Owner of 5-story residential building across from the MFA wants to turn it into a 19-story residential building

If you read the letter of intent, you'll see that this is a facadectomy, which is to say an interior rehab of the existing structure, with additional floors built above. The line about the artful step back that Adam quotes regards the 14 floor addition, which will appear to rise from inside the old building. The street wall will retain the current structure and for all intents and purposes look the same.

This is exactly how to add housing without changing the character of the existing architecture. Build it!

Fundamentally, tearing down 5 story building and putting up a 19 story building is a net good for the city.

The more housing the better.

If you want them to be brick instead of glass that is a debate worth having, but we need the housing units.

Let's not pretend that "old" (in this case, 100 years old) means historic. These are not the same things.

We have more than enough "preserved" architecture in the city that is old; indeed, entire districts.

People who simply want to complain about the aesthetics of a glass building should not be permitted to inflate real estate costs for everyone in the city just because they want to pretend they live in 19th century Boston.

"Slippery slope" arguments are lazy, and only really communicate that you don't actually have a reason to oppose this specific project. If this gets built and every other building owner along Huntington wants to follow suit, we can evaluate each proposal on its merits as part of normal business; if some of them have problems, we can oppose them then. What's the problem?

PS "Avenue of the Arts" is not a historic district. If you want to live in a neighborhood where every old brick building is protected by law, you should move to the South End.