Image courtesy of MASS Design Group and The Architectural Team
An expanded West End library branch will sit below a 12-story residential tower as Boston taps into the potential for municipal properties to accommodate housing development.
Boston Planning & Development Agency directors approved the 176,517-square-foot project at 151 Cambridge St., a partnership between Preservation of Affordable Housing and Caste Capital.
The two Boston-based developers were selected by city officials to redevelop the property following a request for proposals in 2023, part of the Housing With Public Assets program launched in 2018.
All 119 apartments would be reserved for households earning 30 to 80 percent of area median income.
The project has significance in a neighborhood with a history of displacement. Boston Housing Authority CEO Kenzie Bok noted that 10 dwellings once occupied the site, before they were demolished by the Boston Redevelopment Authority as part of the West End urban renewal project in the 1950s. The BHA is providing operating subsidies for 32 units in the tower.
The new 19,065-square-foot branch would double the existing library size, while adding a larger children’s area and a 125-capacity community room, Boston Public Library President David Leonard said.
The project also will include an outdoor plaza. Beacon Hill Civic Association President Colin Zick spoke in favor of the project, but reiterated written comments submitted by the association that a public plaza and outdoor seating will aggravate an “explosive” in illegal drug use on and around the property.
“The current landscape design seems to ignore the realities of life in the city of Boston and, in particular, Cambridge Street,” the association wrote in a March 14 comment letter.
Four Residential Conversions Approved
At the board’s monthly meeting, four office-to-residential conversions were approved. The residential conversion program has received 31 applications to convert 1.5 million square feet of office space into 1,785 apartments. Applications are open until Dec. 31 to qualify for property tax abatements of 75 percent for 29 years.
At 50 Congress St., Mahoney Development Group received approval for 169 apartments in a 10-story office building.
At 1 State St., developer John Geraghty of Readville received approval for a 76-unit residential conversion.
In Fort Point, developers Fan Du and Willie Guo received approval for conversion of 320 Summer St. into 145 apartments.
And at 419 Boylston St. in Back Bay, property owner Hicham Ali Hassan received approval for 44 apartments in the existing 8-story office building.
The board also approved 61 home ownership condominiums on lot C of the Bartlett Place development in Roxbury’s Nubian Square.
