Save the Shreve, Crump & Low Building

Show up to save Boston from Lord Vader

2008-07-18T20:19:00.000-04:00

Prevent the return of the Darth Vader Building!

Come to sign a petition against the city allowing the destruction of the Arlington Building and its neighbors and the subsequent construction of the Darth Vader Building Part II.

We will be collecting signatures and talking to Bostonians and anyone else from 2 pm on at Arlington and Boylston Streets.

MEETING - WEDNESDAY EVENING

2008-07-15T19:52:00.002-04:00

The BRA is hosting a meeting OPEN TO THE PUBLIC about the project tomorrow. It is crucial that there be a large showing from those of us who don't want to see this abomination go through.

Please, come to the meeting and let the city hear your voice tomorrow, Wednesday, at 6:30 PM:

BRA Public Meeting on 350 Boylston
Wednesday, July 16
6:30PM
Boston Public Library
Mezzanine Conference Room, 700 Boylston Street
Copley Square

If you can't make it -- all is not lost! You can still write Jay Rourke. He's in charge of granting the special permits needed to destroy buildings located in a historic zone, where buildings are supposed to be protected:

Jay Rourke, Boston Redevelopment Authority
Jay.Rourke.BRA@cityofboston.gov
One City Hall Square, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02201
617.918.4317
Close of Comment Period: August 1, 2008

2008-07-15T17:50:00.002-04:00

Time and again Boston has been gripped by the intense regret we feel after obliterating a piece of our heritage in order to suit the architectural fancies of the day. We need to look no further than the old West End, half of Chinatown or other areas that were razed for urban renewal projects from City Hall to the Central Artery that seemed great at the time.

Now, a developer wants to raze the Arlington Building to replace it with an office building. The city is pleased at the chance to have a new office building designed by Cesar Pelli.

But the Arlington Building is perched on an important corner and entry-point to one of the city's most historic, serene and popular attractions, the Public Garden. Established as the country's first botanic garden in 1836, the Public Garden has been deprived of much of its grace over the last 20 years as large, already-outdated developments have spoiled the intimate, timeless quality created by classic buildings like the Arlington Building.

If we continue to steal important patches of the architectural "tout ensemble" around the Public Garden, what will tomorrow's residents, workers and tourists see? The Arlington Street Church – and a row of buildings that could be in any office park in the country, from Rt. 128 to Kansas City. The wanton destruction of the city's assets will mean nothing but an acceleration in the alarming downward trend in Boston tourism and a drop in quality of life for the rest of us.

Cesar Pelli is a well-known architect, but it's impossible in today's economic climate to expect he will be able to build a classical palace with the sort of fine, handcarved touches and elegant metalwork the Arlington Building boasts.

To the contrary, Pelli's design looks like it crawled in off of a 1980s Waltham office park, with even the Boston Redevelopment Association calling it "cold" and in need of "enhancement."

All agree the needs of development can't be ignored. But even adaptive reuse of the Arlington Building – leaving the façade and reworking the interior for offices or condos, or adding floors on top as is happening nearby at the Modern Theater – would be a compromise that would leave the city with its architectural heritage and tenants with a comfortable, modern space. Buildings like the Hearst Tower and LVMH building in New York, the Filene's redevelopment or Russia Wharf show this sort of mixture of old and new can be done well, and profitably.

If the city really needed the offices Mr. Druker proposes, the building could feasibly be built on one of the city's many empty plots or surface parking lots (Mr. Druker himself owns one near a languishing Greenway park in Chinatown; its development would be a great boon to the park).

But with a recession coming and a record number of building projects and office space on the horizon, is it wise to raze the Arlington Building and its neighbors? What if financing runs out, or if building this on speculation fails to lead to tenants? This isn't Columbus Center, where financing issues means nobody gets hurt because the excavation was just done on the side of the road – here we may have a hole in the ground indefinitely, as has happened with the historic Gaiety Theater's site nearby.

The 103-year-old Arlington Building housed Shreve, Crump & Lowe, the oldest jeweler in North America, for nearly a century.

