This is a building that one of my students designed for corner lot on a major avenune in Boston. I happen to think he did a good job. It's a bit larger than the other buildings around it, but it makes a statement about the urban quality of its location and the potential for more density. The plan features ground floor commercial space and 8 apartments on the second and third floors. It's a classic model of mixed use, and because it's so sensible, it would require a zoning variance and several other political and economic miracles to get built.
That's the way it goes in Boston and many other places. The character of urban development that makes some cities so successful is contradicted by current regulations. Some of them, probably most of them, are a good idea, like fire codes that restricted large, wood-framed apartment buildings. Zoning ordinances baffle me sometimes, but then, if this were proposed down the street from my house, I'm not sure how I'd feel about it.
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