backstory to the horror show at Beech St. & Mass Ave?

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know the backstory (or have a link to another source) for the funeral home/ice box condo conversion at Beech & Mass Ave? I sit at that traffic light at least a few times a week and wonder about the law suits and zoning citations it must have stirred up.

Comments

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I kinda like it by itself, but I am upset because I really liked the original building.

Plus, "Long Funeral Services" is the best name ever :)

Anyhow, I hope more funky mixed-used buildings like this pop up along mass ave. All these brick condo complexes depress me a hell of a lot more.

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

I guess when I am sitting at the traffic light looking at it what I see is a "working the loopholes" type of development. They retained a rather ugly (and broken) brick boundary wall along with some utterly insignificant architectural elements of the original building and then just rolled this big ice box in on top of it. The end result seems an ugly and cynical piece of architecture. I don't mind the 'ice box' (and wonder about the double height room on the top floor) but it would have been better to be honest and just level the site and build the ice box (but of course they would not have received zoning approval).

Between this development and the horrendous "zebra" "park" up the street Porter is taking some seriously ugly hits.

"Zebra park"

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

Porter Square is where crosswalks come to die.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

The thing that bugs me about that building is that it's just -this close- to actually being attractive. It's so close. But it misses, and winds up completely hideous. And considering that the other buildings the firm did look pretty good (at least in the photos on their site), I'm really baffled how this one turned out so wrong. (And that's setting aside for the moment the mind-numbing incorporation of bits of the previous building, and the neighborhood disgruntlement and etc.)