For 75 years, not only stiff-lipped Boston Brahmins but ambitious young immigrants, eager to buy their fiancé the most impressive engagement ring possible, came to the Arlington Building for the finest jewelry in Boston; the building remains as well-crafted as the earrings and necklaces they bought.

The jewelers who forged tennis' original Davis Cup and baseball's Cy Young Award would not decamp in just any building. And the Arlington Building, designed by William Rantoul, notable for his fin de siecle Boston and North Shore mansions, is not just any building, which is why I and anyone aware of this project cringes at the thought of its destruction.

Countless parking lots and ugly buildings dot all corners of the city – from prime downtown real estate to stretches of Boylston St. a stone's throw down the road to vast tracts of South Boston, Roxbury and Allston.

But we have to decide how to build for posterity. Pre-cast concrete-and-glass office buildings will be a welcome addition the Mass Pike or on the vast number of other sites now housing failed and ugly buildings or empty lots in any part of town. Boston's need is clearly to undo the ill effects of its fling with Modernism, not to return to it.

The destruction of a building of such quality and historical weight at a time of a slowing economy and a construction glut is cruel, wanton and gratuitous.

People in other parts of the country jealously say Boston has a European feel to it. Why? And what could change that? All you have to do is imagine all the buildings in Boston that are ornate, well-crafted beauties from an era when construction economics and aesthetic sense allowed for a kind of beauty that we'll never see again. Now imagine those buildings replaced with Modern ones. What you have is akin to a postwar Eastern European city, only razed by developers instead of invading armies. It instantly stops being interesting, disappointing tourists who had hoped for some connection to its famous past.

Unless the current state of new construction changes, buildings like the Arlington Building must be saved. If the city is willing to discard it and its kind, then given enough time Boston will be identical to any other American city. Highly paid, educated professionals who are increasingly picky about culture and a sense of place in their environment and who can live anywhere will exercise their right to move away. The Arlington Building is hardy, beautiful and historic. It is Boston.

Druker aims for towering rents at his next building

2008-02-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

Druker aims for towering rents at his next building

Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman
Friday, February 15, 2008

Ronald Druker isn't building the next John Hancock Tower. All the same, he hopes to charge as much for rent as the owners of one of Boston's best-known skyscrapers do.

While Druker is building a decidedly smaller building than the 60-story, 1.6 million-square-foot Hancock Tower, what his building lacks in stature it will make up for in location. The nine-story, 221,000-square-foot office building will sit on the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets diagonally across from the Public Garden and steps away from the Four Seasons Hotel.

Druker hopes his tower, designed by Argentine architect Cesar Pelli, will make a strong statement for years to come. The limestone and glass building still needs to be approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Druker also needs to satisfy the notoriously outspoken neighborhood groups.

While Druker's structure won't have the height of the Hancock, he plans to add a few extras that are sure to get tenants' attention. A few of the perks include a private health club for tenants only, valet parking, a doorman, a dog walker, concierge services, catering services, state-of-the-art security and 150 parking spaces.

Sound familiar? Many of the same tenant services are offered at Druker's award-winning residential, office and retail project Heritage on the Garden. He said the 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail will be designed like its sister property.

Druker said there's nothing like the type of full-service, boutique office building he plans on constructing in Boston -- at least not as new.

He hopes to break ground next summer and open sometime in 2011.

Druker said he's already received calls from interested tenants, but he won't start marketing the building for lease for at least another year.

"I'm not smart enough to know where things are going to be 18 months from now when we'll be doing our leasing," Druker said. "The dynamics of the office market in the Back Bay at this time and forecasting out into the future into 2011 are extremely solid."

And Druker is setting his sights on tenants that don't consider price an issue: star hedge fund advisers, private foundations and financial institutions.

So how much will it cost for boutique office space in the Back Bay?

Asked if his tenants would pay $100 per square foot, Druker replied, "I hope so."

"I have no idea whether that's a realistic expectation or not," he said. "The only thing I can say is our rents will be the highest in the city."

Link

Preservation's final plea

2008-02-03T20:58:00.000-05:00

Preservation's final plea
Deadline today to comment on Arlington Building to be demolished
Kristin Pitts BostonNOW Correspondent

It's out with the old and in with the ... office building - maybe.

