Byline; Commonwealth Avenue

BYLINE showed Boston's Commonwealth Avenue have high rise housing perhaps by analogy I could suggest that the present housing your sort of comparable to the model Ford. It's a wonderful idea to keep a number of representative samples of the Model T Ford and I think by architect who controlled you can save the back examples of the design which dates back to the Model T period and perhaps even earlier. But I do not think that everybody should be obliged to live in a Model T or drive a the equivalent of a model P resident. We make many mistakes in government but the mistakes that we make in brick and mortar go on for generations. A serious mistake like this that they say and the man has on the council to make will be a blot on Boston for generations to come to vote. This is you have just heard word first. Morton Zuckerman vice president in charge of

corporate planning cabut cabut and Forbes second. John Kaufman of William Coughlin realtors Mr. Zuckerman's firm is interested in building a 25 story building on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Arlington Street. This year Mayor Collins requested that the city council remove the 70 foot height limit applying to buildings on Commonwealth Avenue. Mr Cottman describes the mayor's orders the order which the mayor has asked the council to Hamas designates eight buildings eight areas on the West and cotton is intended to street these individual lauch areas of only 100 feet along com of Avenue B zone 200 feet and out into the street to two hundred and

eighty six feet. I feel that this is grossly gesture the remaining prop is which they recommend be creating the height just 70 feet. Now this is just died of what is known as spot zoning and could be adjudged unconstitutional if taken to court. Mr. Zuckerman tells why he feels high rise is essential reason why you cannot build anything other than a high Raju Hirani your residential unit at that location. You think you could could not support the land cost and the building cost per unit in terms of the limitation with the market. The rental market imposes upon you. With regard to the rent that you can get for example if you develop a low rise apartment building which cost you between. X and Y thousand dollars per unit. You might have to get in grams and rent 2000 or 3000 dollars a month you

know to be able to support the cost you know that you cannot get people to move in and pay that kind of rent. Therefore you cannot develop it on an economic basis and naturally restrict you in terms of the type of development that you can put on the only thing that can be supported economically. The high right building because on that basis you can brag your land cost and your construction costs over an adequate number of units. Preview a residential unit with a plan B portable within the market rent. We would hope to build between twenty three and twenty five door and on the critic side of the corner of Commonwealth annoying restriction VAT back at the very height limit to a height of 70 70 would recoup your bad Lord and it would make the development which we propose impossible. Charles P. Howard chairman of the Back Bay Association and a member of the Back Bay Planning Corporation feels that Commonwealth Avenue should not permit

encroachments on its aesthetic unity the committee for the Commonwealth having you know said that Commonwealth Avenue was one of the most beautiful streets in America and Winston Churchill when he was here a few years ago after walking along it said it was the most beautiful avenue in America. Now the committee for Commonwealth Avenue said and I quote. The impact of Commonwealth Avenue is not just its length and its wood and its trees. It is the way the frame by consistent uninterrupted facades of about 70 feet in height. This is not merely in a static command. It is essential in social and economic terms to Austin's no growth so that we still look like Boston. In the end without such guidance a city will

degenerate to nameless Metropolitan and this or that like so many of us. There is a definite connection between architectural harmony of the neighborhood and its River State value. Superman responds Well I don't know if you got that egg completely out of contact with the living environment in the back bag for example in the Back Bay area of the restriction imposed on the development of high rise residential units in the Back Bay have led to a deterioration in the sands of the type of you you had a lot of the property are taken over by. Newton and rooming houses etc and in their hand few have had perhaps not the same degree. As the deterioration in the typical you in the critical quality of the structure but you had a good theory aeration and fanned the

living you. You had a completely different character residence now in the Back Bay instead of it being private home the private homes have not been able to be supported have private homes in that location and go to the homes of being cold in a lot of them have become fraternity houses and are already how the rooming house. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with fraternity houses and sorority house other than rooming out there but I am suggesting that for the Back Bay you have a particular and unique residential location and that they can. Developed to benefit the entire community. If you can develop the back bay with proper control of an architecture and planning in such a way that you could do or a lot of the living from the living environment and still retain a great deal of the aesthetic value then indeed if you have proper architectural control I could I would imagine that you could develop some very very attractive building which would be reflective of today's contemporary architecture.

