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Fenway hotel to add faux mobile homes
By adamg on Tue, 08/27/2019 - 9:56am
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved a plan by the owners of the Verb Hotel to add ten rear units along Van Ness Street in the Fenway for people who have always wanted to stay in a mobile home without worrying about getting carried away by a tornado.
The hotel will buy pre-constructed modular units that look like old-style Airstream mobile homes, but will give them permanent foundations and tie them into the hotel's electrical and plumbing systems, the Verb's Mike Fitzpatrick told the board at a hearing this morning.
"Why do they look like home trailers vs. something interesting?" board Chairwoman Christine Araujo asked.
Fitzpatrick politely took exception to her question. He said the "trailers" will provide an interesting look and "activate" Van Ness Street, not to mention provide a way to harken back to the days of motor lodges and music that he said the music-themed Verb is already striving for.
The units needed board approval because the hotel, where the Howard Johnson's used to be, sits in Boston's groundwater-conservation district, where new construction is not allowed to reduce the amount of rainwater that flows underground - where it helps preserve the timbers on which many buildings sit. The Boston Groundwater Trust said it had no problems with the proposal.
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Comments
"Why do they look like home trailers vs. something interesting?"
If this doesn't succinctly demonstrate the problem with this city's attitude towards change, I don't know what does.
Yes, because how NIMBY of
Yes, because how NIMBY of Boston to not want what apparently look like trailers directly across from Fenway Park, where literally millions of people will see them every year as they walk by the stadium, or drive by on duck boats.
Why the hell would the city allow this?!? We apparently need to be culturally sensitive to trailer parks in Fenway--an area where they never existed?!?
Airstream
Per the article, the proposal is for airstream-type trailers, not Breaking-Bad style meth factories. If you don't think that is extremely cool that's fine but don't take away other people's fun.
And she has a master's in urban planning
from the Pratt Institute. Hard for me to believe that question coming from someone with that qualification.
unclear on the concept
it's a kitch hotel, and having airstreams fit in with that theme. She doesn't seemed to have gotten that. I'm curious what 'more interesting' is in her mind.
Link to proposal?
This is one time when artist's renderings would be helpful. I can't picture how this would work!
This sounds really cool! They
This sounds really cool! They've already done a great job making this formerly tired properly look very hip, something that's very rare for Boston.
Twenty years from now it may be the only hip thing we have left.
If they don't tear it down for an "interesting" set of generic condos before then.
Agree!
This sounds like something that would appeal to the Verb’s clientele. I think it’s a winning situation for all parties involved. Airstreams are very cool-looking!
Allow me to play contrarian
and say that the Verb Hotel is a waste of space when that neighborhood could support higher density on that parcel instead of a 1950s car-centric motel.
Although maybe it makes everyone okay with the rest of the neighborhood going from parking lots to buildings, I guess it's fine.
Plenty of higher density right around it,
including the approved hotel that will be going up a block away where the Sunoco station now sits on the corner of Ipswich and Boylston. Plus you may have the dorm-like building going up across the street from Guitar Center and Tony C's (the old Jerry Remy's).
I think the 50s-vibe Verb is a good addition to the neighborhood and like the Airstream idea. Remember 15 years ago when that entire stretch of Boylston was standalone fast food buildings, gas stations, tire centers and surface parking lots?
Way out west, tucked into the coast in Malibu
and nestled among compounds if the obscenely wealthy, there lies a trailer park.
No, not like the Canadian comedy series, but basically other wealthy people live there to kinda "slum it" outside of L.A.
No double wides here, but restored airstreams worth 100k+ and a very "hip" cast of characters
This feels like that.
Plastic, superficial, and completely inauthentic.
Like a Hipster Hot Topic Hotel.
"Why can't they look like something interesting?"
Like, a rectangular glass box. Or some strips of cheap material fastened on to a set of rectangular shapes with no window trim? You know, interesting.
Wow
I guess I don't have enough money, or spare time, to appreciate this.
Cultural Appropriation
I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or buy a flamethrower.
Not because i think that trailers are ugly, but because this is so fucking FAKE. For those of us who grew up in mobile homes, what is it about poverty or near-poverty that people find so amusing? Aren't there better fucking things to do for variety than fake indigence?
On second thought, maybe I'll rent them all rigs for deep frying turkeys ... nothing could possibly go wrong with that.