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Pleated Mission Hill condo building to pop along Terrace Street

Other big development news of the week includes a demolition in Back Bay and an approval in Allston

Close-up rendering of the exterior of a brick building done in sharp angles. Primary Development

Welcome back to Critical Mass., in which Curbed Boston covers all the major development news in the region every week. This go-round includes projects in Allston, Back Bay, and Mission Hill—plus a reason why building more smaller condos and apartments would help families kids (yes, smaller). —Tom Acitelli, Curbed Boston editor


First, that reason why smaller apartments and condos would benefit families with kids. A new Metropolitan Area Planning Council report found that a sizable share of larger homes in Greater Boston are occupied by older households of only one or two people or by groups of unrelated roommates who are invariably younger and single. The MAPC says that these units could be opened up to families that really need them if there were more smaller units for these older and younger households to relocate to.

Now to the big project in Allston. The Boston Zoning Board of Appeal signed off on the six-building Allston Square project at Cambridge and Linden streets. Four of the six buildings will be new, and developer City Realty plans to preserve and incorporate two existing buildings. Altogether, Allston Square is due to have 100 rentals and 244 condos.

Meanwhile, Allston in general is seeing quite a bit of development. The newest proposal calls for a two-pronged project along Soldiers Field Road, including on the current site of the Skating Club of Boston, that would add 535 apartments, 120 condos, and 255 hotel rooms.

A partially demolished multi-story building. Photo courtesy of Trinity LLC

And now to the big demo. The development team behind the Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences—a 33-story building at 40 Trinity Place due to include 147 hotel rooms and 146 Raffles-branded condos—demolished the exterior of the Boston Common Hotel and Conference Center, though overall construction has been underway since September 2019.

Lastly ... A state judge this month will hear motions surrounding the collapse of a $1 billion project that would have seen major development over the Massachusetts Turnpike. ... The state allocated more than $60 million in funding and tax credits to 11 affordable housing projects, including three in Boston and two in Newton.