Newcastle Court // c.1907

Newcastle Court in Boston’s South End/Lower Roxbury neighborhoods is one of the finest apartment buildings in the city built in the early 20th century. The complex is U-shaped with a central courtyard off Columbus Street, to provide air and natural light in all bedrooms and units of the building. Newcastle Court was built by builder/developer Israel Nesson, who was credited as building the first fireproof apartment building in the city. Nesson and his family built and owned apartment buildings all over Boston and Cambridge, and operated many of them as landlords with massive real estate holdings. Newcastle Court stands out for the garden courtyard set behind the gate. At the back of the courtyard, the building has a raised parapet at the roof, which encompasses a clock. Many of the units retain the original stained glass windows, which are AMAZING!

One Greenway // 2015

Replacing a vacant lot bordering I-93 at Kneeland Street, the One Greenway development provides much needed housing and design as one of the gateways into the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston. A result of community engagement, One Greenway is one of the largest new affordable housing projects in recent memory. The project restores the urban fabric that was lost half a century ago to the construction of major highways, which cut through the community and provides much-needed affordable housing in one of the nation’s oldest and largest immigrant communities. When the elevated highway was moved underground and the Rose Kennedy Greenway was laid out, parcels adjacent were available for reuse, and this was one of the last to be redeveloped. The building mixes 217 market-rate apartments and 95 affordable apartments, to create a mixed-income development, hopefully the future, as to not segregate affordable housing to less-desirable parts of cities. Designed by the firm Stantec, the building creates a solid street wall at the corner, and provides amazing open space at the rear in the form of a well-designed park designed by Crosby, Schlessinger, and Smallridge. The use of beige terracotta panels makes the large building more inviting, compared to the cold and sterile new apartment buildings going up all over the city and region.