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Proposed Allston residential building would be topped with veggies

44 North Beacon St. proposal

Architect's rendering.

The Boston Real Estate Collaborative has filed plans to build a 54-unit residential building at 44 North Beacon St. in Allston's Union Square that would feature a mix of apartments and condos, a courtyard and a rooftop vegetable garden atop the seventh floor.

The 54,000-square-foot building would feature 38 apartments and 16 condos - with a total of 12 three-bedroom units and 35 parking spaces.

About 20% of the 0.4-acre site, which now houses an ambulance garage, would become open, planted space, the company says, adding that it is planning a series of decks with native plantings and that it would top the building with a farm for a "a hyper-local Community Supported Agriculture program."

Historically, Boston has been a mix of brick and wood framed construction that are the core of the pleasant, approachable residential districts of Boston. The building design, along with the landscape, will provide a transitional interpretation of the brick and wood material palette that contributes to the place-making of the neighborhood and local context. The building incorporates setbacks, changes in wall plane, and sensible uses of different materials that creates a dynamic and approachable fenestration strategy.

The street facing three-story components will be comprised of a neutral- colored brick base with extensive use of warm, vertically oriented wood louvers on the second and third floors. Large windows in the second and third floors will be masked by the wood louvers, which not only create a dynamic façade from street view but also provide shading and privacy for the residents.

While wood and masonry provide a transitional vernacular to the streetscape, the mid-rise mass in the rear will employ a light, neutral-colored recessed metal panel system that mimics the vertical fenestration of the shorter three-story components. The metal panel system is extremely durable and subtle; providing a neutral backdrop to the more expressive three and five story components. The wide range of readily available colors, textures, and shapes will allow the natural wood and masonry elements of the lower portion of the three and five story masses to come to the foreground, while the recessed design of the metal panel system will ensure that the mid-rise still provides an architectural quality to the fenestration.

The company hopes to began an estimated two years of construction in the winter of 2019.

44 North Beacon project-notification form.

44 North Beacon proposal
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Comments

I think this is really interesting architecture. They are going to have some accessibility issues with the roof decks (and acknowledge such in the PNF).

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Businesses like the ambulance depot and all of the car dealerships in that area are wastefully occupying what should be dense residential with optional street-level commercial space. Only real issue is that the area's suitability for car-free lifestyles is constrained by MBTA bus service, which will need to increase dramatically to keep up with the growing population.

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https://willbrownsberger.com/?frontpagetab=3

the MBTA is one of his pet projects. I've written about lack of bus connections to the new train station but I think they're waiting to see ridership estimates and the construction to clear up. Right now there's only the 64 bus and it doesn't come by very often (less than once an hour). Needs a lot of improvement, especially for the people on the other side of the pike from there.

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Will the developer actually follow through with something like the sculpture out front? Which could be something like a $20K-50K commission. If so, I hope that this could become a trend. Why isn't the BPDA squeezing more public art concessions out of these developments? A relatively small investment by the developer adds amenity to the site, the surrounding area, and creates opportunity for many talented local artists.

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And subject themselves to the extremely sophisticated artistic critiques of this forum?

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Why isn't the BPDA squeezing more public art concessions out of these developments?

Maybe because art school dweebs are like ticks when they latch onto the body politic?

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Would rooftop solar panels be more practical than rooftop vegetables?

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During this initial IAG meeting there was outcry that local residents were excluded from and no notification given for this IAG committee. Two or three residents spoke very strongly how they feel that this committee and others are being chosen behind closed doors without speaking to homeowners and other residents giving people a chance to represent their community. Additionally, the developers claimed to have support from the neighbors. But buch to their surprise, two of only four or five direct abutting neighbors came forward to accuse them of misleading people at this meeting as they were not contacted. When ask whom they had contacted, they could only point to one neighbor. Also, the developers stated that the ambulance company as only being there for 10 years or less and a nearby neighbor said it has been there much longer than that. Others suggested that removing an ambulance company from an already stretched thin safety net might not be a good for the neighborhood. In general during the meeting, there were many concerns and complaints about the height, density, design, limited parking and other aspects for this project. Both the developers and BPDA were constantly challenged by persons attending.

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