Designed for Healthier Living, Fenway Center’s Bower Opens for Leasing
Who doesn’t want to live in a healthier home? Given the amount of time we’ve spent in our domiciles because of COVID-19, a healthy home is even more paramount.
Back when Portland, Ore.-based Gerding Edlen took over Bower, the residential component of Boston’s new Fenway Center, healthier living was already among its priorities.
“These are things that are becoming more important,” said Kelly Saito, managing partner at Gerding Edlen. “Six months ago people may not have been so aware, but they are now.”
The first of these two residential buildings that mark phase one of Fenway Center, is now leasing. Building 2 is expected to be on target for a September completion. Combined, the buildings add 312 apartments to the Fenway.
Building one is an eight-story mid-rise with 100 apartments; building two is a 14-story high-rise tower with 212 homes. All of the apartments have a similar open-plan design, but building one offers slightly larger homes, ranging from studios at 410 square feet to a loft-like 700 square feet (rents start at $2,550 per month) to two-bedrooms from 1,150 square feet to 1,264 square feet (rents for these start at $5,000 per month).
One visual difference is building one’s darker-colored engineered wood flooring and lighter cabinetry; building two reverses that process with lighter flooring and dark cabinets.
More important, the flooring is FloorScore certified, which means low toxic off-gassing. The apartments also include energy-efficient features and View Inc.’s tinted, dynamic Smart Windows, which the company contends reduce eye strain, drowsiness, and headaches and cut energy consumption by up to 20 percent.
Smart Windows are part of the twin-towered residential development’s biophilic design, which aims to retain natural elements proven to boost a resident’s health and happiness.
(Read more about Bower’s biophilia.)
Creature comforts are key, of course, and both buildings have amenities such as lounges and roof decks. Building two will have a shared rooftop pool and a gym.
“The roof decks have phenomenal views into Fenway Park and over to the river, and even the ocean on a clear day,” Saito said, but you can’t actually watch a game live. “You can see the scoreboard, not the players.”
Both buildings are pet friendly, and while building two will include a dog-washing station, building one will have a rooftop dog run. Both are open to all residents.
Underneath, building one’s ground level retail space is completed, as is one level of underground parking. The second parking level and building two’s retail should be finished by September. Parking costs $405 per spot per month.
Bower marks the first phase of the still-in-progress Fenway Center mixed-use development abutting Lansdowne Station on the commuter rail and an easy walk from Kenmore Square’s T station. Still, Bower supports pedal power with 160 bicycle parking spaces and a bike repair and wash station. It includes 10 electric vehicle charging stations, too.
Read the full article on Boston.com.
