BMC Plans Demolition of Century-Old BuildingBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Wednesday, January 29, 2025 | |
 The last remnant of a neighborhood on North Street will come down to make way for a traffic circle and BMC renovations. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Roadwork put the nail in the coffin for a Berkshire Medical Center property that was approved for demolition 10 years ago.
On Monday, the Historical Commission approved leveling 769 North St., a 1920 building on the BMC campus. Work is being done on both sides, as the hospital is undergoing renovations and the state Department of Transportation is overhauling the intersection of North Street and First Street.
The commission approved the demolition in 2015. The first floor has been in limited use since, but it is now unoccupied because it is "inhabitable." Coupled with surrounding changes, BMC decided it had no use for the structure.
Attorney Vicki Donahue explained that the state project will widen the road, encroaching farther to the front of the building and requiring "some significant regrading" and a change of the entrance.
"We occupied the first floor of the building with some of our office people while we waited to see if the state was actually going to put this project out to bid, the road improvement, and finalize our planning around what the new addition to the Medical Arts Complex might look like," said Joseph LaRoche, BMC's vice president of facilities planning and construction.
"So as you can imagine, it takes several years for these things to wash out and give us an idea of exactly what we needed."
The second floor has not been used for "quite some time" and the first floor was used for office space before being vacated.
"We had some issues with respect to some deterioration of the building so we have moved all of our people out of that building and it's no longer occupied," Donahue said.
LaRoche said BMC back in 2015 was working on a master facility plan for the campus which included substantial work to the Medical Arts Complex. At the same time, he heard from MassDOT that it was possible a traffic circle may come to fruition.
He contacted Fuss & O'Neill, who conducted the 2006 Pittsfield Downtown Circulation Study, to see how BMC's property would be affected but it was hard to tell at the time.
LaRoche pointed out that the accessible entrance is on the roadside where a significant amount of real estate will be lost. BMC has done some minor work on the building since 2015 but hasn't invested much.
"And we've completed our work around the addition to the building, I think it looks great, we're doing some more work for that new entrance and actually we've created another exit out of that parking lot, which will get us to our hospital main entrance," he added.
"So in working with the state and working with the city on the road improvements around the campus, we don't really see a need for the building any longer."
The state was worried the building would fall down from construction when the first floor was still occupied, he said. "And we said we're working on taking this building down and so we've relocated anyone that was in the building, and it's been vacant now for several months."
There was some discussion from the commission about the hospital's impact on the neighborhood. Several homes have been taken down to make way for parking and expansions.
Commissioner Jeffry Bradway pointed out that this is the last building of a "neighborhood that essentially no longer exists." Similarly, Commissioner Carol Nichols said she had been thinking about how the city is becoming increasingly aware of how many historical properties have been torn down.
"I think that sensitivity is starting to seep in more and more," Nichols said.
"So I think that's probably what you're hearing when we're looking at it, we're saying, 'It doesn't look that bad, can we move it?' and so I think that new kind of experience it is becoming more and more — the awareness is building of saving what we have."
The building hasn't been a home in 70 years and BMC has owned it since 1974.
Dr. Martin Dobelle, father of former Mayor Evan Dobelle, purchased the home in 1947 when he returned to Pittsfield after World War II. He lived and kept his practice there until renovating it in 1955 as a suite of doctor's offices. It was variously known as the Doctors or Physicians Building after that and became BMC's West Side Neighborhood Health Center in 1976.
LaRoche said BMC has no intent of taking out other buildings. It owns some properties for employee or student housing and is consistently on the lookout for others.
The commission also approved the demolition of 717 Crane Ave., a 1928 structure that ServiceNet plans to replace with an accessory structure for its farm-based community program.
The nonprofit human service agency closed on the former Jodi's Seasonal on Crane Avenue last year. It is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.
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