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Apartment buildings would fill in some gaps on Melnea Cass Boulevard near Ruggles
By adamg on Mon, 06/08/2015 - 7:09pm
Architect's rendering of proposed Madison Park Village building
The Madison Park Development Corp. has filed plans to build 76 affordable apartments - 14 of them townhouse duplexes - in two buildings on Melnea Cass Boulevard near where it meets Tremont Street.
The proposal, which would include tearing down an existing one-story community center on Raynor Circle, would add 37 parking spaces, in part by moving part of Brooke Marshall Road, where the larger of the two buildings - 60 apartments across five floors - would be built.
The developers say the project would help the city with its long-term goal of turning Melnea Cass into more of a boulevard for a neighborhood, rather than the sort of bypass highway it was originally designed as.
Madison Park Village project notification form (100M PDF).
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Comments
The residential designers in
The residential designers in this city really do suck. Put some effort into it!
Plenty of architecture schools
If you think there is a market for what you consider to be better than this, hey, go for it!
Elton + Hampton Architects:
Elton + Hampton Architects: http://www.eltonhamptonarchitects.com/
Their office is actually right near Roxbury Crossing at 103 Terrace St.
This is quite uninspired, but seems to be in line with the rest of their work, such as Back of the Hill. Have to remember though that this is affordable housing, so the budgets are all dramatically lower. It's no excuse for poor design (ICON Architecture does great affordable work), but something to keep in mind.
I wish this would engage Melnea Cass a bit more. Putting a grass lawn along MCB doesn't help anything. The building needs to engage the sidewalk and encourage activity in front of it.
Agree on all points
And you're right, despite tight budgets, ICON does great work (and is a majority women-owned firm to boot!). I think they did a great job rebuilding the former Maverick BHA projects. The Architectural Team also does good work for affordable housing deals.
I'm not a fan of this Melnea Cass building, but I don't like Back of the Hill either, so I'll chalk my dislike up to different taste than this architect. Substantively, adding this building will be a net positive for this stretch of a long-disjointed street.
Jesus
What do you want them to do, design the building upside down? Use rubber? There are only so many things you can do to a residential building while keeping it a) safe, and b) affordable.
NADAAA architects designed a
NADAAA architects designed a beautiful building for across the street from this. The same firm, in a previous life as Office dA designed a beautiful residential building called Macallen. The northpoint residential buildings are pretty good. Utile designs some workaday but respectable residential buildings in South Boston.
There is a whole lot you can do with a residential building.
NADAAA architects designed a
NADAAA architects designed a beautiful building for across the street from this. The same firm, in a previous life as Office dA designed a beautiful residential building called Macallen. The northpoint residential buildings are pretty good. Utile designs some workaday but respectable residential buildings in South Boston.
There is a whole lot you can do with a residential building.
NADAAA architects designed a
NADAAA architects designed a beautiful building for across the street from this. The same firm, in a previous life as Office dA designed a beautiful residential building called Macallen. The northpoint residential buildings are pretty good. Utile designs some workaday but respectable residential buildings in South Boston.
There is a whole lot you can do with a residential building.
NADAAA architects designed a
NADAAA architects designed a beautiful building for across the street from this. The same firm, in a previous life as Office dA designed a beautiful residential building called Macallen. The northpoint residential buildings are pretty good. Utile designs some workaday but respectable residential buildings in South Boston.
There is a whole lot you can do with a residential building.
Call The Realtors!
Boston's Hottest New Neighborhood is BosHoAuthia. It is a great neighborhood filled and I mean filled, really, really filled with subsidized housing which stretches from Camden Street East of Tremont to Washington, South to Whittier, West to BPD Headquarters, and back up past St. Cyprian's to the safe and fun filled Lenox Housing Projects.
Massive blocks of the city with little mixed income units, mixed income, which has been the trend, a somewhat successful trend, in housing production for years now, just sitting there, with units having parking, free parking.
Get their quick because once you do, these projects last forever, free from market forces! No matter what the socio-economic background of the area surrounding it, these units will stay tax supported until your children's children get their retirement home on the Moon.
Why single out this development over others?
As far as I can see, it's not a BHA development. Not to mention, almost all housing in this country is "tax supported" in the form of mortgage interest and other deductions (even mortgages on investment properties and vacation homes are deductible!). Your comment just looks like an attack on those who live in or need a different form of subsidized housing than the majority of us enjoy.
"architect"
more like someone who got a mail-order degree from somewhere... this is pretty crappy - worst design I've seen in ages. I really hope they get their ass handed to them by the neighborhood, ZBA, AND the BRA.
Pretty retro, actually
Just not retro to Boston - more like Miami, or Hickam AFB or LA architecture from the 1930s.
much setback, makes sadness
much setback,
makes sadness
Indeed. What's with all the
Indeed. What's with all the setback? Also, why does it need a 62% parking ratio when it's such a short walk to the orange line?
Without the setback
Where would you put the nature bandaid?
How about in the back, so it
How about in the back, so it isn't fronting the busy boulevard. That way the residents might, you know, actually use the grass.
They have to be able to sell them
The developer wants to be able to sell these things. Why limit their market to car-less people? 62% is pretty low and the orange line doesn't go everywhere.
Points off for awful
Points off for awful rendering, what is that white car in the front? It looks like an old Lego creation. The big old MPV on the top and color scheme give it a trashy Florida motel vibe. On the other hand it is close to the Silver Line!
695 would fill in the gaps
695 would fill in the gaps nicely.
No
The favela colors
are a subtle touch.
"Inside the Rent"
Related but OT, has anyone else played around with this?
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/planning-affordable-housing-new-york-cit...
(Click through to game)
Fantastic news. That
Fantastic news. That specific spot needs some real love. And I love how it fits into the overall plan to make Melnea Cass less of a highway and more of a walkable area.
Grass strips are found along
Grass strips are found along highways. Sadly, this development is going to keep MCB feeling like a highway. The way to make this area more walkable is to bring life to the sidewalk by the building meeting it and engaging with some retail or cultural space. This area really has no ground level retail at all and all the buildings turn themselves inwards, away from the street.
Why did they make this so unappealing?
Ugly design, bad rendering. Do they not want this built?
Surely one could find numerous unemployed M.Arch. graduates who could do better than this.
Replace "Architect's rendering" with "SketchUp export"
and then I'm cool. Yeah....
Looks pretty developer driven too.
And we're sure this isn't a
And we're sure this isn't a cheap hotel out in Burlington?
Please tell me that those colors are just
speculative. Very unattractive and wishy-washy.
Why...
...do all these buildings need to look so crappy?