The Lucas | 136 Shawmut Ave | South End

The cladding is horrible. But I can see the predicament they were in: you are never going to replicate that old stone veneer from the rest of the church; and if you try some other sort of masonry, it could really clash. I think a stucco finish may have worked. Or, a dark-colored vertical raised-seam look with staggered horiz. seams - something that ideally tied to accent finishes elsewhere.

Notice how they finished the dormers on this church conversion.
 
bigpicture7 said:
The cladding is horrible. But I can see the predicament they were in: you are never going to replicate that old stone veneer from the rest of the church; and if you try some other sort of masonry, it could really clash. I think a stucco finish may have worked. Or, a dark-colored vertical raised-seam look with staggered horiz. seams - something that ideally tied to accent finishes elsewhere.

Notice how they finished the dormers on this church conversion.
Click to expand...

The original building had a brick wall - it seems like an easy choice to do brick here as well. The siding looks hilariously bad... like I actually laughed when I scrolled past that picture posted earlier. This building is an unholy AutoCAD project come to life!
 
^ Oh my bad; looking back I can now see how the entire wall was red brick. Silly me - I assumed they had a large hole to cover. That makes this even worse.
 
I think the back wall is like that because there's gonna be a future development in front of it so I think we're getting worked up for nothing
 
Suffolk 83 said:
I think the back wall is like that because there's gonna be a future development in front of it so I think we're getting worked up for nothing
Click to expand...

Yes, very high likelihood. The adjacent parcels North (former South Cove Manor; ABCD Building owned by Davis) and East (back side in question, CMart, parking lots) are actually working on a PDA application as we speak.

FYI all those condo purchasers who think they will have a Downtown skyline view are in for a big surprise. PDA designation will allow the neighboring parcels to go to 15 stories. We are expecting a development proposal with height and density something like 345 Harrison (which is basically across Washington Street from this set of parcels).
 
Last edited:
Highly dislike this. City should've allowed developer to tear down church. IT'S WEIRD MAN.
 
I am totally fine with this. It is quirky and bizarre. The clash of styles is a head-scratcher, sure, but I think when it's done we will have a fascinating little bit of cityscape here. And it looks like it's being done with an eye toward quality (back wall notwithstanding). This is better than any plan that would have called for destruction of the facade, or tried to mimic it with inferior design and materials.
 
Yeah i agree. Does anyone think that if they scraped this, we would have wound up with anything but an aluco-box? At least its a building the builders cared about. This building has merit.
 
I wonder if the grey cladding was represented in any of the renderings (I don't recall any). If I had bought in, I would honestly strongly consider trying to get out of it. It's that bad. I see nothing appealing about this condo at all, including location.
 
This project backs up to a surface parking lot so, as already mentioned, the rear wall will probably soon enough be hidden by a new building. Love this, a new icon. Preservation works, go Lucas!
 
It's really quite striking to see the thing in person. People literally stop and stare at it. I wasn't sure from the renders but I agree with BP ^ this will be an icon - esp when the area fills in over the next 2-4 years.
 
People also stop and stare at a car accident...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top