Today is the last day for the public to weigh in with the Boston Redevelopment Authority on plans to demolish the Arlington Building, a 103-year-old art deco structure at the corner of Arlington and Boylston streets. It is the former home of famed jeweler Shreve, Crump & Low.

Developer Ronald Druker plans to knock down the Arlington Building and two neighboring structures, to build a nine-story luxury office building, complete with restaurant, spa and fitness club. But not everyone welcomes Druker's vision. Some worry the city is trading in a piece of history for a posh skyscraper.

"It's important to us that what goes up complements what's around it," said Sarah Kelly, Executive Director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, which had petitioned the Boston Landmarks Commission to designate the Arlington Building a historic landmark. The commission disagreed, saying the building doesn't meet landmark standards.

Now, Kelly and other activists hope the new structure will fit the feel of the Back Bay neighborhood.

"We would love to keep (the Arlington Building)," Jackie Yessian of the Neighborhood Association of Back Bay, said "But [Druker] has followed all the steps, so he's doing what he's allowed to do."

"We look forward to working with the community and reviewing all the public comments as we move forward with the development review process," said Boston Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman Jessica Shumaker.

Calls to the Druker Company were not returned, yesterday.

To comment on plans for the Arlington Building site, contact BRA Project Manager Jay Rourke by 5 p.m. Friday at: jay.rourke.bra@cityofboston.gov

Correction: The first version of this story listed the incorrect e-mail address for Jay Rourke.
Published on January 31, 2008

The Druker Co. has proposed this mixed-use building for lower Boylston Street overlooking the Boston Public Garden.

2008-01-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

The Druker Co. has proposed this mixed-use building for lower Boylston Street overlooking the Boston Public Garden.

Residents of Boston’s Back Bay got their first glimpse of the proposed redevelopment of 330 Boylston St. and they liked it.

“It’s an impressive start,” said Myron Miller, a member of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay.

More than four dozen people gathered at the Boston Public Library on Thursday night to hear details of the 221,230-square-foot building planned for the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets.

If approved, owner Ronald Druker, president of The Druker Co., will raze the former the former Shreve Crump & Low location and build eight floors of Class A office space with ground-floor retail and 150 below-grade parking spaces.

The ground level will feature a granite façade while the rest of the building will be comprised of cast stone, a product that is used to replicate the look of limestone. The contemporary-style building also will feature bay windows trimmed with wood and bronze.

While NABB’s Miller was supportive, he noted that the concept could be “even better for the city of Boston.” However, he asked whether there was a need for 150 parking spaces given that the spots are reserved for tenants only.

“The building is being expanded and it will add more vehicles and traffic to a severely congested section of the city,” he said.

In response, David Black, the team’s traffic consultant from Watertown-based Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., said they erred on the low side in terms of parking supply.

“If you compare this building with another Back Bay building that is in line with these existing travel patterns, we are not providing as aggressive parking,” Black said.

Elliott Laffer, another NABB member, asked whether there would be enough sidewalk space to accommodate the added retail and office use at the site.

“We are not talking about the John Hancock building,” said Druker. “The reality is that crowded sidewalks are good sidewalks; they enhance public realm. Go walk on Newbury Street the first day the temperate reaches 60 degrees and you can barely walk without hitting someone.”

Daniel Donahue, representing the nearby Lenox Hotel, applauded the project. “We are excited. We fully support it,” he said.

Source: Back Bay Residents Impressed by Druker Plan - By Thomas Grillo, Banker & Tradesman

BRA Gets Chance to Consider Druker’s Plan for Shreve Site

2008-01-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

BRA Gets Chance to Consider Druker’s Plan for Shreve Site
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter

Rendering courtesy Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and CBT Architects
This artist’s rendering depicts the 221,230-square-foot, mixed-use building that The Druker Co. has proposed for lower Boylston Street in Boston.

As Back Bay residents battle construction of a pair of towers at the Prudential Center, a developer has filed plans to replace a former jewelry store overlooking the Boston Public Garden with a 9-story building.

