The Weston View Condominiums in Somerville is one of the most recent infill projects that Architectural Partners has completed. Starting prices for the condominiums, located on Weston Avenue, were in the low-$400,000 range. All 19 units were sold.

With buildable land hard to come by in most parts of Eastern Massachusetts, housing developers are increasingly honing in on former commercial and industrial sites. Some are turning to cities on the outskirts of Boston like Somerville, a trendy hot spot for young professionals.

One Bay State architectural firm has learned to focus on land that has been virtually ignored by other developers, and in the process has built 19 condominiums at a former Somerville lumberyard and is planning to work on another 14-unit project in the city’s Davis Square. Both housing developments are examples of so-called infill projects that use vacant land and property near urban areas for housing.

There are many examples of successful infill projects in cities like Cambridge, according to planner David Dixon, but fewer in Somerville. However, Somerville is garnering more attention from developers and designers.

“Somerville is very much coming into its own in terms of the real estate market,” said Dixon, an urban design principal at Goody, Clancy & Assoc. in Boston and vice president of the Boston Society of Architects.

While most builders might shy away from areas plagued by zoning or environmental challenges, that hasn’t been the case with Architectural Partners, the 17-year-old design firm in Watertown that worked on the 19-unit project in Somerville.

“We have a way of finding sites that have been overlooked by other developers because they are difficult [to develop],” said John Adelberg, vice president of Architectural Partners.

Architectural Partners recently finished the 19-condominium development located on Weston Avenue in Somerville. The site was once used as a lumberyard and later acquired by a landscaper who had paved over part of the land to use as a parking lot. The landscapers sold the business to another owner who decided to sell the parking lot parcel.

That lot is now occupied by a Victorian-inspired development called Weston View Condominiums that was designed by Architectural Partners. According to the firm, the open floor plans of the townhouses and flats appeal to professional singles and couples and so-called empty-nesters, or couples with grown children no longer living at home. The units, which have all been sold, feature granite kitchen countertops, gas fireplaces, master suites with marble bathrooms and two-car garages.

Adding Vitality

The project has “added value” to the community, according to the architects. Starting prices were in the $400,000 range. Indeed, planners praise infill projects like these for pumping life – and money – into older urban neighborhoods.

“Infill projects are terrific because they’re probably the best way to add vitality to old neighborhoods,” said Dixon. Smart-growth advocates also support infill projects as a way of battling suburban sprawl.

“Some people look at this [infill projects in communities like Somerville and Newton] as a possible antidote to suburban sprawl,” said Adelberg.

Adelberg said those types of communities will never replace suburbs altogether, but they do offer alternatives to people, including young couples, who want to remain in urban environments.

In addition to Weston View, Architectural Partners is planning to work on another project in Somerville. Last week, Adelberg and Marc R. Daigle, the founder and president of Architectural Partners, explained that they would like to build 14 condominiums on top of a 30-car parking garage built around an existing ventilation shaft. The 17,000-square-foot lot they are eyeing for the project is in Davis Square near the MBTA’s Red Line.

In the meantime, the firm is finishing a four-unit project on Prescott Street in the Newtonville section of Newton. As part of the project, two existing Victorian two-family homes are being gut-rehabbed into single-family homes and two new three-level townhomes are being constructed in between them.

The architects preserved the unique features of the older homes. The firm is not “radical” in its design approach, preferring to blend into the neighborhood with its more traditional approach to design, according to Adelberg.

“We try to incorporate traditional details where we can,” he said.

Newton and Somerville are becoming more popular locations for infill projects because people are interested in living in convenient urban locations, said Daigle.

Daigle said his firm is finding opportunities in underutilized land in those cities, particularly in Somerville where much of the industry has moved into suburban locations, leaving behind older buildings.

“Infill is really all that is left,” said Daigle of housing development options in the city.

Developer Fills In the Blanks At Overlooked Somerville Sites

by Banker & Tradesman time to read: 3 min
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