Neighborhoods

The venue will feature an “updated take” on Great Scott’s signature green awning, and be topped with 139 residential units.

Further details have been released about the reopening of Great Scott, a plan that was announced in August, nearly four years after the longtime music venue closed due to the pandemic. 

The original Great Scott, which opened in Allston in 1976 and had a capacity of 240 people, featured in its later years artists like Charli XCX, MGMT, Phoebe Bridgers, and Jack Harlow before they made it big. In August, Great Scott’s longtime talent buyer Carl Lavin announced that the venue would find a new home at 1 Harvard Ave., just two blocks away from its original location at 1222 Commonwealth Ave.

The reopening is the result of a deal brokered among Lavin, Redefined CEO and Boston Music Awards producer Paul Armstrong, and real estate developer Jordan Warshaw of the Noannet Group.

Now, more details have been released about that revamped venue. The proposed new Great Scott will be a mixed-use project combining “music performance spaces, housing, and neighborhood retail/food and beverage space.”

The building will include a Great Scott venue with capacity for 300, and the owners will take over retention and reconstruction of the 75-capacity O’Brien’s Pub, which is currently on the project site and had been a longtime sister club to Great Scott. On top, separated by an “acoustical barrier,” there will be 139 residential units, according to a letter of intent sent to the city of Boston’s Planning Department.

The 17,870-square-foot project site is situated at the intersection of Cambridge Street and Harvard Avenue, and is proposed to be a “mid-rise” structure with a height of about 105 feet. The building will contain roughly 95,000 square feet of gross floor area, and will supply ample bike parking and three parking spots for a third-party operator like Zipcar. 

“The Project will incorporate best practices in energy efficiency and climate resiliency,” the letter said. 

Design plans included a “non-traditional architectural design” to reflect the performances taking place inside, with an “updated take” on Great Scott’s old signature green awning. The project aims to provide space for Boston’s up-and-coming musicians, create employment opportunities, and provide housing, the letter said. 

“The Great Scott project will restore and strengthen the urban music ecosystem that makes Boston a national center for emerging bands,” the letter said. “At the same time, it will help advance the ongoing redevelopment of Allston Village, and it will contribute meaningfully to addressing the city’s housing crisis.”

Shortly after it closed, the original Great Scott was chosen by Boston.com readers as the shuttered music venue Bostonians miss most.

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