Ronald Druker, president of The Druker Co., hopes to build a 221,230-square-foot building at Boylston and Arlington streets. If approved, it would include eight floors of Class A offices, 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 6,000-square-foot health spa and below-grade parking. Banker & Tradesman was the first to report the proposal last fall.

According to a filing with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city planning agency that must approve the mixed-use development, Druker would raze the former Shreve Crump & Low building at 330 Boylston St. and three other structures – his company owns all four – to make way for the new block.

“The project will improve retail vitality and provide first-class office space in a highly visible and accessible location,” states the document filed with the BRA. “The area will be enhanced by the urban design and architectural character provided by a new signature building designed by world-class architects who are sensitive to its architectural neighbors, including the Arlington Street Church and the Public Garden.”

In addition, the project summary said the building’s proposed design will “capitalize” on the unique site. “A corner location provides a unique opportunity … With diagonal views and frontage on the Public Garden is a singular opportunity that the design addresses by placing a unique, rounded glazed bay, which emphasizes and reinforces the importance of this prime location,” the document states.

The ground level will feature a granite facade with wooden storefronts and a lobby entry. Sidewalk improvements along Boylston Street will be consistent with the city’s standards for the neighborhood, the document said. The new development is expected to generate $1.8 million in annual property taxes and $1.1 million in linkage funds to the city.

The BRA has established an Impact Advisory Group to review the proposal. The 13-member panel appointed by officials will consider mitigation impacts caused by the development. A public meeting on the plan is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Boston Public Library.

Mark Slater, an IAG member, said he was not impressed by the rendering of the proposed building. “It looks like a rectangular brick building and I have no idea whether the project has merit or not,” he said.

Slater, a former president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, said he also is concerned about the construction of another large building on Boylston Street.

“We are worried that the BRA is effectively allowing the larger boulevards in Boston to be turned into concrete canyons,” he said. “I worry that’s what the Druker building will do to lower Boylston Street. I am not opposed to new construction and I realize that some will have to be tall. But the scale and intimacy in Boston are being thrown out the window for the sake of real estate taxes.”

Jessica Shumaker, a BRA spokeswoman, declined to answer Slater’s charges. Instead she said, “We look forward to meeting with the community and hearing their thoughts and concerns on the project.”

‘A Real Plus’

John Shope, another IAG member, noted that the former jewelry store is vacant and he favors active retail on the ground floor at the site.

“This will be a prominent building in a prominent location,” he said. “I like the idea of having an attractive building with lots of people coming and going, and lots of retail. It could be a real plus for the city.”

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he likes what he’s seen so far, but like any project it will require community review.

“It has a ways to go before the BRA approves it, but it certainly looks like something that will meet the muster of the neighborhoods,” Menino said.

Druker’s Boston-based real estate company is best known for its large, urban mixed-use developments. One of its most recent projects is Atelier|505, a mixed-use development adjacent to the Boston Center for the Arts, at Tremont and Berkeley streets. It opened two years ago with 103 units of luxury condominiums, shops and restaurants.

In addition, the company has completed the Heritage on the Garden, an upscale complex on Boylston Street that features residential, retail and office suites across from the Public Garden. In 1971, the firm built the Colonnade Hotel on Huntington Avenue.

Druker’s proposal comes as several projects are in the works for the Back Bay and the Prudential Center. The Clarendon, a luxury condominium and apartment tower, is under construction near the John Hancock Tower. In addition, the 13-story Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel is scheduled to open this summer next to Lord & Taylor on Boylston Street. The $230 million project will add 168 guestrooms and the property will be part of a mixed-use complex with first-floor retail and condominiums on the upper floors.

Another proposal that has not yet been filed with the BRA is a new tower at Copley Place. The Simon Property Group is considering a mix of condominiums and retail uses in front of the Neiman Marcus store at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets. At the other end of the Back Bay, Berklee College of Music is considering plans for a dormitory.

Earlier this year, Boston Properties and Avalon Bay Communities filed plans for a $192 million proposal that calls for a 35-story residential high-rise on Exeter Street across from the Boston Public Library and construction of a 19-story office building at 888 Boylston St., adjacent to the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention. The plan has faced fierce opposition from neighbors who say the buildings are out of scale in the historic neighborhood.

