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Brighton Center liquor store could get replacement store - topped with apartments
By adamg on Thu, 03/23/2023 - 9:52pm
Rendering by Choo & Company, showing side that would be hidden should the Dunkin' and Greek restaurant next door be replaced with something taller
The owner of Dorr's Liquor Mart, 354 Washington St. in Brighton Center, has filed plans with the BPDA to replace the current one-floor building with a five-story building with room for the liquor store and 19 apartments above it.
The proposed building would slot in between the historic Agricultural Hall on the corner of Washington Street and Chestnut Hill Avenue that now houses an ice-cream place and which dates to Brighton's days as a cattle center, and a micro-strip mall that houses a Dunkin' Donuts and the Esperia Grill Greek restaurant. The rendering of the new building appears to show that Dorr's owners, Brandon Dervishian and Kerri Digregorio, expect that lot to be redeveloped with a taller building as well, although no plans have been filed for that.
Windows on the front:
The building would have four affordable apartments and six parking spaces, in a garage accessed via Academy Hill Road.
The proposed design looks to borrow elements from some of these surrounding elements.Rendered in brick, the lower 3 floors act as a base and speak to the many masonry buildings in the commercial area. The massing of these 3 levels also aligns with the peak of the neighboring Architectural Hall to create some harmony with the massing of the 2 differing building types. The4th floor sets back to a similar dimension of the lower roof and upper façade of the front of Architectural Hall to again echo the neighboring structure. The fifth floor sets back again which relates to the large dormers setback on the roof of Architectural Hall, again taking ques from the adjacent structure. These setbacks and change in materials above the 3rd floor will also work to make the building feel shorter along Washington and maintain a better presence in the existing streetscape. The proposal also looks to improve on the streetscape by adding street trees along the sidewalk at the front of the building.
Dervishian and Digregorio hope to begin roughly 18 months of construction on the $6.3-million building in early 2024.
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Comments
So you're telling me builders have now gotten so cynical...
...that they're going to leave their buildings unfinished based on the assumption that everything else around them is also going to be torn down and replaced?
neighboring lot has similar plans
Owner of the Dunkin and restaurant has already presented very preliminary plans to the BAIA. The owner of this liquor seemingly beat them out in getting plans drawn up quicker though. So yes, they know that the neighboring lot also has similar plans for 5-story building.
It's not cynical and it's not
It's not cynical and it's not particularly new. It's just the reality of building in a city and even in places where buildings aren't actively touching each other it's not particularly uncommon to see a fancy facade on the front surrounding a more rectangular building on the other sides, not just in recent developments but going back to 19th century architecture. This particular kind of contemporary blocky architecture often is probably less likely to do that, but that's because it's often built on larger lots, while this is already fitting itself between existing buildings.
Choo in no IM Pei
He’s designed many ugly developments in South Boston and now looks like he is spreading his horrors West.
It's 21st Century neo-brutalist school
evocative of a hybrid telephone central office and a power plant.
Excellent.
Build it. That’s a great location, lot of buses, lot of amenities and restaurants close by. Fits in with other multi-story buildings next door and across the street.
Btw don’t think that the ice cream place is the original. The original that dated back a hundred years closed and was replaced by this new ice cream place.
I would hate to see the Esperia Grill disappear.
Just ate there a couple of weeks ago: maybe my favorite pork gyros sandwich in town, and the rest of their Greek food is pretty traditional and quite delicious.
The best food in Brighton center
Everything great. Very nice family owned business too
What?
That first rendering doesn't make sense. Currently the Dunkin's is right next to Dorr's set back behind a parking lot. The rendering makes it look like Dunks and the grill are moved east to make room for a driveway and the parking lot removed?
Agree
There is no way this is a workable plan. The Dorrs store front is very narrow. The disruption caused by construction would also be insane in this junction which (unfortunately) acts as a thoroughfare and carries a lot of traffic from Newton corner/I90 into Brighton/Allston. We’ve had a massive amount of obstruction caused by two sites on Washington Street near Comm Ave over the last 18 months and this would be twice as disruptive
Please
Current and past construction sites near Brighton Center haven't resulted in armageddon. Same with the work up near Saint E's.
https://tinyurl.com/2n6aureu
https://tinyurl.com/38dr4ykk
Find a better reactionary talking point to oppose this, parking is always an easy one to fall back on.
Traffic
Not parking but traffic. The two sites near Saint Elizabeth’s are disruptive as is the site near Whole Foods. The 2/3 sites on Chestnut Hill Ave are less so, partly because the road is wider and there is less residential parking on both sides of the road.
For this site at this junction the traffic disruption would be huge. It’s not a good place for a development
"not a good place for a development"
If the argument against development is traffic concerns then nothing is ever going to get built.
No comment on the construction site nearby on Market St? Again, it hasn't caused a traffic armageddon.
And as someone that lives in this neighborhood, I'm not seeing the disruptions you are speaking about near Saint E's. Maybe we have a different opinion on what constitutes as a traffic disruption but I'm just not seeing it your way.
Fair enough
I disagree on Washington street - and I’m driving up that street 3-4 times a day, every day for the last 2 years. I also live in the area.
Market st was not disruptive but again that’s a different site with more surrounding space.
I’m not anti construction or housing but the Dorrs site would just not work.
Confusing perspective
The driveway to the building's parking is said to be on Academy Hill Rd, not from beside it. I think the picture shows Dunkin' directly up against the building but the shading isn't clear enough. Additionally, the white car turning into the Dunks parking lot is going the wrong way as the parking lot is very directional with angled parking to fit between Esperia Grill and Washington St....but then again, it's also very real as people are total heathens in that parking lot (taking multiple spaces, parking in the handicapped spot, blocking the fire lane, etc.).
I think the angle they picked
I think the angle they picked picks a bad angle that does a weird forced perspective effect. I think the front parking is still there but the way the Dunkin Donuts lines up with the new building makes it look like there's a gap which isn't there.
And the fact that these sorts of renders are patchworks of existing photos making things look a bit weird to begin with.
Also the car pulling into the
Also the car pulling into the one way exit doesn't help.
my first thought
sandcrawler
more housing is always needed, but....
Must all new buildings be fugly in this particular way? The mixed-material exteriors and step-backs on the upper floors make them all look cobbled-together, on top of the fact that they are shoehorned into tiny misshapen lots with bare minimum setbacks and therefore take a shape no one in their right mind would select for an apartment building.
Blech.
And I'm not some die-hard traditionalist. I like cool old buildings, I like cool mid-century buildings, I like cool new buildings, all from a variety of styles. But pretty much every new building I've seen or seen the plans for is just... fugly.
can we get the developers to promise...
can we get the developers to promise to get Imperial pizza re-opened?
every time i drive by the empty shell i am saddened. it was the best pizza in brighton by a wide margin (sorry Pinos, its true, even if you are delicious).
Imperial resurrection is what Brighton really needs in these trying times.