BOSTON-CAMBRIDGE | Developments

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by chris08876

Fenway Center Rendering:


http://boston.curbed.com/uploads/Fen...erWestView.jpg

High Quality (3500x2200) : http://boston.curbed.com/uploads/Fen...r-Arrays-2.jpg

* Different Rendering

This would be an amazing project. It would replace surface parking and cap the Mass Pike.

They've been talking about Mass Pike air rights for decades now. Many failed proposals, hope this one happens.

[chris08876]

The problem I could see is the height. If its over 15 stories, good luck to the developers. Its inane how difficult it is to build something at this height. NIMBY's have a way of derailing Boston projects. Probably what we will see in the long term is something that is shorter, but somehow utilizes the space to produce something bulky. So, there could be a lot of square footage, but it won't really standout. And the thing is its not even a FAA thing or anything to do with air routes or safety, but just a bottleneck when it comes to the committees who review such projects, and take feedback from the community.

Some of the height chops have really mutilated some other fine proposals, especially the potential supertall for downtown. The area surrounding downtown for the most part is seeing some respectable development, but the further you leave the area, the more the opposition grows.

[DZH22]

Originally Posted by chris08876

The problem I could see is the height. If its over 15 stories, good luck to the developers. Its inane how difficult it is to build something at this height. NIMBY's have a way of derailing Boston projects. Probably what we will see in the long term is something that is shorter, but somehow utilizes the space to produce something bulky. So, there could be a lot of square footage, but it won't really standout. And the thing is its not even a FAA thing or anything to do with air routes or safety, but just a bottleneck when it comes to the committees who review such projects, and take feedback from the community.

Some of the height chops have really mutilated some other fine proposals, especially the potential supertall for downtown. The area surrounding downtown for the most part is seeing some respectable development, but the further you leave the area, the more the opposition grows.

You clearly have not been paying attention lately. With Menino gone and Walsh (union guy) now in office, every stalled proposal is not only coming back online, but getting approved even TALLER than before. There's going to be an ~370' (to mech) building right down the street, that just went from 23 to 30 stories. Check the renders in post 170 here: http://www.archboston.com/community/...?t=4174&page=9

Our tallest building in over 40 years (685' Millennium Tower) is up to the 19th floor, and an even taller building is in prep phase by the Prudential.

You're about 2 years behind the times if you think NIMBY's still have this type of encompassing power in Boston. The pendulum has swung. It will be a lot more obvious within 1-2 years when all these giant new buildings are out of the ground. We're still in the early stages of what may be the biggest skyscraper boom in Boston's history.

[chris08876]

I'm aware, I tend to cover the boom in this thread and am keeping it alive. If you haven't noticed, the last 4 pages are mostly my updates.

Still, never underestimate a NIMBY. Yes Boston is seeing a ton of units that will come online in the next couple of years, but its still a good idea to be cautious when it comes to developments in general. These roaches have a way of sometimes ruining a good thing.

All I'm saying is to view developments in a manner that's not always assuming it will stay the same or the way the developers want. Sometimes things get reduced or even increased, but being cautiously prudent is key. Thats just my opinion.

[chris08876]

Congress Square, Quaker Lane get makeovers

A Boston developer revealed more detailed plans for its Congress Square project yesterday that call for two building additions, a new 13-story boutique hotel on Devonshire Street and a mix of offices, residential units, and retail and restaurant spaces.

Related Beal plans to renovate six Financial District office buildings in the existing Block on Congress to bring 24-hour activity to an area historically dominated by financial institutions, it said in documents filed yesterday with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The 458,300-square-foot project includes about 92,700 square feet of proposed new construction: a cantilevered glass, five-story condominium addition above 15 Congress St.; a three-story office addition to 40 Water St.; and the new 133-room hotel tower on what’s currently a vacant lot used for parking. The hotel tower would be connected to the building at 68 Devonshire St.

“From their original conception in the late 19th century as bank buildings, the existing buildings have conveyed an image of grandeur and security,” the BRA filing said. “For the last 40 years, these buildings have been re­stricted to private use and turned inward, cut off from the surrounding neighborhood and streets. The design for Congress Square restores these buildings and Quaker Lane to a destination within the heart of downtown Boston.”

Related bought what’s now about 343,000 square feet of primarily office space from Fidelity in December for $87.25 million.

The ground floors of the buildings would include new lobby entrances and glass-fronted shops and restaurants that open up to outdoor dining areas on Quaker Lane. Quaker Lane would be converted into a European-style pedestrian area with suspended cable lighting between buildings, cobble pavers, sculptural seating and landscaping.

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http://www.bostonherald.com/business..._get_makeovers

[chris08876]

Eye-popping design unveiled for condos in former South End church

Massive developments are sprouting up all over the booming South End — think the 378-unit Troy Boston or the block-spanning Ink Block complex. But a much smaller project proposed nearby is promising to turn at least as many heads as its hulking neighbors.

