I figure that there has to be something going up there.

Let's hear about it! :)

This is the current list of towers planned, completed recently, u/c and such by tocoto of ArchBoston.com
Project Name height status
1 One Charles 220 done
2 33 Arch 477 done
3 Metropolitan 258 done
4 NU mixed 185 done
5 Manual Life 250 done
6 Park Essex 328 uc
7 Channel Center 200 done/more to come but short
8 Mandarin oriental 180 uc
9 BHR 180 uc
10 BU dorms 120 done are there more
11 Emerson Dorm 120 uc?
12 Westin Conv Center 225 uc
13 Fenway apts 200 uc
14 Joslin Place 305 ?
15 Black Fan 300 uc?
16 Battery Wharf 125 uc
17 WTC South 250 ?
18 Russia Wharf 450 UC 2005
19 500 Atlantic 258 uc
20 Columbus Center 450 uc 2005
21 Kensington Place 300 court
22 SST 705 2010
22 Fan Pier 300 2010
23 North station 400 2008
24 McCourt 400 2100
25 Clarendon 400 2007
26 St Anthony's Shrine ? 2010
27 Stata 150 done
28 MIT Brain 120 done
29 Genzyme 180 done
30 Necco Novartis 120 done
31 Longwood Merck 180 done
32 BU bio lab ? 2010
33 80 broad 100 uc
34 Longwood North 300 2007
35 Phase III at MGH 200 2007
36 abbey group at Omni 300 2008
37 south bay 800 2010
38 china town BD parcel 250 2010
39 Cambridge aps 1 220 uc
40 Cambridge apts 2 220 u
It is kind hard to post Boston development because most of the stuff is posted at SSG or ArchBoston but I will try.
For full information, check out ArchBoston.com

Asian CDC, New Boston Submit Only Proposal for Parcel 24

By Adam Smith

The Asian Community Development Corporation and New Boston Development Partners together submitted the only proposal for Chinatown's Parcel 24, a strip of land along Hudson Street that is now a highway ramp.

The deadline for submissions set by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which owns the parcel, was March 15.

"We will take an initial look at the proposal and if it appears to meet basic submission requirements, then we will continue with the full-scale evaluation of the proposal," said Steve Hines, chief development officer of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

The team's proposal is for a 315-unit project with a maximum height of 20 stories near the corner of Kneeland and Hudson Streets, and a minimum height of four stories near the far southern end of Hudson Street. A total of 70 units would be rental housing and 245 units would be condominiums. A "significant number" of the housing would be affordable to middle- and low-income earners. A total of 70 apartment units are slated to be affordable as are 99 of the condo units. The project would include about 5,000 square feet of retail space, 6,000 square feet of space for "community uses," and a total of 165 parking spaces.

The evaluation of the proposal, said Hines, would include getting comments from the Chinatown Parcel 24 neighborhood task force, the mayor's central artery completion task force, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's development agency.

Hines said "it's difficult to say" how long the evaluation process will take.

Jeremy Liu of the Asian CDC said on the day of the deadline that he hoped the proposal would show the community that the team wanted to stick to the ideals of the Chinatown "vision" for Parcel 24. For several years, a coalit ion of Chinatown groups have met to design a "vision" for what they feel should go on the 70,000-square-foot strip of land. The coalition favored a housing project with a large amount of low-income housing, including condominiums. Over the years, the Asian Community Development Corporation led much of the advocacy around development goals for Parcel 24, but recently stepped down from that role so it could compete to develop the parcel and fundraise for the project.

Up until the 1960s, Parcel 24 was home to many Chinese and Lebanese immigrants before their homes were taken by the state and razed to make way for a highway ramp.

