This warehouse frightens me has me tied up in knots

Tonight at the Planning Board the Del Monte project is up on the agenda again — no vote tonight, it’s just a public workshop so don’t get mad if the Planning Board doesn’t vote against it, there’s no scheduled vote tonight — here are some highlights from the staff report with regard to open space.   One of the more substantive critiques of the project that I have heard is the lack of open space/park space for the site itself.   However it appears that the developer has agreed to commit $2 million to develop the Beltline parcel which is a huge source of funding for a project that had no identifiable funding source previously.  Total cost to construct the design is apparently in the neighborhood of $8 million.   Additionally, it appears that porches and patios will be constructed for the units and there is an addition of a shared rooftop garden which I hadn’t heard of before mentioned in connection to this project.

Regarding the Clement Street extension:

The project will construct the Clement Avenue extension from Atlantic Avenue to Entrance Road. The Marina Cove II project is constructing the Clement extension from Entrance Road to Marina Cove I. Marina Cove I has completed its segment from Marina Cove II to Pennzoil.  With the completion of this improvement, traffic to and from the site from the west (Posey Webster Tubes) will be able to access Atlantic Avenue directly and avoid Sherman Street. Once the extension is completed through the Pennzoil site, access from the east (Park Street Bridge) will be provided by Clement Avenue and allow the existing Buena Vista Avenue truck route, and much of the existing Buena Vista Avenue traffic, to be relocated to Clement Avenue, thus reducing traffic volumes on Sherman Street and Buena Vista Avenue.

Just a facade

I was already largely happy with the designs for the Del Monte Building, I’m glad that this building is finally (crossed fingers) getting a project that has a likelihood of actually getting started and completely unlike the number of iterations that we have seen in the past.   But in preparation for the Historic Advisory Board meeting on Thursday it appears that Tim Lewis Communities has actually improved on the design for both the historic restoration and the modern building nestled inside.

The changes for the historic portion includes changing the overhangs from glass to perforated metal and adding variegated glass windows.

The changes to the modern building is pretty substantial in look.   First, while the original design was very boxy and flat, the updated design has created some different heights to give the new building more visual interest than a big box:

Bays front

So, I said I wasn’t going to get excited about anything at the Del Monte building again, but, I guess I lied.  Tim Lewis Communties’ proposal for Del Monte is all kinds of interesting.   It took me a while to get to it because the video from the Planning Board meeting where it was first introduced took a while to get uploaded.   But here is the full file.   I’ll pull out some renderings that I think are particularly notable.

First, here are inspiration example (not necessarily designed by the architect) but the direction that they are going in for the Del Monte project.