I don't think North End is an eyesore.. Honestly it looks okay from street level and they do a pretty decent job at keeping it spruced up.
Oh I agree they are really nice looking apartments, but they feel stubbornly suburban in an area that is becoming increasingly urban all around it. Urban areas thrive (in part) through walkability, but the North End creates this large impenetrable block that forces people to walk around it to get to the other side. If it were not gated it wouldn't be quite so bad, though it would still be an issue because of the sheer amount of space it's taking up.
I think you'll be really happy with all of the changes coming to your area. It will bring a tooon of new street level retail/restaurants within walking distance.