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Enough with frickin' brick already, BRA tells South End developer

The Boston Sun reports a BRA design committee has told the company that wants to replace the old Quinzani Bakery with a brick tower that the South End has quite enough brick, thank you very much, and to go back and design something "bolder" for the site.

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Comments

Bring on the slab concrete baby!

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What the hell is bolder than red brick?

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Stainless steel and gray concrete. Nothing says BOLD like neutral on neutral!

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"I'm in the wrong business." How much do these people get paid to sit around and tell people what building materials they can and can't use, and are they hiring?

There's a reason everything's made out of brick, you idiots: It's pretty, and it's fire-resistant. What do you suggest as an improvement?

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Will,

Why you gotta be so mean. I'm one of those people. We're regular folks, just like you. We get our jobs by obtaining masters degrees in architecture, city planning and related fields. As city employees we're required to live in this expensive city, which I assume most of us would want to do anyway. And most relevant to your assertion, we do it for significantly less money than our education would get us in the private sector. No complaints for that matter, since it's the path we've chosen.

Just trying to say we're people too...no need to be so rude.

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I'll do it for a dollar less a year, and I won't put up red tape like you do.

Seriously, this proposal was reported by Gaffin on March 31st. Today is July 8th. It took your organization 14 weeks to say "no, we don't think it's pretty?" This city needs housing yesterday, and in the course of 14 weeks, this project did not get built, because they had to wait around for you to send them right back to square one.

Boston's expensive, you say? Well, no (expletive). It's not getting any cheaper with your garbage organization doing things like holding up 14-story towers from getting built for an entire quarter of a year because "there's too much brick."

I guess there aren't any classes on being a good, inclusive neighbor who uses their power to get shelter built for current and aspiring Bostonians when you get a masters' in architecture. Did you forget when you came to Boston and found a place to live that you could afford?

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Alright Will, let's test your knowledge of architecture. Everything is so simple after all so of course you know all this off the top of your head:

How much does brick cost compared to other building material? Concrete, glass... Well you are the expert after all. So what are buildings usually made of and what does it cost compared to brick?

How easy is it to put up brick compared to other materials? Do you need special laborers? How much do they cost? What's the average completion time compared to other material? Would changing the material save more time than they have spent diliberating on this?

What about HVAC, electrical and plumbing? Do those work the same with brick compared to the others?

What about stacking a large tower? Are there complications with making it taller if it's brick? You have looked over a detailed blueprint and understand how those work right?

Is there anything about that plot of land that would complicate a building compared to other factors?

Would the monetary return on the people hoping to use the space be affected by the materials?

By the way, there are dozens of other things to consider!

Hmmm maybe it takes a panel of experts with masters degrees a long time to figure out how to build a tower. It's not driving an Uber (which you were too incompetent to do.)

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The private developer wants brick. I don't need to know or care how much of their private money they want to spend to build this building. And I don't need to know or care how much the prospective tenants will spend to live in it.

That's not at all the point of this. This is about a government agency interfering with a free market transaction. Are you really this awful at reading comprehension?

The people with masters' degrees in this scenario aren't building the (expletive) tower, they're deciding what it will and won't look like and be made out of based on their aesthetic interpretation and what they think is good for the city of Boston.

One need not possess a masters' degree, a bachelor of arts, or even a Community Chest card to understand how inefficient the housing market is in Boston. The points that I've raised here are about the difficulty of getting needed housing built in Boston, and would have nothing to do with building materials were building materials not the reason this project has been stalled.

I was rated 4.81 after thousands of trips as an UberX driver. Not only was I not "incompetent," I was exceedingly competent. Ask your peers about their recent UberX experiences. Tell me about mistakes that other drivers have made, and I'll pick them apart.

Troll elsewhere, little boy.

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http://qz.com/81159/china-architecture-just-keeps-getting-more-bizarre/

Granted those examples are the opposite of the problem here, but you see where it's going. If you let the free market reign it builds shit buildings. There should be no free market anywhere. Regulatory bodies are all that stands between humanity and TrumpLand.

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His comments are not all that mean or rude; a bit colorful and emphatic, perhaps.

I mean, far worse epithets have been hurled at the BRA forever. "Garbage organization" is pretty tame, if not a 100% accurate description. It's debatable.

He has an opinion that doesn't match yours.

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I was puzzled why the BRA wanted them to add an alley in back of the building - when they're located across the street from a homeless shelter...

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Probably

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Side the building with Hardy Plank like EVERY luxury condo in South Boston.

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No Brutalism, No Peace!

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