Waterworks revival
In a nod to their heritage, historic pumping stations in Chestnut Hill get new life
Across from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and busy Beacon Street are a trio of architectural marvels that once were so neglected they seemed to have faded into the surrounding tree line. The buildings are the Chestnut Hill Waterworks, 19th century pumping stations and an accompanying carriage house, that were designed in an era when building great public works also meant producing great public structures and spaces.
One building is designed in the rich Romanesque revival style popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson; another, finished in white Indiana limestone, is a gorgeous example of the Beaux Arts style of the day. The stone carriage house, meanwhile, features a continuous ribbon of transom windows just under the roofline.
As part of a progressive urban planning ethos of the era, the area included the city's first large pastoral park, a carriage road and greenway around the reservoir. And the landscape was designed by the sons of famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who were notable designers in their own right.
After decades of use, though, the buildings were taken out of regular service in the 1970s and fell into disuse. The pump houses and their contents were designated in 1998 as one of the state's 10 most endangered historic resources by the non profit Preservation Massachusetts.
The property remained captive to its owners -- and fans, for that matter -- for years. The site remained in service, which kept it from being easily redeveloped. The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, for example, continued to use the property for storage and other purposes. Moreover, the government had difficulty plotting a disposition of the property, a cumbersome process in the best of circumstances, without a clear signal from community supporters about how the Waterworks should be redeveloped. The cost, at times, to revive the buildings was prohibitive without some major investment from private interests.
That eventually did come, and now, after years of little progress, the Waterworks buildings have finally been renovated in a style that rivals the buildings' original architectural achievements. In the hands of developer Merrill H. Diamond and the firm of Cambridge architect Graham Gund, the Waterworks buildings have been converted into stylish -- and expensive -- condominiums, some with killer views, and a museum that preserves the facilities' industrial heritage, including displays of some of the mighty pump engines that moved water from the adjacent reservoir.
Diamond's redevelopment work, said Eva Webster, president of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir Coalition and an activist who has been involved in the preservation of the Waterworks since the 1980s, ``is re-creating public and private spaces that are really striking and work beautifully with the reservoir."
Diamond has a deep background in historic preservation and conversion of historic properties; he redeveloped the former 1851 Norfolk County Jail, a sturdy granite block of a structure that once housed anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.
Diamond's firm, Diamond/Sinacori Real Estate Development, and development partner Edward Fish of EA Fish Associates were selected by a state agency three years ago to redevelop the properties based on what he believes was the imaginative package of community benefits the team proposed. ``We plan to restore the surrounding neighborhood to reflect the original pastoral vision of the Olmsted brothers," he said.
Diamond's company is chipping in $1.1 million for improvements along Beacon Street, including removing the rusted iron fence along the edge of the reservoir and new Victorian-style street lighting. The decorative fountain in front of the site is working for the first time in decades.
Diamond is even lobbying state officials to allow nonmotorized boating on the reservoir -- which functions nowadays only as an emergency water supply rather than an active reservoir.
The project includes 112 condos over four buildings, including a new structure designed by DiMella Shaffer Associates, in a style that Diamond said is reminiscent of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Diamond said the state agency that solicited the redevelopment proposals ``was very specific about new construction not being purely derivative but rather complementary to the existing structures."
The existing buildings include the Romanesque High Service Station, designed by Arthur Vinal and completed in 1888. It included a complement of gigantic steam engines that pumped water to those expanding areas of Boston that were at higher elevations. The rich stone building will now host museum space for the historic engines, a cafe, and several residential units that will be up to 5,000 square feet, and which can be extensively customized by buyers.
The Beaux Arts Low Service Station was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the architects of Boston's South Station, and it performed a similar pumping function for those city neighborhoods at lower elevations. Dubbed Whitehall, the renovated space will have 20 condominiums.
The former carriage house will feature seven condominiums.
The new building will host the bulk of the condominiums -- 81 one- to three-bedroom units that will have modern styling inside, including stainless steel appliances and marble baths. Some units will have views of the reservoir; others on the upper floors will offer views to downtown Boston.
For the architectural buffs and community activists who labored for years to preserve Waterworks, the renovation has been ideal.
``The siting of the new building and the overall plans for the project are all things we have worked for over the years and we are pleased with the results," said Webster. ``The biggest prize is the fact that these two great historic pumping stations and the stable building are now being renovated and put to good use," she added.
The units are priced from around $600,000 to somewhere north of $4 million, and the first, in the new building, will be ready for occupancy in a few weeks.
With the real estate market mired in a slump and new construction in particular having trouble selling, the timing of the completion of the Waterworks project would seem to be bad. Yet Diamond said his team has already sold 80 percent of the condos in the development -- none at reduced prices.
To Diamond, it all comes down to that old real estate mantra, location: ``Our worst views are most developments' best views." 