Developer pitches vision for Fenway – Mixed-use project would create vital district, he says
By Bonnie Kavoussi – Globe Correspondent / August 5, 2010

A Boston developer is planning to build apartments, underground parking, and retail and office space in the Fenway — the latest in a string of proposals to revitalize the neighborhood.

Samuels & Associates filed a letter of intent yesterday with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its plans to build two mixed-use buildings in the Fenway. The buildings would built in the space of a parking lot and former Goodyear tire shop.

A building at 132 Brookline Ave. would house 170 high-end apartments and include retail space on the first floor. A street over, on the corner of Boylston and Van Ness streets, another building would hold 150 luxury apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and 225,000 square feet of office space. The company also plans to build 500 parking spaces underground.

Chief executive Steven Samuels said the project is part of his company’s master plan to redevelop the Fenway neighborhood into a shopping district similar to Newbury and Boylston streets in the Back Bay.

Samuels has already established a foothold in the Fenway. The company owns about 11 buildings there, including the Fenway Triangle Trilogy, a residential-and-retail building it opened in 2006, and 1330 Boylston’s luxury apartments and restaurants, which opened in 2008.

see also:  Developer plans two 15-story towers in Fenway

House Framer – At the MFA, they rely on Andrew Haines to complete the pictures
By Sam Allis – Globe Staff / August 5, 2010

You really have to want to see Andrew Haines to find him.

His lair is hidden deep inside the Museum of Fine Arts, and reaching it requires something of an Outward Bound experience. Follow a maze of hallways, take a huge elevator, go past a long room bristling with racks of paintings in storage. There you’ll discover him — an intense, compact man in glasses, dressed in relentless black: polo jersey, jeans, and shoes.

Haines, 48, is the MFA’s first conservator of frames. (His title is a mouthful — associate conservator, furniture and frame conservation.) MFA director Malcolm Rogers named him to the newly created post in 2002, and today, Haines is, quite simply, one of the more important people in the place.

He works with curators and helps decide which frames to repair before they hold paintings that will reach the limelight in the galleries. This may require a mix and match where he combs through the vast museum collection in storage to find a frame from another painting that fits seamlessly the one in play.

Lockhart named to conduct BBC Concert Orchestra
Joel Brown/HubArts.com – August 04, 2010

Wow. If people thought the Utah Symphony meant a lot of time in the air… The BBC reports/announces that Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart has been named the seventh principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra “ahead of his Proms debut this month.” Lockhart will continue to hold the baton at the Boston Pops, BBC says. Having conducted the orchestra in the past, Lockhart told BBC News he was “honoured to be embarking on a more formal relationship.” (I’m guessing he said honored, but go figure.) The orchestra’s concerts and “unrivalled role on BBC TV and Radio… provide an immense opportunity for audience connection at the most meaningful level,” Lockhart is quoted as saying.

Lockhart will appear with the BBC Concert Orchestra at an Aug. 30 concert of British and American music at “Proms,” the band’s annual summer concert series, at Royal Albert Hall. The program includes Bernstein and Gershwin but – shockingly – no John Williams. Oh, wait… “Hook: A Flight to Neverland!”

The orchestra also has a Nov. 4 Bay State date booked as part of a U.S. tour – at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

Editorial: Grand Theft Northeastern
Posted by The Huntington News on 8/03/10

he Huntington News publishes the Crime Log in each issue, a collection of selected entries from the Northeastern University Police Department’s (NUPD) public log of reported criminal activity. Though sometimes entertaining, the column serves a serious purpose: to inform and caution students about crime trends around campus. Frequent, consistent reports of on campus theft reveal a troubling area of unmet need from Northeastern’s Public Safety Division. Should Northeastern be doing more?

All things considered, the Northeastern University Division of Public Safety has excelled in preventing violent crime and continues to do a great job of protecting students from harm and danger. Thankfully, many Crime Log entries detail only minor violations that, although concerning, are to be expected at a large, urban university. In fact, the low number of serious incidents on-campus earned recognition from Reader’s Digest, which gave Northeastern an “A” grade and ranked the university the second safest campus in the country in their 2008 College Safety Survey.

However, the Crime Log in this issue alone features 10 stories related to theft. Considering some thefts may have gone unreported, and the smaller number of students on campus for the summer, this is a high number. These crimes are happening in and around the heart of campus, the library and the student center. Even the Northeastern men’s hockey team was a victim of burglary and theft last month.

1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.  More anniversaries.