Opulence is key to new office project

2007-11-07T20:52:00.002-05:00

Opulence is key to new office project
Premier address demands a singular design, architect says

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | November 7, 2007

As usual, Ronald Druker has an idea for something different in real estate.

The developer who brought opulent living to Boston with Heritage on the Garden is now planning to build ultra high-end office space at the corner of Boylston and Arlington streets, at the former location of Shreve Crump & Low.

"If there are luxury hotels and luxury residences, this will be a luxury office building," Druker said yesterday.

His proposal, to be filed with city regulators today, is for a 210,000-square-foot building made with expensive finishes, high ceilings, and other touches more commonly found on residential properties - such as terraces on top floors.

The property is being designed by a noted architect, Cesar Pelli.

With a premiere address diagonally across from the Public Garden, the location deserves a singular design, Pelli said.

"This is a special project," he said yesterday. "To be working in this very critical part of Boston, doing a small delicate building, it has to be just right."

Pelli, whose office is in New Haven, is known for buildings from the towering Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to the Museum of Modern Art residential tower in New York. He has also designed a 40-story glass tower that is expected to be built soon over South Station in Boston.

A watercolor of Pelli's and Druker's concept shows granite and wood on the first floor, with 7-foot-square windows on upper floors, framed in light gray limestone. The building would have prominent bays of floor-to-ceiling glass, with black metal panels separating the floors.

Pelli described the style as "modern contextual," but added, "I'm making it up on the spot. It will be a very Bostonian building." Pelli will also design a lobby on Boylston, which he said would be of "wood and marble and subdued colors."

The window bays, with specially designed curved-glass corners, would maximize the views. "We really concentrated on bringing the Public Garden into the building," Druker said.

The members of the team also knew they did not want another building made of brick.

"When we developed Heritage on the Garden, we had a spirit and fervor that we had to do something very well," Druker said. "This is probably the last site on the Public Garden, and we feel the same responsibility."

To make way, Druker intends to raze the Arlington Building, former home of Shreve's, and three lesser structures. Shreve's has moved up Boylston Street to the corner of Berkeley.

While the demolition may prove to be unpopular in the neighborhood, Druker chose to make the new building, at nine floors, smaller than what he is allowed to build under current zoning.

The building will boast 150 parking spaces underground, and a fitness club and fine restaurant on the ground floor, along with retail space to complement the upscale shops across Arlington at Heritage on the Garden.

He expects to market the office space to international bankers, hedge-fund managers, venture capitalists, family foundations, and perhaps law firms that want a pricey home on the Public Garden. How pricey? "We will certainly be at the top of the market," he said.

Druker, who built and quickly sold out the swank Atelier|505 luxury condominiums in the South End, as well as apartment residences next to his Colonnade Hotel in the Back Bay, said he believes Boston's vastly improved office market will still be in good shape in early 2011, when he expects to complete the latest project.

The third generation in the family business, Druker had not previously met Pelli. But he wrote to the Argentine-born architect and the pair later toured the Back Bay, Public Garden, and roofs of the buildings in the area.

"We talked about doing a gray-flannel suit," Druker said, "like Cary Grant, in terms of what is elegance and style, and what also is Boston."

http://www.boston.com/business/globe...ffice_project/

Shreve building's days may be numbered

2007-10-12T20:52:00.000-04:00

Shreve building's days may be numbered
Developer planning new stores, offices at site in Back Bay

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | October 12, 2007

Developer Ronald Druker is planning a new office and retail complex for the site of the Shreve, Crump & Low building at Boylston and Arlington streets in the Back Bay, a sentimental favorite that some Bostonians want to preserve.

Druker wants to tear down the 103-year-old Shreve building on the corner and three others he owns on Boylston Street, including the Women's Educational and Industrial Union building. He would replace them with "a landmark for the next century or beyond," he said yesterday.

Druker was reluctant to discuss details before he submits formal plans to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. But he acknowledged the plans call for building to the maximum height allowed, at least 90 feet.

