Condo towers in the city do seem to be rising taller, but at 565 West Quincy Street, a high-rise is getting a boost by standing atop an older loft building. At 565 Quincy, the developer Belgravia Group is adding 11 stories of steel and glass to a seven-story brick building put up in two phases in the 1920s and 1950s.

“The original building was built like a tank, to handle manufacturing,” says Jacob Kaufman, Belgravia’s executive vice president. This means that adding some residential floors above the original building presents no structural problem—and besides, says Kaufman, “we love being able to save it.”

Belgravia did not attempt to make the new addition look like the older building. “That wouldn’t be honest,” says Kaufman. “To imitate it with the [addition] would be meaningless.” So the developer went in the other direction, giving the new section an emphatically different look. Balconies hang off the sides of the upper stories, while on the lower floors, they are recessed behind the original wall.

The basement-level Q Room, open to owners in the building, will have its own two-lane bowling alley, putting green, and Foosball tables. When finished in fall 2008, the building will have 241 units; 89 have already been sold. Units are priced from $209,000 for a 548-square-foot one-bedroom condo in the addition to $447,000 for a 1,280-square-foot two-bedroom condo with a 60-foot spread of windows, which is also in the addition.

illustration: courtesy of belgravia group, ltd.