When asked to comment on why no other developers bid on the project, Hines said: "I really wouldn't speculate... I never expect anything. We put the request for proposals out and it's a free market and they have an opportunity to bid on it."

http://img208.exs.cx/img208/3725/parcel243jm.jpg

Lovejoy Wharf

From the Architectural team:


With the transfer of the Central Artery underground, the addition of the Leonard P. Zakim Bridge, and plans for the Rose Kennedy
Greenway, the construction of the Big Dig has helped give the City of Boston a significant facelift. And though it may be the largest construction project in the nation’s history, it isn’t the area’s only
transformation. With the proposed design for the Buildings at Lovejoy Wharf, two prominently visible buildings at the foot of the Zakim Bridge are set to undergo a makeover, and commuters will surely take notice.
Located between the Zakim Bridge and the Charlestown Bridge, the
Buildings at Lovejoy Wharf are two of the most visible buildings for commuters who travel into Boston via Interstate 93.
The site, presently occupied by two brick structures, is set to be
redeveloped into a mixed-use development, and The Architectural
Team has been selected by AJAX Investment Partners to create the
design.
The proposed design involves the redevelopment of the nine-story
building located at 160 North Washington Street, the demolition of
the existing building at 131 Beverly Street, and the construction of a new
14-story building on the same site. When completed, The Buildings at
Lovejoy Wharf will include 260 residential units, including 143 lofts in
160 North Washington Street, and 117 one- and two-bedroom condominiums in the new building at 131 Beverly Street.
The program will also feature street-level commercial and retail space, an
automated parking system with 361 parking spaces, and a public waterfront plaza overlooking The Charles River.
Currently in permitting, The Buildings at Lovejoy Wharf will be
developed at a cost of approximately $80 million and will measure approximately 500,000 square feet. The development
will be convenient to the Fleet Center, the financial district, Fanueil Hall, and Boston’s famed North End neighborhood.

http://img208.exs.cx/img208/7708/lovejoy16od.jpg

http://img208.exs.cx/img208/4182/lovejoy22sc.jpg

http://img208.exs.cx/img208/4337/lovejoy30dt.jpg

The Boston Globe
Ticket vendor fights 'Times Square' plan
Developers want him to relocate his trailer

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | March 21, 2005

As sometimes happens in urban development, a street vendor stood in the way of plans for wide new streets at the gateway to Boston's Theater District back in 1981. So the city cut him a deal. Angelo Sena could go on selling theater tickets from his kiosk if he did it across the street, on a vacant lot he leased from the city for cheap.
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Twenty-four years later, planners are now faced with the uncomfortable task of moving Sena out of the way of development again. This time, the city wants to build the ''Times Square of Boston," envisioned with towering lighted billboards and searchlights glazing the sky. Sena, paying a fraction of market rates to lease the lot the city offered him a quarter century ago, is right in the middle of it.

The Hub Ticket Agency owner, who now sells from a trailer, has hired a lawyer and said he is fighting the development. He hinted that he might be appeased by a spot in a new building planned for the location, at the corner of Stuart and Tremont streets. But development proposals being considered for the site mention only competing ticket vendors, including BosTix and Clear Channel Entertainment. So far, nobody is willing to budge.

''We've been here for 35 years," lamented Sena, who, after calling his lawyer, refused to say anything else. ''We want to stay."

Officials at the Boston Redevelopment Authority say the trailer will have to go. They say the prime corner where it sits was always designated for development. Hub Ticket pays $781 a month for a sliver of real estate that brokers say would lease for about $15,000 a month at market rates.

Harry R. Collings, secretary of the BRA board, said the agency will try to relocate Sena's trailer but does not offer any guarantees.

''He's known for all these years that it's a temporary location," said Collings, who is eager to see Sena's corner reinvigorated as the gateway to the Theater District.

Propped on a wall in Collings's ninth-floor City Hall office is a large posterboard depicting Boston's Theater District in the 1950s, when huge, colorful signs for RKO Keith Memorial, the Paramount, and the Modern theaters competed for attention along Washington Street. Collings is spearheading the agency's consideration of two proposals for Sena's corner that he said would bring excitement and restore ''visual importance" to the district.

The BRA has called for a building up to seven stories tall on the site, nestled next to the Wilbur Theatre. One plan under consideration, submitted by Boylston Development Corp., proposes a six-story, glass building with a 48-foot-tall billboard, housing restaurants, shops, and offices. The other plan, fielded by Amherst Media Investors based in New Jersey, proposes a three-story, glass building with a two-story-high, wraparound video display and an electronic ticker serving up news and information to passersby. A third plan, which proposed a 13-story condominium and retail building, was ruled out as too high for the site. The agency plans to decide on a proposal in the next 30 to 60 days.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said that whatever the decision, it will be a welcome step forward in the city's march to create a ''world-class theater district."