A year ago, about 30 city residents petitioned the Boston Landmarks Commission for a hearing to designate the Shreve building, erected in 1904 as the Bryant and Stratton Commercial School for women, as a landmark. That would have protected the facade, with its elaborate Art Deco portion, added when Shreve moved in around 1930, and an original decorative cornice.

But the commission voted against even holding a hearing, saying that the architect was not particularly significant and that, while the building has local importance, it lacks renown be yond Boston.

To be designated a landmark, a building must have "historical, social, cultural, architectural, or aesthetic significance to the city and the Commonwealth, the New England region, or the nation," executive director Ellen J. Lipsey wrote, in turning down the petitioners' request in October 2006.

In July, the Landmarks Commission voted, after a hearing, not to give landmark status to the Dainty Dot, an old industrial building on the edge of Chinatown. Developer Ori Ron plans to build a residential tower there, retaining a few exterior walls, but neighbors are continuing to push for preservation of more of the structure.

Shreve, Crump & Low, established in 1796, for decades was the place where the Yankee elite shopped for jewelry, silver, and gifts to celebrate the high points of their lives.

Shreve has moved a block away, to the corner of Boylston and Berkeley streets, and is operating after being bought out of bankruptcy.

Its former building is empty but remains important, said Tim Ian Mitchell, an architect and spokesman for the group of Boston residents who want to save it.

Besides wanting to preserve the work of the architect who added the ground floor decoration, Mitchell said, the group believes that "Shreve's has made outstanding contributions to the cultural, social, and economic history of New England."

"For luxury goods, it was the place of choice for families of wealth," he said.

Although it is not unprecedented for groups to try to make their case a second time, Mitchell said he would wait to see what Druker proposes before deciding whether to continue to fight for the building.

"With Mr. Druker, there's some possibility he can actually bring something to this part of the city that will be noteworthy and significant," Mitchell said. "I couldn't say that for everybody."

Druker developed the Heritage on the Common residences and more recently the Atelier | 505 condominiums in the South End.

The Arlington Building, as it was known, actually extended to the east in the early years, when a railroad station occupied the area and separated downtown from the Back Bay. Part of the complex was amputated when Arlington Street was extended, and the wall along Arlington was extensively reconstructed, with new windows, to make it consistent with the front, at 330 Boylston.

"That advance of connecting Boston, making the transition from sleepy little town to modern urban center, was really significant," Mitchell said.

Druker, a third-generation builder in Boston, said merging the new and the old usually doesn't work well.

"A new building well executed by a local developer who cares about the city, designed by a fine architect, will be far better than to create a 'facadectomy' that is not good architecture or good design," he said.

"The Arlington Building is a nice building," Druker said. "It is not, however, a landmark. Lincoln didn't deliver the Gettysburg Address there."

Link

Site May Prove to Be A Jewel in the Rough

2007-09-26T20:50:00.000-04:00

Site May Prove to Be A Jewel in the Rough
New Building to Replace Former Shreve, Crump & Low; Possible Uses Include Luxury Condos, Class A Offices
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter

B&T staff photo by Thomas Grillo
The Shreve, Crump & Low building at 330 Boylston St. may be
razed to make way for offices or luxury condominiums.

The art deco building that housed an upscale jeweler on Boylston Street could become the next site for luxury condominiums or Class A office space.

Ronald M. Druker, president of The Druker Co., which owns the Shreve, Crump & Low building across from the Boston Public Garden, could not be reached for comment. But City Councilor Michael Ross, who has been briefed on the proposal, said the 5-story mid-rise is expected to be replaced by a new building.

While details of the project have not been filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city’s planning and development agency, Ross said whatever is built on the site will be in keeping with the company’s reputation for construction that is sensitive to the neighborhood.

“Ron Druker has done development in that area and knows what it means to build near the Public Garden,” said Ross, who met with the developer recently to discuss the project. “He’s done it before and done it successfully and he has an understanding and respect for the Back Bay neighborhood.”

But not everyone is convinced that Druker will listen to neighbors.