As well as having the historical value. I'm not projecting that all of the back bang necessarily be turned into high rise units. I am suggesting that there is a balance which should be struck between the historical structure of the which have a certain character an architectural character and a balance between the that and the newer high rise structures. Presently on balance basically that you have too many. Restrictions on development of high rise that this has kept you within the present hype limitations and present building limitations that the because of this restriction you have had a lot of deterioration in the here and in the living environment in the area of the residential community. If I do not contribute a great deal to Boston perhaps by analogy I could suggest that the present housing is sort of comparable to the model of Pete Ford. It's a wonderful idea to keep a number of representative samples of the Model T Ford and I think by

architectural control you can fav the back examples of the design which dates back to the Model T period and perhaps even earlier. But I do not think that everybody should be obliged to live in a model or drive a the equivalent of a Model T residence. Glad that the model peeve residences are simply not functional relatively. They're not that attractive anymore when that's the only thing you have. And they lead to a lot of people who can only live in model cars or model P how the unbid suits what are called for the duration in the Back Bay in the form of a living environment. We feel that there are a lot of alternatives for people in terms of where they will live. They will certainly live where they can get the conveniences of a 1966 car and it's all very well to say let's keep the model around. But if you completely blanket an area with model P you're going to drive a lot of people out of the area as have actually occurred and you're going to attract a lot of people who can only. Leave in Mopti areas or are satisfied

with the noise and the breakdown and the confusion and the deterioration that you get proximity and of the living environment which stems out of the fact that you only have modeled how they've been resident there. We would hope to attract to the apartment red market unit high rise residential unit a broad variety of people but most importantly a group of people who could contribute a great deal to the central core of Boston to the hub of Boston people who are living in the downtown area living in the Back Bay would support a lot of the activities and boff and its economic activities its retailing and they would do all their shopping where they're located. Cultural activities theater it's a symphony that you correct Iran for its nightlife. It's politics everything. These are people who would be primarily in the middle and upper income ranges who are active and concerned in the communities where they are presently living and they're active in a theater group in

the suburbs or they're active in any city planning or that the council in the suburbs. We would hope that the people would be equally active wherever they're located they would be concerned because they're living there they would make a great contribution in developing the core of the city and it is the core of the city that really creates the image for an entire living area and the image that broth in the central city the broth in it can certainly stand some improvement. Every city can benefit from having a lot of people who have fled out to the suburbs move back into the city into the core area of the city and contribute to the various aspects of life in the city. The famous song downtown really is just sort of a reflection of the attractiveness of the downtown area and the people by supporting all of the activity the nightlife the restaurants and theaters and cinemas and shopping everything. They would certainly add a great deal to the core of the Boston area and bring in a lot of new activities a new facility for the core area.

Mr Howard was asked to respond to Mr. Zuckerman's claims that without high rise buildings the neighborhood will be generate Bandstand. The plane is not found. It is true and right during the 1930s and 1940s but it definitely turned upward about 1950 and it has been resurgent ever since then. Real estate values have been increased tremendously during that period and still increasing. There's much more assembly consciousness in the area where you receive the least complement of the neighborhood association receives the complement of a vote in the Boston City Council about a year ago congratulating us on our success in regenerating the neighborhood. Just for

example prices sale prices on buildings in 1947 28 Commonwealth I mean you know was sold for twenty two thousand five hundred dollars in 1960. CO it was fifty four thousand dollars in 1959. 181 Commonwealth Avenue was sold for $75000. In 1962 it was sold with $70000 in 1956 165 Commonwealth Avenue was sold to $35000 in 1963 it was sold with sixty eight thousand dollars. Now those increased prices don't sound like an area that was going to pot. Mr Kaufman discusses the school problem and the desire for neighborhood

security. Those who are advocating high rise as a solution for the restoration of the Back Bay have a great deal to say about the detrimental back at the schools in the area. Now I cannot see how a high rise is going to make. Students behave any better. There are a number of logic that students don't give any trouble. Well-behaved abide by a code of behavior and I should think they would be glad to have them in the neighborhood. They are a few schools however who do not supervise their OB. Pupils as well. But the neighborhood of the Association of the of the Back Bay in recent months had been working with the institution and making some progress.

