Image courtesy of Berkeley Investments

While protests about artist displacement cloud one proposed Allston redevelopment, Boston officials approved another project that will provide artists with housing, makerspaces and retail space to sell their work.

Berkeley Investments is partnering with Harvard University on the 176 Lincoln St. development, replacing an unfinished commercial development with two office-lab towers totaling 538,000 square feet and a 252-unit apartment building.

The housing component will include 45 units reserved for households earning 50 to 120 percent of area median income, of which 10 will be artist live-work units.

Berkeley Investments is offering below-market retail rent for the 8,000-square-foot Artisans Asylum retail and gallery space, which will open onto a 2-acre courtyard on the 5.3-acre site.

Berkeley and Harvard University, which acquired the stalled development site in 2006, selected Artisans Asylum as a potential tenant after the makers’ collaborative faced an expiring lease in Somerville. The nonprofit provides workspaces to hundreds of artisans and craftspeople.

“This provides an exciting opportunity giving artists a chance to earn as well as providing a visible retail storefront that we can exhibit work, and allow artists to monetize the efforts of their products,” said Damien Paul Dong, co-chair of the Artisan Asylum board of directors, before the BPDA’s vote Thursday.

The approval comes as the BPDA continues to review life science developer IQHQ’s plans to demolish the North Beacon Street property which contains the Sound Museum recording studio and rehearsal space. The project prompted protests by groups about artist displacement in Boston, which does not have formal requirements for arts and creative space in new developments. IQHQ has acquired 290 Beacon St. for a permanent music recording space, and the ArtStaysHere Coalition leased 37,000 square feet at 55 Morrissey Blvd. in Dorchester for a temporary replacement.