South End-based developer New Boston Ventures unveiled a dramatic plan to build a 58,000-square-foot boutique condominium building on the site of the former Holy Trinity German Catholic Church and rectory on Shawmut Avenue, built in 1877.

In a rendering, the eight-story glass-and-steel building bursts through of the church’s roof, metal beams carrying the lines of the stone buttresses skyward in an eye-popping mix of classic and contemporary architecture.

“You could tear it down and start over, which would be a tragedy — you’d lose the details, the social and religious history,” said architect James Alexander, who led the building’s design team at Finegold Alexander + Associates. “But re-using it as it was, with the shape of the roof and the square footage, it just wouldn’t generate the return.”

Alexander and his team, along with New Boston Ventures, fine-tuned the design over several consultations with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Officials there asked the designers to move the front of the new structure back from the street, so the church’s central tower would remain visually prominent.

The building at 136 Shawmut, in the so-called New York Streets area, would contain 33 condos; a basement garage equipped with a stacking system would fit 28 cars. The proposal is expected to come before the BRA for approval in April.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...aFL/story.html

[chris08876]

Major project planned for land near Andrew Square

Developers have plans to turn a stretch of industrial properties near Andrew Square into about 700 middle-class apartments and more than a football field’s worth of retail space.

The five-acre stretch of warehouses and other industrial space at Old Colony Avenue and Dorchester St. in South Boston currently abuts a residential neighborhood, and DJ Properties has plans to turn it into a park, six shorter buildings, and two residential towers more than 200 feet tall. Garages and surface lots will have space for a total of 580 cars.

When completed, the development will cover six blocks, half of which will be open space. The developers said almost a mile of new sidewalks will be built for the “walkable” new community, and they have plans to plant 150 trees.

The project will be built in phases, starting with a 20,000-square foot grocery store and a one-acre park. No exact timeline was given. Partners in DJ Properties include Core Investments Inc. and Ad Meliora LLC. The architect is David Chilinski of the Cambridge firm Prellwitz Chilinski Associates.

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/...VwK/story.html

[chris08876]

New mixed-income housing projects planned for Roxbury

The plans submitted Monday by the Madison Park Development Corporation and Preservation of Affordable Housing are ambitious and complex, calling for a residential area spanning three properties and five buildings. Together, the projects would create 462 apartments, including in a 14-story building across Tremont Street from Northeastern University’s 22-story International Place dorm.

“We want to get rid of what was sort of a defunct physical site and replace it with a more vibrant, more contemporary community that’s more in line with where Boston is now,” said Cory Mian, vice president of real estate development at Preservation of Affordable Housing, or POAH.

The projects would require building in stages, so the city could find housing for residents of the 200 current Whittier project apartments, which would be demolished. Those residents would be first in line for the new apartments when they are completed. Construction on the first phase would start in 2016.

[chris08876]

Five acres in South Boston industrial area slated for mixed-use development

A Boston-based developer has proposed creating six streets of housing, retail and park area on five acres of former light industrial space in South Boston’s Andrew Square neighborhood.


The plan, unveiled Tuesday night at a community meeting at the Iron Workers Union building in South Boston, calls for eight buildings – the tallest rising 17 stories high – that would envelope an area at the intersection of Dorchester Street and Old Colony Avenue.

The area previously had housed Winthrop Printing, a transmission shop and other industrial uses.

There would be 700 units of housing, a mixture of apartments and condos, with an emphasis on affordability for the middle class, according to the developer, David Pogorelc of Core Investments. The plan also calls for 76,000 square feet of retail and parking for 580 cars, both on surface lots and in garages.

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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/bl...ea-slated.html

[DZH22]

685' Millennium Tower well underway. Go here for full update from 4/5: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...70#post6979770

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by DZH22

You clearly have not been paying attention lately. With Menino gone and Walsh (union guy) now in office, every stalled proposal is not only coming back online, but getting approved even TALLER than before. There's going to be an ~370' (to mech) building right down the street, that just went from 23 to 30 stories. Check the renders in post 170 here: http://www.archboston.com/community/...?t=4174&page=9

Our tallest building in over 40 years (685' Millennium Tower) is up to the 19th floor, and an even taller building is in prep phase by the Prudential.

You're about 2 years behind the times if you think NIMBY's still have this type of encompassing power in Boston. The pendulum has swung. It will be a lot more obvious within 1-2 years when all these giant new buildings are out of the ground. We're still in the early stages of what may be the biggest skyscraper boom in Boston's history.

Interesting. Menino was a great mayor, not taking anything away from the current mayor, but overly large projects will swing the pendulum back to the neighborhood interests. For now, I hope Boston builds BIG. You can never rule out the power of NIMBYs however. Lots of old money and political clout.

[Citylover94]

New 111 Federal St. Proposals. My personal favorite is the Accordia, CV Properties tower by SHoP.

Originally Posted by Citylover94

The garage site has had 8 proposals submitted for it that were just released. Slideshow at Banker and Tradesman: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/gallery/winthrop/
4/14/2015
Millennium + Handel Architects residential and office 750 ft


Fallon Co. = HOK two residential buildings 700 ft


HYM Investments + Elkus Manifredi residential 780 ft.


