Critics Speak Out on Kowloon Redevelopment in Saugus

Architectural critics and residents are strongly opposing the planned redevelopment of the Kowloon restaurant in Saugus. Opponents of the redevelopment plan lament the loss of its cultural and historical significance, which has given way to a new design.

During the week of Oct. 6, architects for the Wong family, which owns the Kowloon, publicly unveiled the redevelopment plan. In place of the structure's landmark A-frame and hip-roof style building, six-story, box-like apartment blocks will rise on the site. Meanwhile, the new Kowloon will occupy the ground floor of one of the apartment complexes, which will house approximately 200 units. 

Writing for the Boston Globe, commentary columnist Murray Whyte said that the redevelopment plan detracts from Kowloon's appeal on Boston's North Shore.

"The Kowloon is a particular landmark of urban whimsy, belovedly bold, built in an era where such playful caprice was architectural sin," Whyte wrote. "When it rose shiny-new in the 1950s, Modernism reigned supreme — particularly in Boston, where the Graduate School of Design at Harvard was chaired by Walter Gropius, one of the forefathers of the high-Modern Bauhaus movement."

Whyte noted that today's Kowloon "has come to define its place in the urban landscape, not the other way around. You don't have to eat there to embrace it; that's what placemaking is all about."

Its replacement, Whyte believes, won't carry this same appeal.