''It really will help finish off that corner," he said, ''as long as it isn't too showy or glitzy."

Some Bostonians strolling past the corner this week thought the Times Square-type billboards would make a welcome addition to the city.

Latvian immigrant Alicia Hvalejas, who has lived in the Hub for two years and whose mother lives in New York City, said Boston could use the glitzing up.

''They have to do something like that, because Boston's kind of boring," she said.

Others, however, said Boston does not need such flash.

''They should do something more original," suggested Sindy Ochoa, who works nearby. ''We don't want to be like them."

Menino, though, offered assurances that the Hub's version of Times Square would be less gaudy than its Manhattan inspiration.

''Ours would be more in keeping with the city," he said, ''a tasteful approach to the arts."

And that means no red-and-white trailer on blocks. Sena's trailer business is a throwback to an era when concert and sports tickets were purchased mainly face to face, not over the phone or online.

Along with seating charts, thank-you notes are taped on the trailer's walls bearing messages like ''Thanks for the Red Sox tickets. . . . You made that happen for us."

Sena said he has seen the entire Theater District reborn in the past three decades. It is the march of progress, he understands, but he does not like to accept it.

''The old-timers are all gone. Everything here, this is all new," he said, gesturing around him. ''I'm the last one."

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/BosTheatre.jpg

A legacy to straddle Pike
By Thomas Keane Jr.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Big projects are rare in Boston. The few proposed - the development of the South Boston waterfront, for example - are argued over for so long that circumstances change and they lie dormant. Projects we call big - such as Millennium Place in the one-time Combat Zone - may be significant in impact but in fact occupy relatively little territory.

Indeed, think big in Boston and two projects come to mind: Government Center/Charles River Park, built by ripping down the West End in the 1960s, and the Big Dig, an exhausting saga whose story still continues.

Here's a third: Columbus Center. Outside of a small circle of planners and local activists, it's been little noticed and little discussed. That's about to change. Construction begins in July.

For a private project, it's huge, costing $500 million and covering seven acres. Moreover, it's being built atop the Massachusetts Turnpike, stretching from Clarendon Street all the way to Tremont Street by Bay Village. If you know your way around Boston, you understand what this means. The Pike divides sections of the city - and is ugly, to boot. A decent project has the potential to knit together neighborhoods, effectively transforming the area to the same degree that the burial of the central artery has transformed the downtown.

Or not.

Columbus Center is hardly Boston's first air-rights project. The most recent, Copley Place, was built more than 20 years ago. Yet while Copley may have good facilities - a mall, two hotels and office space - it is aloof and unconnected to the area around it, a failure of urban design.

Columbus Center strives to be different. Almost an acre's worth of parks will meander its length. It's largely residential, with one hotel and a good amount of retail (a grocery store and other service-oriented shops).

Where Copley Place has few doors open to the street, Columbus Center will have more than 35, making it pedestrian- and street-friendly.

The architecture and feel varies by block. There's a 35-story tower by Clarendon Street. Farther east are town homes and lofts of only four to six stories. Columbus Center will look less like one project and more like a series of smaller buildings that mesh with existing infrastructure.

None of this came easily. Developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin first proposed a version back in 1997. Over 140 community meetings and $20 million later, the resulting project has one fewer tower, covers two more parcels and is, frankly, better than it was. Even so, four members of an 11-member review group opposed it and the project remains on the receiving end of much grumbling.

Nevertheless, the approvals and the money are in place. Of the $500 million needed, $150 million is equity - unusually high in real-estate. The remainder will be debt, all but $25 million of it private (that piece will be from the state as part of the project's commitment to provide 15 percent affordable units). Cassin expects the financing to close in May.