John Herbert, past president of the Ellis South End Neighborhood Association, said the group was shut out of discussions for Druker’s Atelier|505. The mixed-use development adjacent to the Boston Center for the Arts, at Tremont and Berkeley streets, opened two years ago with 103 units of luxury condominiums, shops and restaurants.

“I’m not sure who to blame – Druker, the BRA or the BCA – but it was clear that none of them wanted our input,” Herbert recalled. “We wanted to participate in planning the building because we had a number of suggested improvements, but Druker had his agenda and the BCA had theirs and neither wanted to hear from anyone. It was very difficult.”

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino told Banker & Tradesman that Druker’s proposal is “interesting.”

“What I saw fits the zoning guidelines in that neighborhood,” Menino said. “It has some steps to go, but it certainly looks like a product that will meet the muster of the community. The plan will have to go before the community before it’s approved.”

Druker’s Boston-based real estate company is known for its large, urban mixed-use projects. In addition to Atelier|505, the company has completed the Heritage on the Garden, an upscale complex on Boylston Street that features residential, retail and office suites across from the Public Garden. In 1971, the firm built the Colonnade Hotel on Huntington Avenue.

‘Vulnerable’ Buildings

Timothy Mitchell, an architect who lives and works in Boston’s Back Bay, said residents are sure to be concerned about the height of any building at the Shreve location. With height comes shadows, he said, that could be cast onto the Public Garden, lower Boylston Street and Commonwealth Avenue.

“When you think about how the sun moves, a tall building there on this low-rise Back Bay neighborhood will not only put homes in the dark but historically significant buildings are also vulnerable,” he said. “And that would certainly change their architectural significance.”

Susan Prindle, chairwoman of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay’s Architecture Committee, said she met with Druker a year ago when he wanted to build an office tower at the Shreve site. But since then, the two have not spoken, she said.

Prindle was one of three dozen residents who petitioned the Boston Landmarks Commission last fall to designate the Shreve building as a landmark. In its 10-page request, neighbors argued that the 103-year-old building is a “rare example of an early 20th century eclectic style that combines themes from several historic styles into one.” The 5-story Shreve does not overshadow its neighbor, the Arlington Street Church, or the Public Garden, according to the document. The architect, William G. Rantoul, was well known for his many luxurious homes and estates, the residents wrote.

In addition, the group cited the storied jeweler’s history, noting that Shreve, Crump & Low is America’s oldest jeweler. Founded in 1796, the first store was first located at Washington and Summer streets. In 1929, it moved from Downtown Crossing to 330 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.

But the commission rejected the application. The panel noted that the petitioners could file for landmark status again if they found further evidence of the building’s significance.

The proposal comes as several projects are in the works for the Back Bay and the Prudential Center. The Clarendon, another luxury condominium and apartment tower, is under construction near the John Hancock Tower. In addition, the 13-story Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel is scheduled to open next year next to Lord & Taylor on Boylston Street. The $230 million project will add 168 guestrooms and the property will be part of a mixed-use complex with first-floor retail and condominiums on the upper floors.

Another proposal that has not yet been filed with the BRA yet is a new tower at Copley Place. The Simon Property Group is considering a mix of condos and retail uses in front of the Neiman Marcus store at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets. At the other end of the Back Bay, Berklee College of Music has discussed plans for a high- rise dormitory in the neighborhood.

Earlier this month, Boston Properties and Avalon Bay Communities filed plans for a $192 million proposal that calls for a 30-story residential high-rise on Exeter Street across from the Boston Public Library and construction of an office building at 888 Boylston St., adjacent to the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention.

Some members of the Prudential Project Advisory Committee (PruPAC), a group formed in the 1980s by former Mayor Ray Flynn to advise City Hall on development proposals in the neighborhood, already have expressed concern about the height and density of the Prudential Center initiatives. While PruPAC has encouraged construction of the residential tower on Exeter Street, some members are asking whether a high-rise across from the library makes sense for the historic neighborhood.

Mark Slater, president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, said he is concerned that all new construction of condominiums is reserved for the very wealthy.

“I’m not sure what the city needs is another vertical gated community,” he said.