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Developer proposes reusing shuttered hospital building for housing on Mission Hill
By adamg on Wed, 04/01/2015 - 11:10am
Architect's rendering
A developer is seeking BRA permission to recast a disused New England Baptist Hospital building at 70 Parker Hill Ave. as a 46-unit residential building.
In a filing with the BRA, developer George Wattendorf is also proposing 29 parking spaces for the units, which would run the gamut from studios to two-bedroom units. His application states:
The building borders the Mission Hill neighborhood as well as the New England Baptist property and a senior living building across the street. Its complete renovation and expansion to market rate rental multifamily housing would not only transform the building’s institutional look and feel but bring 46 new housing units and their occupants to this transit‐friendly area. ...
The goal of the project’s design is to change the character of the existing institutional office feel to a more contemporary residential building. This will be achieved through the incorporation of more modern but compatible exterior materials. The proportion of solid to void filled with glass and modern materials is increasing from bottom to top to change the building’s overall image to one more appropriate to a multi‐family housing project. The views to the east and north in particular are spectacular, which will make for highly appealing residential units. Given the property’s location related to New England Baptist,
the Longwood Medical Area, and nearby transit options on Huntington Avenue, we feel that the transformation of the property will help to revitalize this currently inactive, noncontributing, and decaying corner in Mission Hill in a way that is sympathetic to the institutional and residential demarcation line on which the property exists.
In addition to the BRA, Wattendorf will also need approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The building is currently zoned for hospital, rather than residential, use.
Small project review application (1.6M PDF).
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Comments
Parker Hill Ave
Hopefully the windows on the first floor don't open to help protect against all the first/ground floor break-ins on Parker Hill Ave. My ex's place got hit there twice in six months. They stopped bothering once they ran out of electronics to abscond with.
Sorry for your ex
But I have lived here since 1997, lock all first floor/accessible windows when not home and haven't had a problem with break ins. It is what the police say to do and seems to work. Wonder why your ex never thought of that as a way to avoid the break ins.
As for the building, seems decent looking....though maybe a bit tall compared to the houses around it.
The Building is Already There
This is a reuse. The building is already a nondescript box of a certain height. They are going to do some renovations to the exterior, but it will be the same height.
It is also on the hill, so looks are a bit deceiving.
The proposed building
Is one story higher than existing, which is much higher than those around it. That is all I am saying. That can make a difference to those who live in 2-3 story houses around it, including me. Your comments are always so snarky and rude.
Excuuuuuuse me!
I used to work down the hill from this, so I know the scale. Nearly everything around it, except for the hospital buildings, is pretty much down hill of it anyway.
There aren't all that many houses around it, as it is part of the hospital campus. The ones that are across the street and one next to it are downhill of it, and the extra story won't change much in terms of views, light, or scale of the building (it is already shorter on the uphill side).
Your comments are always so ignorant and defensive! (see, I can play that game, too!)
No
The existing building is 5 stories, this one will be 6. The house across the street is one story, the one next door is 2-3. That's all I was saying.
As a resident of Mission Hill and a neighbor of the proposed
redevelopment you can't expect to know more about the neighborhood and its feelings toward the project than someone that used to work nearby.
sometimes
Sometimes someone in an apartment of four leaves one window open in the apartment, and they find it.
However, we could just blame the victim and be done with it. After all, if they didn't want to be robbed in the middle of the summer, they wouldn't have dressed their window so sexily for burglars.
It's not blaming the victim,
it's more warning the enabler.
views
The views are spectacular up there, probably the best in the city.
Good luck, I def wouldn't
Good luck, I def wouldn't wanna be living in a old hospital... too spookie for me
maybe a little germy too...
n/t
Why can't they think before they speak
I've wondered about this building before, and this looks like a great reuse, but I doubt the neighbors-- and there are quite a few-- will be charmed by being described as "inactive, noncontributing, and decaying..."
What's the name for that architectural style?
It's all over the place. Thirty years from now, when ideally we've moved on to some other style, we're going to need to refer to it by something. Mish-mash? Hodge-podge? Whateverism? "Yeah, take a right at the Whateverist apartments then it's on the left just before the Dunkin Donuts".
Brutalist Lego
Drawing even comes with little Lego People
Brutal Whateverism
FTW