The following commentary was submitted by Crosstown Art in the North End, regarding the design of the new construction at 124-126 Salem Street.
The chrysanthemum pattern of the railings are decorative, ornate as wrought iron often is at the whim of the artist who weaves it; look at any building in the neighborhood whose fire escapes are unusual and whose copper stampings are remarkable, ornamental and sometimes bizarre.
The flower has cultural significance to the owner of the building. It was painstakingly explained by Frano Violich who designed it at several community meetings and met with approval of residents, for more reasons than its appearance at first glance.
The ground floor provides for commercial tenants to change over time, a pattern that used to be part of vibrant and characteristic life in this neighborhood before every square inch of indoor space was turned into a dwelling.
This building has a carbon negative structure, the wood used to build it was harvested by the Forest Stewardship Council, effectively it keeps almost 100 million tons of CO2 from going back into the environment.
Since we are soon doing away with the Clean Air Act, and removing regulations from vehicle pollution we will need more buildings like it if we want to continue to breathe.
Wake up and smell the chrysanthema.
What were they/you thinking?!
It is only the “busy” wrought iron that I object to. The structure itself is fine. Quite pretty brick work actually.
It all comes down to what the City of Boston allows. Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder. I don’t particularly
care for that rod iron display, but I am not living there. I like different looks and I really don’t think anyone
should be forced to keep building the same typical brick buildings most of us live in.
I think it gave Salem Street a different look, clean & fresh. I would eliminate the rod iron, but this is not my
project & if makes the developer happy, that’s all that matters. I hope more developers break away from the
typical look of having the same brick buildings, without the rod iron display, hopefully.
Lest anyone believe I was trying to hide anonymously behind the moniker “Crosstown Art”, I did in fact pen the above, and ended it with “chrysanthema”, believing in fact that this was the plural of “chrysanthemum”.
Sorry about the spell check, I changed it back to “chrysanthema.”
Aside from this building, one of the worst buildings constructed in the North End in the last 40 years is 77 Salem Street. There is is nothing “historic” or aesthetic about the structure and it interrupted the row of street-level shops. I wish it could be demolished and rebuilt to fit the character of the neighborhood.