The landmark Chestnut Hill Waterworks ground to a halt in the 1970s. But soon, the historic buildings will be pumping other vital elements into the area’s economy: housing and office space.

Last week, Boston planner gave Waterworks Park LLC a key approval to move ahead on its $80 million project, which includes 108 condominiums – some by Graham Gund Associates – offices, a museum, and public meeting space on the eight-acre site.

In its heyday, the Waterworks delivered as much as 65 million gallons of drinking water a day to Boston, Brookline, and Newton for almost a century. Its landscaping was conceived as a public rural park for a fast-growing city teeming with factories and tenements.

The development team, a joint venture of Diamond/Sinacori LLC and Edward A. Fish Associates LLC, will restore the property and its three grand 19th-century buildings, and build an industrial-style, six-story structure with 81 condos designed by DiMella Shaffer.

Two of the three historic buildings will be renovated into 27 condos. All of the condos will range in price from $500,000 for a 900-square-foot, one-bedroom unit, to $1.5 million for a 2,500-square-foot, three-plus bedroom unit. Eleven of the 108 units will be affordable, costing $180,000 to $200,000. The Romanesque-style pumping station will become 30,000 square feet of offices, community meeting space, and a 10,000-square-foot museum to exhibit three restored 70-foot tall steam engines that had operated there.

Condo marketing will begin next month, with construction likely to start by early 2005, said developer Merrill H. Diamond, the managing partner.

“This is a unique site and an innovative project that will generate enough profit through new residential development to restore magnificent historic structures,” said James Gribaudo, project manager for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

“It’s wonderful that the buildings, a compendium of mid-19th –to early 20th-century architectural styles, will be preserved,” said Ellen Lipsey, executive director of the city landmarks commission. “The structures and the technology inside were a source of civic pride, and the park provided lungs to a city that was quickly industrializing.”

Meanwhile, the sale of the site furthers the state’s effort to recycle underused public facilities. In the past four years, the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management has sold seven other sprawling public properties on 1,131 acres, said Peter Norstrand, a deputy commissioner. “Waterworks Park is an example of ‘smart growth,’ with housing going in near public transit,” he said, referring to the nearby Green Line MBTA stop.

“These buildings are national treasures.”
A developer will leave about 60 percent of the site as open space, integrating it with park land that extends to Cleveland Circle, and install period lighting and landscaping around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir across Beacon Street from the project.

“At first, I was skeptical about the development,” said Eva Webster, president of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir Coalition, a neighborhood advocacy group. “But it’s a big plus to get more homeowners who will help stabilize the neighborhood and preserve the reservoir.”

Boston Globe By: Susan Diesenhouse 2004-08-14

Press Contact: Peabody Properties, Inc. Tel: 781-794-1000