Friday, August 28, 2009

Where Once A Dogwood Grew, A Building Nears Completion

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The sweet little corner garden that once graced Smith Street at the corner of Warren
in May 2008, the day construction scaffolding went up.



And the same corner now!





Agreed! As far as new buildings go, 311 Warren/180 Smith is not as bad as some. The brick façade, though lacking any detail around the windows, looks all right. However, the set-backs make it tower over the much lower neighboring row houses on Smith.
Construction on the new building looks almost done. Yesterday, workers were balancing on the top level, working on the air conditioning units. It remains to be seen what exterior treatment the top floors will get.
For decades, that same corner was the home of a beautiful dogwood and of a red leaf maple, which grew there undisturbed for decades. It seemed like a little oasis on Smith Street, like a pleasant surprise, as one walked down the block, the sky opening wide above.

I miss that garden.





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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Walking down Smith Street in the hot summer is the pits. No trees. Sorry we lost this little haven.

Anonymous said...

I wonder when set-backs were invented. We have so many cropping up in our nabe. Street-level they give the illusion of lower height buildings, but they really do alter/destroy the sense of scale in a neighborhood in, I feel, a sneaky way.

Kelly said...

Well said. It does feel rather sneaky. Besides, most set backs just look odd.