston Black Box will seek to honor the history of the LGBTQ community’s important relationship with the Project Site and with The Fens and will serve as an iconic location for the LGBTQ community going forward.
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significant portion of building is presently vacant, as the existing conditions are a challenging constraint for many contemporary retail tenants. This has resulted in a general lack of activation at the Project Site.
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It makes me so angry that a developer can be this dishonest and no one will question it. Even if with vacancies, on this single site there is: a divey sports bar, a Korean restaurant, a Dominoes, a mattress store, a supplement/nutrition store, and a gay night club that's unlike any other gay club in the city (for better or for worse). I guarantee this project does not recreate that level of ground floor diversity.
 
This INCLUDES BASEBALL TAVERN!?!?!?! Why dont you go ahead break my arm while you're at it
 
Suffolk 83 said:
This INCLUDES BASEBALL TAVERN!?!?!?! Why dont you go ahead break my arm while you're at it
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Another one bites the dust.

I have some fond memories of that place. Hazy ones anyway.
 
Suffolk 83 said:
This INCLUDES BASEBALL TAVERN!?!?!?! Why dont you go ahead break my arm while you're at it
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Don't you mean Quest? May the ghosts of long gone club kids and drag queens haunt whatever ends up in its place for eternity.
 
Roxxma said:
Don't you mean Quest? May the ghosts of long gone club kids and drag queens haunt whatever ends up in its place for eternity.
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No wonder we all moved to the burbs! The roof deck at Quest in the summer was excellent. (Same roof deck as Baseball Tavern recently.)

I always thought the current iteration of Machine/Ramrod should have big glass windows and a sidewalk cafe out front for alfresco drinks. The current facade is so 80's "wall of Berlin" architecture.

I still remember the day like yesterday that I saw the article in the Banker and Tradesman for the condo tower to replace Chaps behind the Boston library. I have a brick from that building where I met my husband 27 years ago. (Probably longer than many of you have been alive. Ha)

I'm not thrilled about the LGBT Boylston Black Box suggestion. On the plan it just shows as "retail" and not the performance space mentioned in the text.

So sad.........MBGA hats for everyone.

(Make Boston Gay Again) :)
 
Java King said:
I'm not thrilled about the LGBT Boylston Black Box suggestion. On the plan it just shows as "retail" and not the performance space mentioned in the text.
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PNF PDF pages 190-192 show the plans for the "Black Box." It has a small entrance at ground level, but is almost entirely in the basement. Earlier basement plans (PNF PDF pages 46-47) show an entirely different layout, however, so something's a bit amiss.
 
Old

Equilibria said:
181025-SCB-RenderAerial%20Alt.jpg


https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...-for-boston/oEEKOgKdM8Emg1jufBpvYN/story.html

It would seem they've retained Gensler to design this.
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Vs New

JohnAKeith said:
It here.

It meaning the PNF for 1252-1270 Boylston Street, Scape Student Housing, or, The Ramrod dorms.

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/ddafd84a-d058-4a39-bb4f-a32fc1fcea9d
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^^^
Yeah great:
Let me guess,

Yuppie coffee cafe
Another upscale bar that nonetheless is sterile and derivative
Overpriced restaurant claiming nuanced twist on some theme, but the food I ultimately banal
A bank +/- a cell phone store

Tell me how this is better than a gay club with a longstanding connection to the leather scene, a beloved watering hole for normal people, and a mom and pop mattress store (oh and Dominos, which I can’t stand but that particular one has become something of an institution in its own right)?
 
FK4 said:
^^^
Yeah great:
Let me guess,

Yuppie coffee cafe
Another upscale bar that nonetheless is sterile and derivative
Overpriced restaurant claiming nuanced twist on some theme, but the food I ultimately banal
A bank +/- a cell phone store

Tell me how this is better than a gay club with a longstanding connection to the leather scene, a beloved watering hole for normal people, and a mom and pop mattress store (oh and Dominos, which I can’t stand but that particular one has become something of an institution in its own right)?
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I'm with you in spirit, but the "New Fenway" retail scene is much better than you're giving it credit for here.
 
JumboBuc said:
I'm with you in spirit, but the "New Fenway" retail scene is much better than you're giving it credit for here.
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Yes, it is... well, it's somewhat better. I certainly am overall glad with what's been built. My gripe here is that this latest project seeks to replace the one block that wasn't either parking lots or fast food chains, so the loss is actually real. Somehow, new buildings just can't get good, eclectic retail or restaurants in this city.
 
FK4 said:
Yes, it is... well, it's somewhat better. I certainly am overall glad with what's been built. My gripe here is that this latest project seeks to replace the one block that wasn't either parking lots or fast food chains, so the loss is actually real. Somehow, new buildings just can't get good, eclectic retail or restaurants in this city.
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Commercial retail rents are too damn high. I've been helping a friend of mine look for a space to grow his NH business to a Boston location, and the asking prices for retail and restaurants are disgusting. Like $20k+/month for a 100-seat restaurant, never mind the $500k to get an in-short-supply liquor permit.

It would be great if the city's inclusionary development policy featured provisions for large development projects with 10,000+ sq. ft. of retail space to set aside x% at a rate affordable to local small business owners.
 
FK4 said:
^^^
Yeah great:
Let me guess,

Yuppie coffee cafe
Another upscale bar that nonetheless is sterile and derivative
Overpriced restaurant claiming nuanced twist on some theme, but the food I ultimately banal
A bank +/- a cell phone store

Tell me how this is better than a gay club with a longstanding connection to the leather scene, a beloved watering hole for normal people, and a mom and pop mattress store (oh and Dominos, which I can’t stand but that particular one has become something of an institution in its own right)?
Click to expand...

This project sucks for all those reasons and several others. This ranks high as the 'wrong block' for an out of town development group--

i just drove through UCSD. My beloved old campus has become White Plains 10x worse than my worst nightmare, when i saw plans for 5th and 6th College 30 years ago. i'd love to see 2 Charlesgate W built. But, i hope we don't see similar damage to this part of the Fenway, like what has been done to La Jolla, CA, and what (once) truly was one of the few, last, great places in Southern California.

This proposal is sauteed crap.
 
Idk I think its cool because its the first example in the US if Im not mistaken? This company builds graduate degree housing/dorms co-living spaces...etc and here they will build their very first stateside development for grad students. So its something new and will take more students out of the local housing market. Thats a win for me. Plus it looks fine and adds plenty more retail. This spot on boylston is going to be redeveloped no matter what. So Id rather it be something important and the first of its kind than your run of the mill lux condos any day..

This is important because its a test run of their model and if successful we could see a massive new wave of these sprout up around our dense education economy, taking a few hundred/thousand grad students out of the housing market. I want to see this succeed and then be replicated all over the metro area. I wanna see a whole lot more dorms built as well... more student housing by default = more available apartments for non students. Whether undergrad or grad. I hope its successful for them.
 
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