My suggestion did is yes for the solution of the school proper and it is then that the B R A as a planning department of the city immediately arrange for a conference of all elements concerned with the school problem with the object of attacking and solving this problem with due regard to the rights privileges and welfare of the residents of the backpay its property owners the school the students and the city of Boston. This serious matter should have immediate and stated attention by all concerned. We on Beacon Hill now have a overall height limit of 65 feet under the new zoning law where the only district in the city that has an overall height limit. In fact Beacon Hill is the most highly restricted district in the city and we have the highest land values but square foot of any other residential or any other residential area. People like restrictions

because they want security. I would like to see the back they have security because prices are so high on Beacon Hill. I would like to have an area where people could go at lower prices and yet be attracted back to the city. We want the kind of citizens that own their own houses and well add into the life this civic quality in town Boston. One of the major problems in Boston is the increasing need for revenue. Mr. Zuckerman discusses the property tax base then. Which will be established by the development of high rise apartment building is another very important feature of the entire program. The jacket of allowing high rise apartment building because you can quadruple and quintuple the revenue the tax revenue available from the present

land use the property by contributing X thousand dollars of development would contribute 5 in quick time there in the form of tax revenue than the pack's revenue would supply the city with a great deal of fun. Who encourage and help the city. A private pyramid that a president downtown a metropolitan area are required and that the people who contribute and live in the area would demand some citizens believe that neither economics nor aesthetic values are the major reason behind Mayor Collins motion to repeal the height limitations on Commonwealth Avenue. Mr Howard thinks that the design of the main. Has the mistaken I and has had it for some time. Let high rise buildings ought to be constructed on Commonwealth Avenue. He thinks that that will largely increase the valuation of the city. He's also

especially interested in the vacant lot on the corner of fire and Commonwealth Avenue which she has been known for some years by some people of very close friends of the design of the man and so he has been trying repeatedly I should say five years to get legislation in the legislature of Massachusetts and later to get the city council taking the height limits off Commonwealth so that building can be built. The operation was farmed something like a year ago and it ended into a memorandum of agreement with Mr Loewe. The development of the city and with the mayor in mind of this

year according to which the Redevelopment Authority and the Back Bay Planning and Development Corporation would cooperate in broad studies conducted by experts in various fields of all problems. Conclusions when approached by the Back Bay Council to be submitted for implementation. Mr Howard continues discussing the Avenue of the Back Bay dont want high rise buildings. Because once they drilled in the fine residential area they gradually destroy the area. This has happened in New York and in Cleveland and you can see cargo in Chicago which I happen to know from personal inspection

50 years ago and again recently told very fine residential areas on both the south side and the north side resembling the back bay though not quite as good. High rise buildings were permitted to wind crowed in those areas. And now Sammy Sloan when high rise buildings come in and destroy the beauty of an old residential area. The people the people don't like it anymore and the residents mobile way the property depreciates in value and it gradually becomes close to was slum. We don't want that to hopen in the back. Happened In The Back Bay has everyone know the typical picture of us. So I'm in no yard is what was once a fine residence which is degenerated and it

shows very poorly clad people sitting on the steps and around the building. We don't want that in the Back Bay. The Committee for Commonwealth Avenue composed of the best experts on city planning and I could accept that we could assemble sad. Good Belding's inappropriately placed. This is a quotation can have a very bad effect on the neighbors in Excel or right here your ration. Once the first really tall building is built on Commonwealth Avenue you die it will have been cast and then every process begun. I end of quotation. In other words they mean that once we get a single high building which destroys the ability of Commonwealth the avenue will deteriorate. The residents who are paying steadily higher prices for the

existing houses and for the fine apartments. Will not have the beauty of the avenue before their eyes every day as they walk along the street and they will become disgusted in a mobile way property value period right in the back but as we have known and loved it will be at an end. Some other residents of Commonwealth Avenue believe that if high rise building is permitted the colleges will tear down their buildings and erect high rise dormitories on tax free property. This will decrease land values further. On the other hand Mr. Zuckerman points out again that purpose in having a high rise building event from a developer only pipe would render any development on the economic. He could appoint the wrong on the carpet drop him on any other bank by developing a high round

building we are or want to develop for another ring we would go to the general. Commonwealth provides one of her living for a lot of people who are wearing the Boston City Council is expected to vote on the height limitations for buildings on Commonwealth Avenue within a week. Do you think high rise buildings should be built on this beautiful avenue. We urge you to express your opinions in writing to the Boston city councillors. Our guests on byline where Morton Zuckerman vice president in charge of corporate planning Cabot Cabot and Forbes John Kauffman a real chore with William called him and sons and Charles Howard chairman of the Back Bay Association. This program was produced by Carolyn is

of the WGBH FM staff. Until time for our next program we invite you to listen to a capital recording of the harvest gone Johnny playing his own composition than I thought. Shan't be long. Oh. Oh.

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