The New Retail Thread

statler said:
They idea of paying someone to melt some cheese between two pieces of bread is ridiculous but sometimes you just want a grilled cheese sandwich.
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No different than paying someone to slap some deli meat between two slices of bread. If fact, you could easily make the case that it makes less sense to pay for a turkey sandwich than it does to pay for some melted cheesy goodness. (unless you carry a sandwich press/griddle around with you during the day).
 
Roche Bros. Eye Davis Square For New ‘Brothers Marketplace’

Officials announced this week that the Roche Bros. chain is looking to open a “Brothers Marketplace,” a small-scale, daily grocery shop that offers locally-sourced produce, fresh fish and meats, and features a café, at 240 Elm St., in the heart of Davis Square. The market would fill the Social Security Building, which has been vacant since 2010.
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http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/...os-eye-davis-square-new-brothers-marketplace/
 
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This opened a couple months ago but I've been lazy about photographing it. Franklin @ Lincoln.
 
Yeah it's a retail district that has mostly been vacant other than a laundry and a convenience store for the longest time ... some of the buildings appear to be used by some quiet industries. I think that Franklin street was a bit of a neighborhood shopping district in the early 20th century, just by looking at the buildings, but it's almost all been long ago boarded up.
 
Huh? What's wrong with the signs? It's actually pretty minimal and not in-your-face.
 
Signage is fine with me too. These corners are DEAD otherwise, especially as the other corners have a DD and an uninviting "plaza" that need serious reworking. Want upscale, walk up Washington 100 feet and get blown out of your bank account!
 
Does that plaza have a name? And is it city property? You have to wonder how much longer that intersection can stay so crappy when investment is encroaching from almost every angle.

And I too have no problem with the signage. I actually drove right through here this afternoon and didn't even notice it (granted I was only half looking).
 
kz1000ps said:
Does that plaza have a name? And is it city property? You have to wonder how much longer that intersection can stay so crappy when investment is encroaching from almost every angle.

And I too have no problem with the signage. I actually drove right through here this afternoon and didn't even notice it (granted I was only half looking).
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The plaza is Liberty Tree Park, and it has been in a community planning process for complete rework in the near future. The installation of the Lamberts produce stand this summer is an attempt to push away the homeless that tend to congregate there. (There is a shelter in that block of Boylston -- right across the street -- which makes the block challenging to "clean up".)
 
lynqueezy said:
Check out the bullshit walgreens signage

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The whole building needs a gut rehab. The existing masonry above the first two floors is nice, but needs TLC. The crappy 1960s-era infill of the light well needs to be ripped out, because it actively clashes with the rest of the building and it kills the variation in the plane of the facade that the light well provided.

I dislike the facade treatment on the first two floors, but I'm not sure what could be done there. Perhaps a modern riff, a la the Burnham building.

I know the building has a theater buried inside it, but I expect it would be too much to hope for someone to reopen it as an active concert venue. The folks in the Millennium buildings would probably complain about too much noise from the other theaters.
 
The facade of the first two floors appears to be original (or a pre-1920s renovation), the windows have just been replaced. Look at the detailing on the columns. The light well needs to be reopened though, badly.

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The building owners apparently want NOTHING to do with the theater, and actively try to hide the fact that it exists at all. Reopening the theater would take a lot too, as IIRC, a concrete floor was built from the mezzanine forward through the proscenium arch straight to the back wall.
 
Ah.. It looks like the windows were replaced with subpar units that blanked the panes above and below the main panes. Restoring the windows to something similar would go a ways toward improving the facade.
 
RandomWalk said:
I know the building has a theater buried inside it, but I expect it would be too much to hope for someone to reopen it as an active concert venue. The folks in the Millennium buildings would probably complain about too much noise from the other theaters.
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There is a large theatre buried deep inside -- the old RKO Keith Boston. It would be really difficult to rehab though, because it was sliced in half at the balcony level with a concrete floor. I think that is part of why it is just sitting there as dead space.

It would be kind of hard for Millennium Place owners to make a stink about a theater, considering they bought a unit across the street from three (3) theatres. (Four if you count the AMC Loews up Avery Street).
 
Jimmy Johns restaurant is open at The Flats on D. Subs in six minutes, or something like that. They have a following. I didn't find my first sandwich to be great but good enough for the convenience.
 
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