Brigham and Womens' project will mean new housing, mental-health facilities

The Boston Redevelopment Authority today approved a 10-year construction project that will reshape the gateway to the Longwood Medical Area at the Riverway and Brookline Avenue.

The project, which also needs zoning changes and approval from parks officials, would replace a series of existing buildings with a new 16-story residential building, a 12-story medical research and clinical building and and a facility to provide transitional housing for mental-health patients who no longer need hospitalization.

The project will include 66 rental and 70 condo units in a 16-story building to be built by Roxbury Tenants of Harvard. Construction of the housing units could begin in 2012, with the new lab space in a 12-story building to start sometime between 2014 and 2018.

The mental-health facility would include 47 beds for people who no longer need hospitalization but who have yet to be placed in residential settings, and would be run by the state Department of Mental Health, which now houses such patients at Shattuck Hospital. Brigham and Women's Vice President Arthur Monbouquette said the Brigham would pay for construction of the mental-health project and would spend up to $4.2 million for a new athletic center and community space.

He estimated the new buildings would mean 500 permanent new jobs.