By July 2006, the Pike will be covered. A year later, the first units will be for sale; by 2008, it should be done.
Cassin's pleasure seems to extend well beyond the prospect of making money. He walks through renderings, pointing out a day-care center here, a little pocket park there. He loves the way a 600-space garage was made nearly invisible by surrounding it with residences. He pretends to lament being ``forced'' to build a park on the easternmost parcel. Cassin and Winn have been behind significant projects before, including the redevelopment of Mission Main and the planned Clippership Wharf in East Boston. Yet this is different. More than just another development, it's a legacy.

http://66.230.220.70/images/post/singer/006.jpg

Archstone-Smith Breaks Ground on 420-Unit Apartment
By Naomi Grossman
Last updated: Oct 31, 2003 11:20AM

BOSTON-Archstone-Smith began construction on Park Essex, its new Charles E. Smith-branded development in the city's downtown district near Chinatown. The project--the largest rental residential property to be developed in Boston in more than 20 years--was formerly known as Liberty Place. The 28-story building at 600 Washington St. will offer 420 apartments for lease. The developer anticipates that the studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences will be available for lease by spring of 2006. The project will feature a sports club facility, a café, an indoor swimming pool and garage parking.
"This is a great location, adjacent to the ladder district, and within walking distance of prime shopping and restaurants as well as the financial district," says Stephanie Wasser, regional vice president for Archstone-Smith. She adds that Boston represents a long-term market for the company.

Archstone-Smith currently owns and operates 11 apartment communities in the Greater Boston area including 2000 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston, Cronin's Landing in Waltham and Montclair Place in Quincy.

http://home.comcast.net/~gtboston/ParkEssexDay.jpg

There is not a lot of information on this project yet. This the Crane House and Pavilion, a 20 story tower. This is the new proposal for the rejected Mass Pike Tower 2.

New rendering.
http://home.comcast.net/~poolio/crane_house.jpg

Old rendering.
http://home.comcast.net/~poolio/mass_pike_towers_2.jpg

Back Bay residential tower proposed
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, July 3, 2004


A new tower would jut into the Back Bay skyline near the Hancock tower under plans unveiled yesterday.

A posh, 32-story condo and apartment high-rise would soar 363 feet above the Hard Rock Cafe building and Clarendon Street under a proposal filed with City Hall by the Big Apple's Related Cos. and the Hub's Beal Cos.

Dubbed The Clarendon, the new building would be topped by an ornamental beacon - a glass and brick square peak, that, lighted on the inside, is designed to give it a distinctive presence.

The planned, 400-unit Back Bay tower joins an elite club that includes the 790-foot Hancock skyscraper and the 495-foot Hancock building, best known for its colorful flashing weathervane.

``Our objective was to create a landmark in the Back Bay. Our proposal is to light the top,'' noted project spokeswoman Pam McDermott.

The high-rise, meanwhile, is just the latest upscale residence tower to hit Boston amid escalating housing demand and prices.

The Clarendon proposal features a Hub and New York development alliance. Related just completed the Time Warner Center - a Manhattan skyscraper complex - while Beal is one of Boston's top developers. Still, the tower's height is expected to stir up neighborhood activists.

South End and Back Bay groups recently spent years battling plans for a 400-foot hotel and residential tower a few blocks away on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike.

In a bid to soften the project's impact, Related and Beal have pushed the new tower and its height away from Clarendon.

The new tower itself will cater to the wealthy, with a top restaurant on the ground floor that will also serve the needs of the tower's condo and apartment residents.

But roughly 20 percent of the rental units are projected to meet required affordable-housing guidelines.

http://photos.***************/prizm/random/clarenden-rendering.jpg

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/9101/97-Clarendon.jpg

Ok, go to skyscraperguy.com for more information on this tower. There has been to many updates for this one to post. Here is what is currently happening with this project.

Residences at Kensington Place is a 298 ft tower located in Chinatown. It is currently approved and set for construction this spring. There were a huge opposition of this tower because for this building to be built, it would have to demolish the Gaiety theater, which locals claim to be a "landmark". So far, the locals had pretty much lost a bid to preserve this "landmark" due to housing shortage in Boston and the fact that the theater has not been used for decades. Here is the rendering:

http://www.epsilonassociates.com/images/projects/development/residential_urban_02.jpg

South Bay:
10-acre project would include housing, library annex, supermarket

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | December 11, 2004

A new neighborhood the size of the minicity envisioned for Fan Pier could materialize over the next decade or so in an area between South Station and Chinatown that is now mostly a maze of highway ramps.
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The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday received a single proposal, from Boston Residential Group LLC, for a 3.1 million-square-foot project to transform about 10 acres known as the South Bay, an area south of Kneeland Street and the Leather District.

