The project team behind the proposed Stanhope Hotel in the Back Bay intends to add an additional floor, taking it from 22 to 23 levels – an alteration they said would have no impact on the building’s exterior envelope, including its height.
HN Gorin, the Boston family-owned real estate company which has owned the project site for around 40 years, together with Masterworks Development Co., LLC, which developed the Club Quarters hotel group, had originally proposed the redevelopment of the building at 39 Stanhope St., formerly home to the Red Lantern restaurant, into a 22-story hotel, with 300 guest rooms. The BPDA board approved that project on July 13 of last year.
Per the proposed project change, the ceiling height for the building’s fourth through 22nd floors would each be lowered to 10 feet, 6 inches from the previously proposed height of 11 feet to allow for the creation of the 23rd story, said Harry Wheeler, a principal with the Boston architectural firm, Group One Partners.
The additional floor would allow for the creation of a new employee breakroom, as well as additional restaurant storage space, said Wheeler during a joint Impact Advisory Group (IAG) and public meeting sponsored virtually by the Boston Planning & Development Agency on Monday, March 5, to review the recently filed Notice of Project Change application for this project.
The project would also entail the “reshuffling” of some electrical equipment within the building, added Wheeler.
The proposed alteration comes in response to code changes for both energy and plumbing enacted in last few months said Wheeler, as well as new changes to building code coming in June.
“There should be no perceptible differences from the exterior,” said Don Wiest, the applicant’s attorney. “The goal of the design team was to make it essentially invisible from the outside.”
Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president and executive director of the Back Bay Association, lauded the project team for “making it happen within the approved envelope.”
The BPDA’s public comment period for the proposed change to the Stanhope Hotel project closed on March 12.