Boston PIC advances Harvard theater, two other projects to January 25 hearings

BOSTON — January 11, 2024 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission opened 2024 by advancing three public-way petitions to January 25 public hearings, deferring final votes on all. The largest item was a pedestrian easement and streetscape petition by Harvard University for 175 North Harvard Street in Brighton, where a new 80,000-square-foot mass timber building will house the American Repertory Theater; civil engineer John Schmidt of VHB confirmed the project's Limit of Municipal Involvement agreement has not yet been submitted but will be filed before the public hearing. Transportation Department representatives flagged that the proposed seven-foot bike lane falls below the city's seven-and-a-half-foot maintenance standard and asked Harvard's team to accept maintenance responsibility to resolve it. At 909 Massachusetts Avenue in Roxbury, Atlantic Oliver Mass LLC won initial support for reducing an approved sidewalk from roughly 11 feet to 7.2 feet along side-street Island Street. At 24 Dry Dock Avenue in South Boston, Cronin Dry Dock LLC and the BPDA navigated a novel question about whether a projection license is the right instrument for a canopy on ground-leased land not yet owned by the city — with BPDA counsel Matt Donovan calling the outcome "a model so that we can catch other problems" before the Rayflyn Marine Industrial Park streets transfer to city ownership.