Lend Lease Dev. and Hudson Group + Graziani and Corazza condos, rentals, hotels, office, retail 750 ft. Appears to be similar concept to the Aura in Toronto.


Steve Belkin Trans National + CBT offices, residential, retail 740 ft.


Accordia Partners' Kirk Sykes and CV Properties' Dick Galvin + SHoP and Hacin hotel/condos 750 ft.


Trinity Financial + TAT 51 story hotel, apartments, condo

second Trinity rendering:


Lincoln Property Co. 47 story tower with 1.4 msf hotel, office, residential. No architect selected.

[colemonkee]

The SHoP proposal is definitely the most creative, though I would love to see real renders of the Graziani and Corazza and Elkus Manifredi (which appears to be the tallest) proposals. I like the setbacks and massing on that one. Other than that, the Handel and CBT proposals would be passable, but the HOK and Trinity ones are pretty meh.

[Leo the Dog]

Always amazed that the Financial District can find available land to squeeze a highrise in. The high spine has plenty of room for in-fill, especially over the Mass Pike.

[Citylover94]

For more in depth info you can download a zip file of all the proposals from here: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...f02e-121422525

Click on the link labeled Filed Sub Bids. Warning it is pretty big.

[Citylover94]

211 Units of housing were approved tonight by the BRA. As well as a change to the New Street development in East Boston which will have 259 units.

The projects approved are:
151 Liverpool Street- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...verpool-street
31 Orleans Street- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...orleans-street
70 Parker Hill Avenue- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...er-hill-avenue
40 Malvern Street- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...malvern-street
The Factory at 46 Wareham- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...-at-46-wareham
386-388 Market Street- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...-market-street

New Street Project- http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...et-development

[chris08876]

Project: 102-112 Broad Street

The 12 story building will consist of 52 condo spaces, 3,500-square feet of commercial space, and 35 underground parking spaces. The complex will overlook the Rose Kennedy Greenway while allowing for easy access to the park system, downtown Boston, the waterfront, retailers, transportation and Hubway bikes.

Construction is slated for early fall 2015.

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http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/0...t-development/

[chris08876]

Project: 3521-3529 Washington Street

The city's Zoning Board of Appeals signed off on the redevelopment of the old Flanagan & Seaton Motor Car Co. at 3521-3529 Washington Street in Jamaica Plain, a project first pitched in 2010 and one joining a rush of change along that corridor. Major alterations to the 132-unit project pushed it over the approval hump and into the pile of coming-soon Boston apartment complexes.

One of the biggest changes to the project involved parking: Plans for it out front along Washington Street have been nixed in favor of underground spots as well as ones in a central lot, according to Chris Helms at the JP News. Also, rather than three buildings, we're talking a denser two now—one five stories and the other four—which leaves room for a community garden and other outdoor space. Some 25,000 square feet of retail and a 132,000-square-foot self-storage facility are also part of the plans.

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http://boston.curbed.com/archives/20...aica-plain.php

[Citylover94]

There was an interesting article on the lack of good architecture in Boston published today just curious what peoples thoughts are.

Why Is Boston So Ugly?
How we built the most mediocre architecture in history, and how we’re going to fix it.
by Rachel Slade

Thirty Dalton Street, a slim residential tower being built at the corner of Dalton and Belvidere in the Back Bay, is destined to rise 26 stories on a sliver of land just behind the Christian Science Plaza. It announced itself one day last fall, when a tiny piece of the future tower was erected on the site, made of that bluish reflective glass you see on literally every façade in Boston—the kind that unfortunate birds mistake for sky—and standard-issue metal panels, probably labeled “pewter” on the office sample. Formless, indistinct, ugly: another Boston skyscraper inspired by a Holiday Inn in Topeka.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/proper...-architecture/

[chris08876]

Some projects:

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1) 25 Morrissey Blvd.

Location 25 Morrissey Blvd., next to Star Market

Project description 278 residences, 143 parking spaces

Transit connection JFK/UMass Station (Red Line)

Status Under construction

2) South Bay town center expansion

Location Enterprise and Boston streets

Project description 500 residences, 115,000 square feet of stores/commercial space, 65,000-square-foot cinema, 200-room hotel, two parking garages

Transit connection Andrew Station (Red Line); Newmarket Station (Fairmount Line)

Status Under review by the BRA

3) DotBlock

Location Dorchester Avenue, Hancock Street, Greenmount Street

Project description 375 residences, 60,000 square feet of retail space, parking garage

Transit connection Savin Hill Station (Red Line)

Status Under review by the BRA

4) The Carruth Phase II

Location 1961 to 1981 Dorchester Ave.

Project description 84 residences, 43 parking spaces, 4,000 square feet of retail space

Transit connection Ashmont Station (Red Line)

Status Approved; construction starts early 2016

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...ed_Box_Article