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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

By Tom Acitelli
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.

New market-rate Mission Hill condo building part of trio

Construction has started on the nine-unit condo development at 80 Terrace Street in Mission Hill, according to developer Primary Development. It’s the company’s third condo project along Terrace Street in the neighborhood.

The one at 80 Terrace is due to be all two-bedroom, two-bathroom units in a building with a pleated facade (see the rendering up top). The building will also have a garage as well as a shared roof deck. And it’s near the Orange Line’s Roxbury Crossing stop. Finally, 80 Terrace will include up to 3,200 square feet of commercial space, which Primary is pitching as ideal for smaller offices or fitness centers.

The company is also building the Terrace Street Artist Condominiums at 40 and 132 Terrace. Those 14 units will be entirely live-work homeownership opportunities for qualified artists (which includes earning at least 50 percent of income from working in the arts). Construction on the mix of one- and two-bedroom units is supposed to wrap in early 2021.

“As Mission Hill continues to become a community that draws focus to the arts in Boston, this is a great opportunity for Primary to develop unique design-driving buildings in this growing neighborhood,” Steven Meyer, a partner in Primary Development, said in a statement. “Terrace Street has a rich industrial history and we have incorporated this into the architecture of the three buildings that we are currently developing.”

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.

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