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Putting the home in Down Home: Owners of Southern restaurant in Four Corners propose seven-story apartment building
By adamg on Wed, 10/30/2024 - 9:37am
Rendering by Stack and Co.
The family that owns Down Home Delivery & Catering at 2 Bowdoin St. in Dorchester's Four Corners has filed plans to replace their building with a seven-story apartment building - with 2,400 square feet of ground-floor space for their restaurant to move back into.
The Webster family's proposed 22-unit building would be one story taller than typical modern Boston apartment buildings because rather than the typical construction of a steel-and-concrete "podium" topped by five floors made of wood beams, the entire structure will be built out of cross-laminated timber, a strong wood product that means fewer carbon emissions than from creating steel and concrete, according to the family's filing with the Boston Planning Department.
The building would have five one-bedroom apartments, ten one-bedroom apartments with dens and seven two-bedroom units. Four of the apartments would be rented as affordable.
The building would also have a roof deck for residents.
The building, which is near the 23 bus route on Washington Street and less than a half mile from other routes and the Four Corners/Geneva Fairmount Line stop, would have no parking.
The filing includes letters of support from the United Neighborhood Association, the Mt. Bowdoin Betterment Association, Four Corners Main Streets, state representatives Chris Worrell and Russell Holmes and state Sen. Nick Collins.
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Comments
This picture makes no sense to me
Bowdoin ave goes up hill. I tried to recreate the perspective in google street view
perspective
The illustration has the viewer on Washington Street, looking north towards the commuter rail. This is at the very top of Bowdoin St, @ Bowdoin Ave & @ Washington, before it turns into Harvard.
Non CDC Development
That is good for the neighborhood.
It shows that demand is there for private, not just non-profit developers, to come into the area for developments beyond infill three-deckers, which is also happening in this area, especially up the hill.
The development on newer buildings just steps from here on Washington Street have been the work of CDCs like the great Viet-Aid.
Now if that corner lot which has been vacant since I was a kid on the SE corner of Washington and Bowdoin could get filled, what a great piece of streetscape there would be for the area.
I think this picture was
I think this picture was painted by someone in the middle of that lot.
Throwing down the gauntlet
22 units without a parking garage is a pretty bold challenge to NIMBYs. I hope they succeed in building it.
honestly, any of these
honestly, any of these buildings that have a guaranteed retail for these first floor spaces should get auto-approval. Really sick of walking past empty first floor retail spaces. Makes the buildings feel really dead.
Looks great, lets build it!
Looks great, lets build it!
That’s four stories too many.
That’s four stories too many.
Triple deckers should be the limit for most areas. Sunlight is a gift.
Not at high visibility locations
Triple deckers are great, they are an efficient way to bring housing density without noticeably changing the overall neighborhood profile. They have long been an important part of how Boston houses residents. But they are not the only option, and certainly not the best option for all locations. This is a highly trafficked five point intersection, and this parcel is the most prominent corner. It's better to have a marquis building there, with greater height and flourish to contribute to the overall place-making. There is plenty of room for tripple deckers as you move away from that location.
Thanks. That’s heartening and
Thanks. That’s heartening and as I read this I can picture how that fits and I hope height doesn’t creep down the block by its precedence. It seems like a number of Dunkin’ Donuts buildings were built in my area that exceeded the necessary height. I also remember a petition on the counter of the Fresh Pond Parkway by the Sunoco to muster signatures to exceed the height limit and voilà, a bunch of higher buildings appeared.
Do you live in Hobbinton?
How does a Dunk's exceed any height?
Balderdash
I work on the 10th floor of a building amid much higher towers in the Financial District. My windows face east. I get so much sunlight most days that I have to keep shutting the shades in the morning and reopening them later. Sunlight gets in places you wouldn't even believe.
Feel free to move to Kansas.
Feel free to move to Kansas. No mountains or tall buildings to block your sunlight. The rest of us who chose to live in the city aren't afraid of a 7 story building.
I do feel free to, but I also
I do feel free to-in theory, but I also feel free to petition for the preservation of the character of New England.
"Character of New England"
Sorry, but Boston ceased being Ye Olde Quainte Seaporte Villagee a very long time ago.
The character of New England…
…is woodland inhabited by Amerindians. Around here, it’s specifically its coastal woodland and tidal marshes. Anything other than that is just an arbitrary point in time that you have decided is more important than the present.
Dig deeper
The character of New England is of continents colliding and ripping apart, creating a massive chain of mountains and volcanoes, spewing hot magma across the terrain, so enormous that evidence of their titanic, red-hot violence can still be seen from the Great Blue Hill (WHDH was only off by a few hundred million years in its infamous April 1 report) to the remnants of lava flows and bursting magma in Hyde Park and West Roxbury. And then, much later, a mile-deep glacier that scoured the remnants of that heat and fury, leaving behind kettleholes like Jamaica Pond and basically all of Cape Cod.
All narratives are valid, but
All narratives are valid, but which narrative is optimal for the good life? Why must every area regress to the mean of growth?
People come and go from New England, but all are uplifted by the thing that New England and take that with them.
Also, is one long-lasting build of brick, or concrete going to have a bigger carbon footprint than multiple CLTs in the same footprint over time? And, what of the increased carbon footprint of densification?
“Significant uncertainties and challenges do still exist in the assessment of the life cycle carbon footprint of CLT buildings. These include treatments of biogenic carbon, service-life predictions, maintenance/repair…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352710222004958
There is a grade here
The difference in heights allows for a taller building there that doesn't block sunlight from other properties.
Currently, all the buildings
Currently, all the buildings are at a height to allow an open dome of sky and this build will impose itself over the neighborhood and darken the street and spirits.
I don't believe so. I live
I don't believe so. I live in the neighborhood and visited homes all over that hill. You are also ignoring the history. That one story is not as old of the neighborhood.
https://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/project/mount-bowdoin/
Allowing structures
over 40’ in height has not helped the perceived shortage of housing in the Boston area. Just because you cannot afford to live in Boston doesn’t mean there’s a shortage. Look at all the nee neighborhoods created in the City.
There is a shortage…
I could write several pages about how wrong this comment is, but suffice to say it’s pretty widely accepted that there is a housing shortage in Boston.
It’s something both left, right, and non-partisan groups agree on:
Pioneer Institute (right-leaning): https://pioneerinstitute.org/economic_opportunity/study-finds-supply-sho...
Progressive Mass (left-leaning):
https://www.progressivemass.com/tag/housing/
The Boston Foundation (basically middle):
https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/reports/2023/november/2023-greater...
Translation
IGMFY