Boltwood Place is now in full construction mode as they race to ready for a Fall opening. The five story mixed use LEED certified building is the first major construction project in the downtown in a l-o-n-g time.
Technically described as "infill," the building, five floors reaching 50 feet in height on only a 2,500 square foot postage stamp of a footprint, will most certainly stand out on its own, and will also stand in as the poster child for exactly what the Amherst Redevelopment Authority had in mind when we donated the prime adjacent property to the town for the construction of the Boltwood Walk Parking Garage ten years ago.
The ARA meets this Friday to receive and discuss the Final Report from our consultant on the Gateway Corridor Vision in anticipation of the joint meeting with the Planning Board/public hearing on Wednesday, June 29 in the prime location Town Room from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
Gateway Vision areaGateway Vision Final draft (hot copy) It's a big file so you have to download the PDF
Interesting comparison of construction potential for Gateway
5 stories of commercial blight. Taller than all the other buildings.
ReplyDeleteActually Ann Whalen (another ARA project) is five stories.
ReplyDeleteAnd the ground behind Judie's is lower in elevation than the businesses on North Pleasant.
Let's try to keep it relevant. Ann Whalen House is not visible from Pleasant Street.
ReplyDeleteIf you really wish to be relevant why not take out a $4 million loan and build your own dream building in the downtown and show them how it's done?
ReplyDeleteReach for the sky? How about pie in the sky? Downtown already has a growing list of empty storefronts. Good luck to them but downtown is ailing and this will only add to the empty spaces.
ReplyDelete“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
ReplyDeleteIs there a more dispiriting place on the web than the comments section of this blog?
ReplyDeleteLarry, you're a likable guy, but what's with these nattering nabobs of negativism?
These folks seem to using Eeyore as a role model.
There's no denying this thing is ugly and innapropriate to the local architectural vernacular. I don't have a problem with further downtown commercial developement, but how is it possible that it could be allowed to be this astonishingly UGLY???
ReplyDeleteYes Anon 9:26 PM, and you should see the ones I don't publish. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteIt could be quite pretty. Northampton's downtown is tall and lovely. I'd much prefer this than strip malls or circa-1980 indoor shopping mall atrocities.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:00pm says:
ReplyDelete"There's no denying this thing is ugly and inappropriate to the local architectural vernacular."
Really? Why didn't you speak up at the public meetings held by the Design Review Board and the Planning Board? Those meetings were design lovefests.
Probably because some nosey, busybody blogger would take their picture and post it for all to see.
ReplyDeleteFar safer to hide in the shadows and criticize those hardy folks who dare to take chances--and do so under the glare of public scrutiny.