Parking Requirements Are One of the Greatest Threats to Historic Preservation
Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities show the scars of minimum parking requirements, with big chunks of downtown cratered by parking lots where new homes could be.
Cambridge Rezoning Off to a Shaky Start
Since Cambridge took a bold step to allow 4- and 6-story multifamily housing across the city, there’s been strong interest in new projects. But overlooked regulations threaten to undermine new housing.
Staying Power for an Experiment in Suburban Living
In a market where teardowns command high prices, enclaves of Modernist homes are hanging on in suburban Boston thanks to midcentury homes’ reputations – and a little help from barriers to new development.
Dorchester Development Incorporates 250-Year-Old House
A house from Boston’s colonial past could get new life as part of a larger redevelopment proposed for the heart of Fields Corner.
Boston City Hall Gets Protection as Latest Historic Landmark
It’s massive, it’s divisive, but no matter what you think of it, it’s undeniably emblematic of a key moment in city history. And now, Boston City Hall has the historic landmark designation to prove it.
Historic Boston Head to Lead City Preservation Office
The head of a top Boston historic preservation group and major owner of historic properties is headed to City Hall.
Hot Property: Station Lofts
A refinancing package will enable Capstone Communities to begin an extensive renovation project at its Station Lofts property in Brockton.
Hot Property: The Mother Church
An eight-year renovation project designed by Boston-based Finegold Alexander Architects was named a recipient of the 2024 Preservation Massachusetts Paul & Niki Tsongas Award.
Fall River Church Conversion Gets Financing from Rockland Trust
A former church in Fall River will be converted into 46 new market-rate homes thanks to a loan from Rockland Trust.
Boston Looks to ‘Skyline’ for Help
Changes designed to attract more developers and commercial tenants to downtown Boston and avoid a looming fiscal chasm tied to declining office occupancy are moving closer to the finish line.
Hot Property: Pierce Building
Renovations and rehabilitation of a Classical Revival building at Dorchester’s Uphams Corner received recognition from a pair of preservation groups.
To Save the Past, Ditch Demo Delay Bylaws
Trying to hold onto Colonial-era charm, many communities have put historic preservation on a collision course with their enormous housing needs. What if there was another way?
Hot Property: St. James African Orthodox Church
Nonprofit preservation group Historic Boston Inc. has sold a Roxbury church to the Roxbury Action Program for a new headquarters, office space for nonprofits and an incubator.
Hot Property: Upham’s Corner Comfort Station
A former rest area built in 1912 to serve Boston’s expanding streetcar system has new life as Dorchester’s newest purveyor of global cuisine.
For Sale: A Piece of Combat Zone History
The 19th-century Hayden building in Boston’s former Combat Zone was a seedy symbol of urban blight when Historic Boston Inc. purchased it in 1993. Following a multi-year restoration project totaling nearly $6 million, the nonprofit is preparing to sell the 681 Washington St. property, where luxury apartments now rent for up to $4,000 a month.
Cloistered Quarters Reimagined in Brighton
Decades before “compact living” became a buzzword, an order of priests lived in tiny cells at Brighton’s St. Gabriel’s Monastery. John Sullivan is an executive vice president at CC&F, where he oversees development projects including the 555-unit development that rose in the monastery’s place.
Reinvigorated Structures Revive Forgotten Urban Landscapes
Besides the benefit to the quality and character of these urban centers, these historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects are inherently more sustainable, economic and potentially face less resistance during approvals.
Fund Sought To Revive Underutilized Buildings
A new state fund outlined in a bill before the state legislature would help facilitate improvements to underutilized commercial or industrial buildings in economically distressed areas.
Hot Property: Fitchburg City Hall
A renovation of Fitchburg’s city hall by Medford-based Bond Construction garnered Preservation Massachusetts’ Paul & Niki Tsongas Award, which recognizes the best in historic preservation efforts across the commonwealth.
Hot Property: The Hood Milk Bottle
The Boston Children’s Museum recently received the 2021 Mayor Thomas M. Menino Legacy Award by Preservation Massachusetts for the renovation of the historic Hood Milk Bottle in Boston’s Fort Point.
