The Residences at 566,
566 Columbus Avenue, South End, Boston, MA
New Boston Ventures is redeveloping 566 Columbus Avenue, at the corner of Mass. Ave. with a new, six-story vibrant mixed-use commercial and residential building. The project will feature a community-oriented ground floor with approximately 5,000 square feet of commercial space, including a social enterprise café with outdoor seating, an art exhibit gallery open to the public, and new, improved, and modern community space for the United South End Settlements. The approved project will contain 66 residential homeownership units, 11 of which will be artist live/workspaces, and 42 below-grade parking spaces.
Currently on the site sits the Harriett Tubman House, the first major commission for Don Stull – then, one of only a dozen African-American architects in the nation – who won awards with the Tubman House and went on to design Boston’s award-winning Ruggles Street subway station and the new police department headquarters. Its external walls on Columbus Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue are decorated with a mural depicting the ethnically diverse history of the past 100 years in the South End.
United South End Settlements moved to the building in 1976, expanding its programming and functioning more as a multi-service organization. New Boston Ventures will purchase the project site from the United South End Settlements (“USES”), the current owner, helping to secure USES’ financial future. The front exterior of the existing building contains a mural painted by local artist Jameel Parker, which the Proponent will assist with the reproduction or relocation.
