Constructed in 1953, the Whittier Street Public Housing development’s brick-faced towers are coming down to make way fora new mixed-income development. BANNER PHOTO

Since 1953, the red brick buildings of the Whittier Street public housing development towered over the corner of Tremont and Ruggles Street.

Over the decades, much changed around them: In the 1960s, homes and stores were leveled for the aborted extension of Interstate 95 through Roxbury. In the 1980s, the Orange Line was relocated to the Southwest Corridor with a new station at Ruggles Street. In the 1990s, the new Boston Police Department headquarters was built across the street.

This year, however, the Whittier Street development itself will see its biggest change yet as the Boston Housing Authority takes the wrecking ball to its familiar brick-faced towers. With the help of a $30 million HUD grant, the BHA is redeveloping the site into a mixed-income, residential and commercial development that will see all 200 existing affordable units in the complex relocated into brand-new four-story buildings, and the total number of units more than doubled.

Read the entire article as it originally appeared in the Bay State Banner here.