Image courtesy of Google Maps
A development team is proposing a rarity in recent Boston projects by combining a live music venue with midrise apartment construction.
Former Great Scott booking agent Carl Lavin teamed up with Boston-based Noannet Group on the proposed 95,000-square-foot development at the corner of Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street.
Cambridge Seven architects is designing a “non-traditional” 9-story building for the high-profile intersection at the northern gateway to the Allston commercial district, developer Jordan Warshaw said.
“It’s an exciting design that reflects the musical nature of the project,” he said.
For 44 years, Great Scott occupied a prominent place in the Boston music firmament, offering a home for musicians from a huge range of genres. Its 2020 closure – due in part to uncertainty for when live music venues could reopen during the COVID lockdown, Lavin told WBUR in August – prompted and outpouring of mourning in the city’s music scene.
Developers will submit the proposal to Boston’s Planning Department in January. The team proposes a building at the corner of Harvard and Cambridge streets containing 139 apartments, reconstruction of O’Brien’s Pub and a live music venue with capacity for 300 patrons, according to the notification letter submitted last week.
The building design will isolate sound from the music venue from the apartments above with installation of a “floating floor” that essentially separates the building into two separate structures, Warshaw said. It will include a green awning replicating Great Scott’s signature entrance.
Warshaw has previous experience developing housing in close proximity to performance venues.
As an executive at The Druker Co., he worked on the Atelia 505 condominium project in South End, which includes performance space for the Boston Center for the Arts. Luxury condos sit above the ballroom section at the Raffles Boston tower developed by Noannet Group and Saunders Hotel Group.
Paul Armstrong, who curated the music program at Noannet Group’s Cambria Hotel in Somerville, reached out to Noannet Group about partnering on a development, replacing the void left by Great Scott’s closing in 2022 at a nearby property at 1222 Commonwealth Ave.
While Great Scott’s former location now is occupied by a Taco Bell, developers scouted potential sites in the neighborhood including the O’Brien’s Pub property, which had been listed for sale several years ago.
The corner lots total approximately 0.4 acres and include the pub and a body art studio. The project will require multiple variances from the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal, including dimensional variances and use permits, according to a letter from attorney Donald Wiest of Dain Torpy, who represents the development team.
Great Scott’s departure from 1222 Commonwealth Ave. location in 2020 reignited a debate about the fate of Boston’s cultural economy amid displacement by housing and lab developers.
One life science developer, IQHQ Inc., reached an agreement with Boston officials to acquire and donate a building near its planned 155 North Beacon St. lab project in Brighton, which would displace the Sound Museum recording studios.
At least for Great Scott, though, its future seems more certain: The future building’s owners and the club’s owners will be one in the same.
