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The developer “completely redesigned the pedestrian realm and the podium with masonry and brick, as requested by the community.”
One of the design options developer Copper Mill has released for a proposed residential tower in Somerville’s Davis Square. Copper Mill
The developer of the proposed 26-story tower in Somerville’s Davis Square released new alternative plans Tuesday, as promised. However, the plans aren’t massively scaled down, as some members of the community had hoped.
Developer Copper Mill released three new revised designs for the 500-unit building, including the original 26-story plan with the tower set back from Elm Street.
The original 26-story design. Copper Mill
In December, Copper Mill submitted its original design for a Chapter 40B permit, which allows developers to build with more flexible rules if at least a fifth of the units are affordable housing. The development’s 40B application was denied, according to a MassHousing official.
The three other designs aren’t much different in height. The second alternative is 25 stories on a four-story podium with a “more compact tower form.”
Copper Mill
The third is three stepped towers — 24 floors, 23 floors, and 17 floors — on a three-story podium.
Copper Mill
The fourth designs includes towers of similar height — 24, 13, and 15 stories — interlocked, rather than stepped down.
Copper Mill
While the heights are similar, if a few stories lower, than the original proposal, Copper Mill owner Andrew Flynn said they “completely redesigned the pedestrian realm and the podium with masonry and brick, as requested by the community.”
“The new designs explore a range of different dimensions, heights and massing expressions,” Flynn said in a statement. “In order to achieve the shared goals identified by the community – transit-oriented housing production, affordable housing production, 1,500+ union construction jobs, retention of existing retail tenants and multiple rent-free retail spaces for entrepreneurial small-business owners – density remains a key component of feasibility.”
Many Somerville residents strongly oppose the proposed development in the heart of Davis Square, affecting The Burren, Dragon Pizza, McKinnon’s Meat Market, Martsa on Elm, and Kung Fu Tea, some temporarily and others permanently.
At a community meeting last month, where Flynn vowed to produce new options for the development, residents booed at a rendering of the tower, criticized the unit mix of the building, and emphasized the importance of the neighborhood’s character.
Elaine Almquist, the president of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council, told The Boston Globe that some members of the organization are strongly opposed to the height.
“Some people are concerned about the height and don’t care about anything else,” she said, per the Globe. “There are people who have said things like, absolutely nothing over four stories, period.”
Molly Farrar is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on education, politics, crime, and more.
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