In an effort to build up the city’s arts base, Mayor Thomas Menino and officials from the Boston Redevelopment Authority unveiled the completion of the ArtBlock project in Boston’s South End, an attempt to attract artists to stay in the city despite rising housing costs.
The project, a complex that consists of two five-story condominium buildings and a newly renovated arts center with gallery and work space, is part of the Mayor’s Artist Space Initiative and has taken nearly five years to complete. The new buildings, which are on land donated by BRA, are meant to offer affordable living and working space for area artists close to the Joshua Bates Arts Resource Center, where the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held.
“Today is an exciting day for the city’s arts community and the South End neighborhood,” Menino said in prepared remarks for the event. “Not only does this project advance the city’s overall housing goals, it addresses the very specific and unique needs of the artist community.”
Twenty-six of the 52 newly available apartment spaces were sold at one-third of the current market price to artists selected through a lottery system, and the remaining units were made available to the public at market price, starting around $500 per month.
Developers, architects and lenders who worked on the project attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, along with art community members, and said it is important to maintain an artistic atmosphere in any city.
“We all know that art is important to a city,” said Peter Urban, who was one of the original on-site artists at the Bates Center before the city developed the ArtBlock. “It draws people. It keeps people here.”
Peter Roth, president of New Atlantic Development Corporation, said Boston’s college students would likely be drawn to the project’s new gallery, which was designed so it can be viewed from the street.
“I’m sure they’ll be attracted to the South End for its incredible amount of energy, and this gallery will be a part of that,” he said.
Roth said the project’s market-rate units have drawn interest from employees and graduate students involved with Boston University’s medical and dental programs, because the BU Medical Center is located across the street from the site. The development, Roth said, will also appeal to workers who have homes in the suburbs but would prefer to live closer to work.
“It’s not a requirement for the buyers of market-rate units to be artists,” said Brian Goldson, construction director of NADC. “But many of them have been, so [ArtBlock residents] are more than 50 percent artists.”