Hey, there! Log in / Register
West End library could be replaced with affordable apartment building with two floors of library space
By adamg on Wed, 12/13/2023 - 4:03pm
Between Charles River Plaza and the Otis House: 12 stories including 2 stories of library space.
A non-profit housing group and its investment partner have won preliminary city approval to replace the current West End BPL branch at 151 Cambridge St. with 119 affordable apartments atop a new two-story library branch.
Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Caste Capital submitted a proposal under Boston's Housing with Public Assets effort for a 12-story building:
The 119 units of affordable housing will include a mix of bedroom sizes, from studios to three-bedroom units. The high proportion of family-sized units in this proposal was a key factor in its selection and a key community objective for the development. Of the 119 residences, 40 apartments will be affordable to households earning up to 30 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), and 79 apartments will be designated for households earning up to 80 percent of AMI. ...
Twenty of the most deeply affordable apartments will be created using a dedicated subsidy, in partnership with the Boston Housing Authority, that allows new public housing to be built. The new development will also include a courtyard, multiple residential amenity spaces, and a shared plaza with the neighboring Otis House museum, library, and archives.
To meet the city's energy goals, the building would have no natural-gas hookup - and the residential floors would all use "mass timber" rather than the steel and concrete that are more typical for building above six stories.
The new library would have about 70% more space than the current branch.
Slide presentation of the winning and some competing proposals.
Additional documents and archives for the West End library replacement project.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Build it
Badly needed and will benefit the community. Seems like a win-win to me.
Not "win win"
It's actually "win LOSE". The winners are the 100 undeserving, lucky people who get subsidized housing in a nice area. The losers are literally everyone else.
The city would be better off selling the parcel to the highest bidder and have them build market rate housing. It's more money for the city (benefitting all taxpayers) both upfront and for perpetuity as those unit owners pay more property tax.
Getting a new library is a loss for all?
Feel free to elaborate on this.
Undeserving?
What makes you fit to judge 100 people you don't know as being undeserving?
Selection by lottery
Presumably, applications will be screened for suitability and then selected by lottery. While “undeserving” may sound harsh and pejorative, it is somewhat accurate, given that getting an apartment would be mostly a matter of luck.
Undeserving?
I’d say the income limits make them pretty much deserving.
That’s not the point
Why are the 100 lottery winners who get an apartment more deserving than the other 400 applicants, also equally income qualified, who didn’t get selected?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with using a lottery to allocate a scarce resource, but it does somewhat arbitrarily create winners and losers.
"Lucky" and "undeserving"....
... are not even remotely synonymous -- yet you are defending anon's dismissive "undeserving" by invoking the "luck" of the lottery winners. Seems like quibbling just for the purpose of quibbling.
Strawman alert -- NO ONE ever said the lottery winners were MORE deserving than the lottery losers.
I’m undeserving…
I’m undeserving of much of what I have. I imagine you are as well. It wasn’t through skill or hard work that we were born in a rich country with relatively many opportunities and relative safety. I’m not sure what your objection to the term is
Do this more
Can we do this with more city- and state- buildings? Seems like a way for the city to gain $ and move towards addressing important housing goals.
T stations (and right of way) especially
Sell the air rights over every T station and every buildable piece of right of way (the whole southwest corridor comes to mind) and build densely.
Win win: more housing and commercial space and the T gets the funds it needs to fix 30 years of neglect.
Also
6 less parking spaces than what is there now.
The ones in the renderings belong to Historic New England.
Going to miss this little 60's gem of a building but housing is better.
East Boston Library ( on
East Boston Library ( on Bremen street ) should be next to build on top, area is desperately in need of affordable housing
Existing parking
was no where enough for this area. 6 less spots mean more street congestion.
No one needs to drive to
No one needs to drive to their neighborhood library. That’s the point of having one in every neighborhood. I have 3 branches within a 15 minute walk of me. Anyone who insists on driving in this area deserves to sit in the traffic they create.
?
My mother is 81.
Can she please, please, please have you permission to drive the 7/10's of a mile to hers?
Please, please, please. It is up a hill and them back down the hill. That's bad on her legs.
She likes the library but feels now if she takes her car that you will get really, really mad and call your therapist and your mumsy and daddy out in the wealthy burbs about how not everyone is doing what you want them to do.
She has a spotless driving record and only drives on streets where there is room for gentle law-abiding bikers who think everyone is 29 and should conform to their method of transportation and cars that obey all the traffic laws.
Please?
81 year olds do not belong
81 year olds do not belong behind the wheel of a car, she might kill my 101 year old grandmother walking to the library. So no, permission denied.
Electric scooters
This is exactly why electric scooters and wheelchairs need to be more available. it feels like cars are the only socially accepted mobility aids in this country.
There's a parking garage right next door
There's both a garage and a surface lot right next door.
This is such a good idea
and I'm glad it's moving forward.
Boston is in the midst of some great library renovations and expansions, both in BPL and BPS!