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The Speedway Progress Update: October 2020

ahfbostonstg on October 28, 2020

Speedway interior under renovation

One year has passed since AHF broke ground at the Speedway. On that sunny October day, surrounded by our partners and neighbors, we never imagined that such a gathering soon would be impossible. Had all gone as planned, the Speedway would have opened to the public this month. The courtyard would have bustled with families and friends mingling over Notch beer, enjoying outdoor music, and browsing local artisans’ wares. But like everyone else, we had to take a step back when the pandemic hit. We’ve weathered construction delays, endured market uncertainty, and thought long and hard about which aspects of the project are still feasible in the age of COVID. The answer: almost all of them. Our vision for the Speedway is still on track – just delayed and slightly altered to meet public health standards. We have some exciting updates to share with you as we gear up for a Spring opening!

1. Tenant Tours

Last Wednesday, AHF teamed with GraffitoSP, Bruner/Cott Architects, and Business Guide and entrepreneur Maggie Battista to host our first tour of the Speedway for prospective creative operators. Six small-format spaces in the former sheds and stables of Building E are available for short-term leases with food and beverage operators, small shops, makers, and artisans. We were blown away by the tour attendees’ enthusiasm for the site, and inspired by the creativity and tenacity they’ve exhibited in growing their businesses. The day came to a close with a surprise visit from State Representative Kevin Honan. Our next tour is scheduled for Monday, November 16. See our Call for Creative Operators for more details and to complete a Submission of Interest Form.

Prospective tenants on a tour of the Speedway
Prospective tenants listen to Bruner/Cott’s Christopher Nielson during a tour of the Speedway.
Kevin Honan, Sean McDonnell, and Gustavo Quiroga at the Speedway
Pictured from left to right: Representative Kevin Honan, AHF President Sean McDonnell, and GraffitoSP’s Gustavo Quiroga.

2. Storefronts and Doorways Galore

Nothing makes us feel that we’re nearing the end of construction more than seeing graffitied garage doors and boarded up entrances replaced with new glass. Notch’s taproom has received the first storefronts, while Garage B, the Speedway’s future event space, was outfitted with glass doors. We can’t wait to see how elegant the Speedway looks once the rest of the storefronts are in place!

New storefront at the Speedway
The Speedway is being outfitted with new doors and storefronts.

3. Speedway Shingle Style

Our friends at D.F. Pray General Contractors have awed us with their skill and patience in installing the Speedway shingles – one at a time, and entirely by hand. Their hard work is paying off. Siding is nearly complete at the Speedway, which looks better and better with each passing day. Though we loved the buildings’ old brown color, we decided to restore the property to its original unpainted appearance. The Eastern white cedar shingles will weather over time.

Shingles at the Speedway
Siding is nearly complete at the Speedway.

4. A Four-Season Courtyard

AHF always envisioned the Speedway as a place for people to enjoy themselves in all seasons, and we knew that a publicly accessible courtyard would be one of the site’s best features. Now that the pandemic has discouraged indoor gatherings, the courtyard has become more important than ever. We’re fitting out the courtyard for lamp posts and gas heaters so that visitors can use the space comfortably even in the dark and chill of late fall and winter. Who knew that a police station and racehorse stables could be so hygge?

A DF Pray worker attaches shingles to the Speedway
D.F. Pray has nearly completed the siding at the Speedway.

5. Something’s Brewing in the Speedway Brewery

The buildout of Notch’s brewery and taproom has begun! Turns out brewing beer requires some complicated plumbing. During the fermentation process, beer acidifies quickly and corrodes conventional cast iron drainage pipes. To transport byproduct from the operation safely off the premises, we dug deep trenches in the future brewery’s floor and installed a special lined cast iron pipe. We’ve also installed the lines from the brewery to the taproom, which will bring freshly made beer to Speedway visitors. All this work is now buried beneath a newly poured concrete floor, hidden from view.

Notch Brewery's space under construction at the Speedway
Notch is beginning to fit out its brewery and taproom at the Speedway.

Notch is beginning to fit out its brewery and taproom at the Speedway.

