Good neighbors

by Sandra Miller

CAPTION: Living (left) and dining (right) areas of the units inside the condos at 136 Arlington St. A local designer and her husband has rehabbed an abandoned blight on Arlington Street into a hip urban 5-unit condo building. Featuring some of the latest in eco-friendly as well as luxury features, 136 Arlington St. will host an open house to show three of the units. The units feature lots of natural light, oversized insulated windows, exposed brick walls, radiant heating throughout, and wide pine floors from reclaimed lumber. The building was a former Swedish church in Bay Village, and later a recording studio, whose façade had been lopped off during the widening of Arlington Street years ago. It sat empty for more than 20 years, with a hole in the roof and no floors inside, when three years ago, This Old House designer Lisey Good and her real estate developer husband, Lenny Snyderman, bought it. “This is the largest project we’ve ever done,” said Lisey, who has also been a designer on high-profile projects such This Old House. “It’s been easier than I would have thought.” Often with extensive rehabs, developers go through an extensive trial of permit applications and neighborhood concerns. “We were so nervous when we posed this project to them,” she recalled. “Boston can be difficult when you make changes to a building.” But in this case, Bay Village and the city were thrilled with the project. Good received the ok to change the zoning to residential, to paint the doors red and add copper sconces around the entrances, and went to work. “The neighborhood was incredibly welcoming to us,” she said. “Bay Village was really helpful. This was a blight here.” Good did some research, and found an old photo of the church to pick up some elements for the building redesign, which now includes a pediment and oculous window added to the second floor arch. Inside, she and her husband followed followed strict LEEDS guidelines to make this an environmentally friendly project. “My husband and I are into the environment” she said. “It’s not like we’re big real estate developers. We feel it’s not worth doing if you’re not proud of it.“ Going green was pricy, she says, but “It’s the right thing to do, in this day and age, and I think (interested buyers) will agree.” They used reclaimed materials wherever possible, including interior walls featuring noise-deadening recycled denim insulation, reusing the wood taken from the house itself, using Silestone kitchen counters made of recycled glass and quartz. Otherwise, they recycled the leftover drywall and other construction materials, even donating the leftover materials to a nonprofit dedicated to building low-income housing. They tried to shop locally to cut down on gas costs, buying slate floors from Vermont, reclaimed wood from Maine, and reclaimed architectural details from local shops like Old Bostonian. ) It’s eco-friendly from top to bottom, from the roof seeded with wildflowers to attract honeybees, birds and butterflies, down to the rainwater tanks that capture and filter rainwater for re-use in the washers and the low-flow/dual-flush toilets. ““I believe it is one of the first buildings in the area to actually re-charge the groundwater,” said Good. “There are enormous tanks in the basement that sense when the groundwater gets low and then inject water.” To reduce energy costs, units have ceiling fans to redistribute heat and cut down on air conditioning, Energy Star appliances, light dimmers, and efficient radiant heating in every floor throughout the building. It’s so efficient, that the whole building – five units – will heat for the same price as her former 1,600 square foot Beacon Hill unit, she says. “It has good insulation.” Other details include low/No VOC paints and solvents throughout. Each unit has high ceilings, new sound-dampening argon filled windows, stainless steel kitchen appliances, stainless shelving and storage, Halogen track lights, laundry and storage. Units one and two feature a slate-floored common area featuring one wall of floor-to-ceiling exposed bricks. In Unit 1, a 1,081 square foot loft-style duplex, offered at $599,000, is a large two floor unit. “It’s a true loft that’s totally open, with no divider walls,” she says, describing the design as “a little funky.” The entranceway faces enormous windows with deep window-seat sills that will feature an exterior bamboo curtain to block the alleyway. A catwalk with wrought-iron railings peeks into the lower level of the unit, an oversized space with spot-lit custom bookshelves, stained and scored polished concrete floors, 20-foot ceilings and a European style galley kitchen with large pantry closet, and oversized commercial faucet and deep stainless sink. The spacious bath features slate tile and a deep soaking bathtub. The bedroom area features tall curtains for privacy, can accommodate a king size bed and is lit by recessed lighting and wall sconces. Unit 2 is a sunny 465 sq ft studio offered at $399,000. The unit features large windows with deep window-seat sills and custom wood Venetian blinds. A dividing wall separates the eat-in kitchen and living room from a bedroom that accommodates a queen size bed and features a roomy closet. A spacious bath features a slate floor, oversized shower and custom storage shelves. Unit 3 is a 1,224 sq. ft. 2 bedroom/2 bath floor-through offered at $799,000. It features a slate-floored common area reserved for the exclusive use of Unit 3 and the Penthouse unit only. The loft room features 9-foot ceilings, wide pine floors and exposed brick walls drenched in sun from two tall windows with city views, and two floor-to-ceiling French doors opening onto a wrought iron Juliet balcony. A reading nook/small dining or office area features built-in bookshelves and a hidden storage area. The floors are reclaimed barn wood. “It’s hard to get these wide floors,” said Good. The open gourmet kitchen also has an oversized bar. The unit also features a large hall closet, compact home office unit with desk and storage. Lisey, her husband and their dog, Cooper, will live on the top 3 floors, reachable by an elevator. They are former BeaconHill residents who loved the historic neighborhood. “I was really sad to leave Beacon Hill,” she said. But then she opened two huge sliding windows in her new home, to a roof terrace that will be landscaped. “This is why I wanted to move here. You don’t get this much sunlight on Beacon Hill unless you live on Beacon Street. The dog would lie in the one small sunny patch we had.” Now Cooper has its own dog-height arched alcoves to lay in the sun. The area is undergoing several other rehabs, including the building next door, which will be the future Boston Center for Adult Education, which Good says she’s thrilled about. But if she does say so herself, the building’s extreme makeover is even more thrilling. “The transformation is really amazing—inside and out,” she says.