Boston To Open Series Of Affordable Housing Developments Atop City’s Public Libraries

Boston To Open Series Of Affordable Housing Developments Atop City’s Public Libraries

Boston To Open Series Of Affordable Housing Developments Atop City’s Public Libraries A rendering of the planned library and housing project at 55 Hudson St. in Chinatown – credit, Stantec Set to begin development in Boston’s historic Chinatown, an affordable housing complex will perch atop a branch of the Boston Public Library system. It’s been 60 years since Chinatown had a BPL branch, and activists see it as the full-circle closure of a saga that began when it lost that branch all those years ago. Demolished as part of a plan to thread Interstate 93 through town, the Chinatown library was located on Tyler St., near stretches of brick rowhouses inhabited by immigrants. A temporary library was opened nearby. The rowhouses were demolished as part of an urban renewal project around the same time, which drove up rents and forced many residents to relocate to cheaper neighborhoods. Now however, the interstate artery was demolished in 2008, and since 2021, the city has aimed at following New Yo…