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State says it will look for a developer to turn Boston's two most oppressive buildings into a new complex where people will want to live
By adamg on Wed, 07/24/2024 - 1:40pm
The state said today it will soon seek bids to turn the "superblock" of the Hurley and Lindemann buildings - the most brutal of Boston's brutalist structures - into a "residential mixed-used redevelopment" that will bring new housing and commercial space downtown while upgrading space for the site's current residential mental-health services.
The move means the end of a 2022 plan by the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to let developer Leggat McCall turn the Hurley building into new state office space and, since it was the New Hotness then, life-sciences laboratories.
But fans of brutalism and froggy pareidolia can rejoice: The state recognizes that Paul Rudolph's 1971 Government Service Center - which has all these weird empty spaces because it was planned with a brutalist tower in the middle is now old enough to be historic:
The site remains architecturally significant due to its unique mid-century design, and the Administration will prioritize historic preservation in the renewed redevelopment process.
In addition to housing, the state says it wants to see plans that also include commercial space - as well as " upgraded, modern space for the residential mental health services currently provided by the Department of Mental Health in the Lindemann building."
The current complex stretches between Merrimac and Cambridge streets in the north and south and Staniford and New Chardon streets in the west and east.
In a statement, Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew Gorzkowicz said:
Given the Hurley - Lindemann site’s proximity to major hubs of Massachusetts industries, educational institutions, and government, it holds enormous redevelopment potential. Our approach will deliver urgently needed housing and economic opportunities in the heart of our capital city.
The next step in the process is for the state to issue a formal request for proposals to developers for potential projects on the site.
The state implied, but in a statement did not outright state, that it will seek to sell the land to the chosen developer, rather than lease it to that company:
The updated approach further advances the Administration’s goals for housing production and allows the Commonwealth to utilize the cost-effective and flexible approach of leasing downtown Boston office space for state employees.
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Comments
Noooooooo!
The only "historic" thing to do with brutalism is to reënact 1989 Berlin with it.
Sounds like a boondoggle
That's got a be a particularity difficult spot to develop if they need to keep the current structure in place and also renovate it.
The state should offer to just give the land to a developer in exchange for building a modern tower with ~500 units, at least 50% restricted income. Plus the developer needs to modernize the existing monstrosity.
Yeahhh
I feel like this is yet another deal for developers to give them state-owned land.
But I think the renovations could be done to the existing building. It would just be... very odd shaped.
I think the new part will go over the closed off plaza. That's really where the land is. The existing building doesn't have that much of a footprint.
The plaza has been open for a while.
Gotta get out of Chelsea more often.
won't pencil
Can't imagine trying to make the numbers work on this. Even if they land is gratis and there's an enormous tax abatement. IF they can pull it off nobody will actually move in until sometime in the mid-2030s. By that time the average 1br in Boston should run you about $3500 p/month. So, hardly an antidote to the housing affordability crisis in Boston. But it's the thought that counts
Early days and all.
This is such a great opportunity to create a community in that godforsaken hellhole. Those buildings are absolutely disgusting and belong in Brasilia, another terribly conceived mid century atrocity.
We've now removed the blight of the government center garage and made city hall plaza a space people can enjoy. Time to swing big and make this a livable area. Squeeze the sewer rats all the way back to north station and keep going till there's nothing but clean, safe neighborhood streets.
Well...
The Government Center Garage is gone, 'tis true, but it's been replaced by a fenced-off rubble-strewn lot. The situation for buses at Haymarket is demonstrably worse and the Bulfinch Triangle is now cut off from Government Center with Congress Street remaining closed nearly two years after it was supposed to reopen.
I think the new playground on City Hall Plaza is a huge success but the rest of it is still mostly concrete and bricks.
Create a community...
Maybe some sort of a dense neighborhood with first floor retail and 3-4 stories of mixed use housing on top or something? *cries in West End*
Imagine if we could rebuild that fabric?!
But zoning won't let us rebuild those typologies.
Somerville just legalized triple-decker construction as of right anywhere. Maybe we can take some queues from them.
https://www.mma.org/somerville-legalizes-iconic-triple-decker-structures/
I love those one of a kind buildings and the plaza.
Glad they will be preserved.
Me too
I won't say it's gorgeous but it's interesting and unique. Boston doesn't have much post-WWII architecture that fits that criteria.
I think they're gorgeous, as
I think they're gorgeous, as a child of the 70s. I love brutalist architecture.
wait, what?
Symphony Hall and Horticultural Hall are not landmarked, but we are preserving architecture that was deliberately designed to thrust ugliness into the faces of the citizens of this beautiful city?
feel free to correct me if I’m wrong
I believe Horticultural Hall is at risk because NORTHEASTERN bought it
those are the people that tore down the world famous Boston Opera House (the old one) to put up ugly white block dorms
It's safe, afaik
Northeastern's master building plan involves use of Horticulture Hall, but not significant changes to it, I believe.
i trust em
dont u
Eye of the beholder of course
I think you're mispresenting that style but to each their own. I love the building and find beauty in brutalism. (Disclaimer: I went to architecture school)
Someone I follow on Twitter said recently about people clamoring for architecture schools to "return" to traditional methods, they said "I'm begging people to remember buildings have interiors." That and zoning/developers really dictate more of what architects are allowed to build.
Someone might say "you don't like it, go fund your own projects, get at it!" but I find that response reductive and should be mocked.
No arguments against historic preservation, unless of course is done in bad faith to stifle development.
I've heard from sources
I've heard from sources inside the buildings that these concrete brutalist behemoths leak like sieves when it rains. The same thing happens in Boston City Hall. Who would want to live in these damp concrete structures?
Demolish them
Time to start over with a clean slate on that lot.
I agree, but...
There's no way that's economical with that volume of steel reinforced concrete.
A full demolition is likely cost prohibitive.
Implode them?
That's been done, even in the same neighborhood (Manger / Madison Hotel).
The Manager/Madison Hotel was
The Manager/Madison Hotel was an Art-Deco masterwork made of brick and mortar @Ron Newman.
A completely different, way more complicated demolition plan would be needed for these poured concrete Brutalist buildings.
An implosion demolition of these types of buildings could be done but the demolition would not be as safe or effective as the implosion of the Madison.
Creative adaptation
Would provide a more interesting result. I don't think anything going up in recent history compares favorably to what's there now. Glass, Glass, and more glass boxes are providing a sterile and boring streetscape. We need layers of history.
Translation...
Translation: the amount of effort required to tear down that brutalist shit is just WAY too much, so developers will need to integrate it into their proposals.