Pricey condos now taking shape in former Boston police station

By Tina Cassidy, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005

Panos Demeter is sitting on a white, molded-plastic chair near a fluffy fur ottoman and a rococo mirror that keeps flashing the word ''sexy" in pink neon. So when he talks about being part of the development team that is turning the South End's former Area D-4 police station on Berkeley Street into 26 condos, it's easy to be distracted by all of the decorating surrounding him in the project's nearby model unit.

In fact, even Demeter seems a bit taken by the freshly done mock space at 544 Tremont St., pausing to choose whether to plunk down on the white low-slung couch, a purple Italianate settee with silver trim, or a wooden African stool, all specially chosen and meticulously arranged by design impresario Philippe Starck.

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The question is: Will the eye-popping, brand-name design validate the eye-popping prices, ranging from $700,000 to more than $2 million with square footage of 750 to 2,000? Will the Starck imprimatur attract paying customers the same way the building's seedy history -- and its new mission to provide quiet, stylish housing -- appealed to Starck's own unusual sense of humor?

''He said he did it because he thought he could make a difference," Demeter says of the French industrial designer's agreement to work on the relatively small project. ''Because it was a police station!"

Indeed, somewhere between the wide-ranging concierge services offered by Atelier |505 next door and the $5.25 million brownstone listed around the corner on Union Park, brokers say there's room in the market for something different, albeit high-end.

More than a year before the project is expected to be completed, developers earlier this month released the first six condos for sale, listed with Gibson Domain Domain, and four have deposits on them. (Three two-bedroom units will be sold for about $180,000 to families generally earning less than $60,000. An application process and a lottery for those will begin early next year.)

''People like the new and old -- and humor," says Stephen Chung, an architect with the Boston design/development firm Urbanica, which is one of three partners in what they're calling YooD4 by Starck. The other partners are Demeter Development Group of Boston and Yoo Ltd., Starck's development company in London.

Indeed, when YooD4 is completed, the jail cells will have been replaced by an enclosed four-story, ivy-covered courtyard with Starck's trademark oversize flower pots and a giant crystal chandelier. The former firing range will be enveloped by a modern addition, the bedroom level for some duplexes. The roof will be eco-friendly green. There will be bike storage, a solar energy system, and a foyer with a sleek fireplace. Only the original brick Greek Revival exterior, circa 1932, will remain unaltered.

''With the splendor of these buildings you wouldn't want to see a wrecking ball come in and demolish them," said Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

As for Starck, the job is not his first in Boston. He recently waved his magic wand over the common areas at Parris Landing, a rebranded condo building in the Charlestown Navy Yard, where Starck's oversize sculptures, including a rubber duck, pacifier, and teacup and saucer, will soon be installed in the atrium. In an interview with the Globe last year, Starck said items such as the pacifier will serve to remind people they are home. There have been $100 million in sales at Parris Landing since it reopened last September.

''The difference between Charlestown and D4 is that Starck is designing the model parameters, choosing the type of marble, bamboo flooring, lighting fixtures, Venetian mirrors, and cabinetry," Chung says. ''He also brought a theme to the product."

The theme centers on the home as oasis, which is why the courtyard -- evocative of Starck's design at the Hudson hotel in New York City -- took on such importance. The building never had a courtyard and by removing several floors of its core, the project lost potential sales.

''We were willing to sacrifice internal space for the beauty of the building," Demeter says. ''We're trying to bring serenity to an urban setting and the irony is it's in a police station."

YooD4 has two option design packages: Nature, with grainy teak kitchen cabinets and Cervaiole marble bathrooms, for example; and Urban, with slate tile in the baths and white lacquer cabinets in the kitchen. The former is more expensive. Although Starck designed the condos down to the soap niches above the tubs, the kitchens were designed by Antonio Citterio for Arclinea.

Still, as aggressive as the design might be, it could have been more so. One early concept was to have glowing sheep -- fake ones -- grazing on the roof.

As Chung recalls: ''Starck said, 'Wait. People have to live there.' "

Tina Cassidy can be reached at cassidy@globe.com.
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