University plans to remake a Tufts-owned building at 574 Boston Ave. into teaching and office space will result in the May 31 eviction of its current residents, a community of artisans who have run their businesses there for over two decades.
Tenants on Nov. 30 received a notice from Walnut Hill Properties, Tufts' non-academic property manager, which gave them six months to move out, according to a Feb. 4 Boston Occupier article.
"Tufts has been considering the best use for 574 Boston Avenue for several years, as the university's need for space has been increasing," Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler told the Daily in an email. "We will be working closely with the city and the local community as we move forward and expect to meet with the neighborhood as our plans develop further and we are closer to applying for a building permit."
For the artisans, eviction means the demise of a large community of woodworkers, instrument makers, metalworkers and other artists who have made a home out of the four-story, 96,000 square-foot building.
John Brown, Paula Garbarino and Chris Keller (A '76), woodworkers who design and build custom cabinets and furniture from the building, said they are frustrated at the loss of this communal workspace.
"There's a big brain trust in that building, and it's all going away," Brown told the Daily. "We all can't move to the same location because that building, that 574 Boston Ave., doesn't exist anywhere in the area, and boy, have we looked for it."
The building fostered a vibrant community of artisans who have shared ideas there for decades, Garbarino said.
"It is lovely to be able to go to work in your own greater neighborhood, to go to work in a place with light and air and fabulous neighbors who can give you advice and help you out," Garbarino told the Daily. "I really value the greater community of people in that building."
The artisans occupied the building on a month-to-month basis since all leases expired several years ago, Thurler said. Tufts has informed tenants about their intentions to renovate the building for many years.
Although the university did make the artists aware of its future plans, Keller said Walnut Hill was ambiguous about the situation until the artisans received the letter in November.
"There had been rumors floating around for at least a decade," Keller told the Daily. "We all knew that eventually Tufts would want to do something else with the building - or we assumed they would."
The university has been working to facilitate this move for those affected by the eviction, Thurler said.
"We have provided tenants with contact information for local commercial brokers who are well-qualified to provide relocation advice and assistance," she said.
Despite university efforts, Garbarino said that many artisans have not found adequate spaces to relocate. For example, she has looked at 16 buildings but has not found a comparable place to 574 Boston Ave.
"When you go look at other commercial space and it's all metal buildings with no windows and a cement slab to work on, it's not the same - it's not at all conducive to creative spirit," Keller said.
Student group Urban Policy, Planning and Prosperity (UP3) is trying to help the community of artisans, freshman and member of UP3 Dirayati Djaya said.
"It's been absolutely really shady," Djaya said. "I think that was my biggest concern about the whole situation. The Tufts administration was socially distancing themselves from the tenants that have been there for 20 years."
UP3 members have been meeting with the artisans and exploring the space every Friday for the past month, according to Djaya. She launched a blog to preserve the memory of the tenants, whom she said were never properly acknowledged.
"As an urban planning group, we are really fascinated by the architecture," Djaya said. "I've been taking pictures, documenting the space, just interviewing [the artisans] and keeping track of all the data."
Artisans' opportunities to make themselves known to the Tufts community had been limited by a rule against holding open studios in the building, Garbarino said.
"There's that kind of way to connect with your community so that they know you're there and they learn to respect you and appreciate you and value you," she said. "[We] are a kind of dying breed of people that are makers who are not assembling pre-formed parts in that sort of mindless way that is left to manufacturers worldwide now."
