Fenway site eyed for open space
Samuels & Associates plans to start construction this summer on an approximately one-acre park that would replace a parking lot in front of its Landmark Center property in Boston’s Fenway that’s scheduled for expansion.
The open space will include lawn areas, trees, walking paths, and a restaurant at Park Drive and Brookline Avenue.
Samuels, which has been working with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department on the design, needs a sliver of land from the city to complete the project, according to principal Peter Sougarides. The former owner of the property gave the needed 7,800-square-foot parcel to the city in the 1940s for a rotary design that never materialized.
Samuels hopes to finish the park by next summer.
More details are expected in the next two months or so on Samuels’ plans to expand Landmark Center, a 1.5-million-square-foot property with retail, office space, and parking in the former Sears building.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority in 2014 approved Samuels’ plans for a $650 million expansion that was to include 550 new housing units, 110,000 square feet of retail including a 75,000-square-foot Wegmans supermarket, 15,000 square feet of additional office space and an underground 1,500-space parking garage.
Samuels is modifying those plans, partly to respond to market conditions for the different uses, according to Sougarides, who declined to reveal details.
Asked about plans for the Wegmans, Sougarides replied, “We’re still working though that. There are some physical changes to the building that are changing how we do the retail.”