As ever, a big thank-you to the Brighton community for supporting this project over the past six years. The Speedway couldn’t have gotten this far without community members’ ideas, encouragement, and advocacy. We look forward to sharing more updates as the project comes together.

AHF president Sean McDonnell speaks with a community member at the Speedway.
AHF president Sean McDonnell speaks with a community member at the Speedway.

AHF president Sean McDonnell speaks with a community member at the Speedway.

Architectural Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)3 dedicated to stimulating economic development in disinvested communities through historic preservation. Follow AHF and its projects on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Learn more about the Charles River Speedway revitalization project.

The Speedway Progress Update: July 2020

ahfbostonstg on July 30, 2020

The Speedway courtyard construction site viewed through a hole in the interior wall
The courtyard and Building F under construction. Photo by Ella Rinaldo.

Where to begin? When we posted our first Speedway progress update in early March, we never imagined a pandemic would shut down renovations for a month. Nor did we expect that we would have to delay opening until winter, or that the restaurant and retail industries would be thrown into turmoil. While the Speedway construction site came to a standstill, AHF staff worked feverishly to adapt the project to a world of social distancing and economic disruption. Despite these challenges, we’ve managed to move the project forward.

During the shutdown, our main priority was to stay connected with our Brighton neighbors. To this end, AHF connected with State Representative Michael Moran, Charles River Community Health (CRCH), and local wholesaler Katsiroubas Brothers to help address more immediate needs in the community. The result is the Speedway Produce Program. Now in its eighth week, this initiative has delivered 320 boxes of fresh produce, as well as masks, to CRCH members experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic. AHF sponsored the first month’s worth of produce boxes; thanks to dozens of individual donations and a Harvard University Allston-Brighton Emergency Response Grant, we are able to extend the program until the end of July. Visit our GoFundMe page to help Brighton’s most vulnerable residents access fresh food through the summer.

Meanwhile, the Speedway rehabilitation has progressed by leaps and bounds! Construction restarted in early May after a month-long shutdown. Since then, our contractor D.F. Pray has worked hard to renovate the complex, and it shows:

1. Shingling

If you’ve recently driven past the Speedway, you’ve probably noticed that the Western Avenue and Soldiers Field Road sides of the complex have gotten a makeover. Shingling is nearly complete on the buildings’ public-facing walls, transforming not only the Speedway, but the streetscape itself.

The Speedway's nearly completed shingling along Soldiers Field Road
The Speedway’s shingling is nearly complete along Soldiers Field Road.

2. Repointing Masonry

The masonry of Buildings C and H is being repointed, creating a stable foundation for the buildings’ future tenants – Notch Brewery and a to-be-determined restaurant operator.

Masonry undergoing repointing at the Speedway
The Speedway’s masonry is being repointed.
An open doorway at the Speedway with surrounding masonry being repointed
The masonry around one of the entrances to the Speedway’s Building H is being repointed.

3. A New Roof for the Speedway

The Speedway has a new roof! Ensuring that the complex is water-tight was one of our main priorities when construction got underway again.

The Speedway's Building H with new shingles, new roof, and restored windows
The Speedway’s new roof is now complete.

4. Restoring the Speedway’s Windows

For years, the Speedway’s windows were boarded up – the most visible sign of the blight that had set in at the site. Under the direction of DCR, a Student Conservation Association crew painted fake windows over the plywood, while the 169 real ones were locked away in storage. Now the original windows have been restored and are being re-installed. The difference is unmistakable.

Restored windows at the Speedway
Restored windows are a big improvement for Building H.

5. Ramping and Decking in the Speedway Courtyard

AHF is particularly excited to activate the Speedway courtyard as a public space. Last week, D.F. Pray began laying the foundation for ramping and decking, which will make the courtyard accessible to people of all ages and abilities.

Ramping and decking foundation in the Speedway courtyard
A foundation is being laid for ramping and decking in the Speedway courtyard.

6. Interior Renovations

The interior framing of Buildings E, C, and D –  future creative/retail bays and  Notch’s brewery and taproom – has been restored, allowing for more extensive improvements.  In fact, rough electrical work has begun in Building E!

Interior framing in the Speedway's Building E
The interior framing of the Speedway’s Building E has been restored.
Electrical wires hanging inside one of the Speedway buildings
Rough electrical work has begun inside the Speedway.

Behind the scenes, AHF is preparing to open the Speedway in a radically altered environment. Stay tuned for future announcements as we approach the Speedway’s new opening date in winter 2021.

Architectural Heritage Foundation is a 501(c)3 dedicated to stimulating economic development in disinvested communities through historic preservation. Follow AHF and its projects on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Learn more about the Charles River Speedway revitalization project.

Speedway Produce Program Awarded Harvard Grant

ahfbostonstg on June 17, 2020

Architectural Heritage Foundation’s COVID-19 relief efforts in Allston-Brighton got a big boost last month from Harvard University. On May 27, the school named twenty-seven local nonprofits – among them AHF – as recipients of its new Allston-Brighton Emergency Response Grant.

AHF Launches Speedway Produce Program in Brighton

ahfbostonstg on May 7, 2020

This week the Architectural Heritage Foundation, through the Charles River Speedway project, announced the Speedway Produce Program, an initiative to expand food access in Brighton during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of state Representative Michael Moran, AHF has teamed up with the Speedway’s next-door neighbor, Charles River Community Health (CRCH), and local wholesaler Katsiroubas brothers, to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to CRCH patients facing food insecurity as a result of the shutdown. AHF is offering the general public an opportunity to contribute to this program.

AHF launched the Speedway Produce Program last Thursday with a delivery of forty produce boxes to CRCH, each of which contained enough fruits and vegetables to feed a family for up to a week. A Katsiroubas Brothers truck dropped off the boxes at the health center in the morning, and CRCH staff arranged for them to be safely picked up later that day. AHF also contributed eighty hand-made masks donated by a Wellesley-based volunteer sewing group. We plan to contribute 120 more produce boxes to CRCH’s constituency over the next three weeks. With additional support, we can increase the number of households served and even extend the program into June.

Even before the pandemic, many CRCH patients were struggling to get by. Seventy-one percent were living at 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, and many were forced to work two jobs to make ends meet – jobs that have disappeared or become much more hazardous due to the public health crisis. Now food insecurity – an ever-present issue for so many households – has become a dire problem.

AHF and the Speedway team invite the public to participate in the Speedway Produce Program through the GoFundMe Link below. A donation of $25 will sponsor one produce box; $100 will provide four boxes over the next three weeks; $1000 will enable us to extend the program by another week. (As of this writing, we have raised $850, nearly a fifth of the way to our goal of $5000!) With this initiative, we hope to play a small role in the much wider regional efforts to ensure food access for the most vulnerable members of our community.

Support the Speedway Produce Program

For updates on the Speedway Produce Program, follow AHF’s blog and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages, or sign up for the The Speedway newsletter.

Staff from the Architectural Heritage Foundation (AHF) and Charles River Community Health pose with the first batch of Speedway Produce boxes.
Staff from AHF and Charles River Community Health with the first batch of Speedway Produce boxes.

From Markets Insider – “Twain Financial Provides $1.6 Million in Historic Tax Credit Equity to Charles River Speedway in Boston, MA”

ahfbostonstg on April 24, 2020

Twain Financial Partners announced the investment of $1.6 million in federal historic tax credit equity for the historic renovation and adaptive reuse of the Charles River Speedway in Boston, MA. The Speedway is located in the North Brighton section of the growing Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 2010. The 1.28-acre site includes three adjoining parcels, including the original 1899 former historic racetrack administrative building and garage facility.

Speedway Progress Update – March 2020

ahfbostonstg on March 6, 2020

Since construction began at the Speedway five months ago, the renovations have progressed by leaps and bounds. Thanks to our partners at D.F. Pray, the historic site is getting a makeover from top to bottom that is transforming what was once a collection of dilapidated buildings into a vibrant public space. Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far:

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