The proposal includes mostly housing, with the tallest structure a 67-floor, 800-foot-tall tower on the southeast corner of the site.

The bid envisions about 1,700 condominium and rental residences, plus almost 600,000 square feet of office and commercial space. It would include about 2,000 parking spaces and would include a public library annex, a recreational facility, a supermarket specializing in Asian foods, and a park on Kneeland Street, a portion of a total of more than 200,000 square feet of open space and public amenities.

The park is billed as the southern end of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, the 30 acres of open and public space that are replacing the old elevated Central Artery.

The proposal, for a new neighborhood called Gateway Center, addresses the ''critical need for housing and the needs of the Chinatown and Leather District communities," the developer, Curtis R. Kemeny, the chief executive and president of Boston Residential, said in a press release. The housing is planned in three residential towers and two midrise residential blocks.

The single bid is the end of a long-anticipated process in which the Turnpike, as steward of the Big Dig, is redeveloping former construction sites, restoring some of the urban framework missing since the elevated highway was built in the 1950s, and generating revenues from leases or sales of land to help pay some of its $2 billion share of the highway project.

Stephen J. Hines, the chief development officer of the Turnpike Authority, said the proposal is for a long-term lease of the land.

He said the authority would be evaluating the proposal and getting community reaction in January, with a decision of whether to accept the proposal probably coming in February. Hines declined to discuss the financial details of the proposal, which are likely to be complicated and tied to the future success of the development. Developers were offered the option of purchasing the land or leasing it. Boston Residential chose the lease option.

Although the authority always likes to have competing bids for land or air rights it puts up for development, Hines said, ''We're pleased that we received a proposal."

Boston Residential is a privately held development and management company that owns and manages about 1,200 luxury apartments, primarily in Boston and the western suburbs.

The company was founded only this year, but the families of the two principals have been in the real estate business for years.
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The development of the land, controlled by the Turnpike Authority, will follow guidelines and a new set of zoning rules set out by the City of Boston, following more than a year of meetings where neighbors from the surrounding community told officials what they want.

''The way we're envisioning it is it becoming an extension of the surrounding community, Chinatown and the Leather District communities, down into that zone," said Marc Margulies, chairman of the 17-member South Bay Task Force Planning Committee, which was appointed by the city.

Lawrence Rosenbloom, a Leather District resident and member of the task force, said he was pleased that someone had responded to the challenge.

For a developer, Rosenbloom said, ''It's very ambitious, in ways that are similar to the South Boston Waterfront," though he added that it is in some ways a superior location because it is adjacent to South Station.

The planning study accommodated the desire by Chinatown residents for affordable housing ''at all income levels and different-sized units," Margulies said. Employment and employment training are supposed to be part of the package promised by developers, ''items for the economic benefit of the adjacent neighborhood."

The proposal from Boston Residential is primarily for existing land, not for air rights over the ramps that proliferate on the southern end of the South Bay site. But the master plan includes a vision of what could be built in later phases.

The southern end of the new neighborhood is envisioned as a gateway from the south as the Leonard P. Zakim-Bunker Hill Bridge is a door to Boston from the north.

But, under the first half of a master plan overseen by consultants Goody Clancy and hammered out over the last year, buildings would rapidly decline in height on blocks closer to Kneeland Street -- where the maximum height would be about 110 feet.

The need for vehicular traffic in South Bay is expected to be minimal, because it is so centrally located for public transportation. -- next to the South Station Transportation Center.

''We're using the proximity of this site to South Station and the nexus of all these roads to benefit development," said Margulies. ''That's what transportation-oriented development is all about."

http://www.southbayplanningstudy.com/images/SBAY_StreetLifeSM_3d-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/cotuit/Boston/SouthBay.jpg

South Station Tower:
There doesn't seem to have any recent updates but this 705ft tower (originally 840ft but was lower because of Logan Airport only a 1/2 mile away). This tower most likely be built until 2010 becuase of the low demand of commercial towers. This would be built over South Station, a T train station.
Rendering:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v398/prizminferno/SouthStationTower.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~lunarbull1/southstationtower.jpg

In Boston, Bruner/Cott is building 45 Province Street, a new 30-story mixed-use residential structure that will be a catalyst for revitalization of the Midtown Cultural District. The site is centrally located at the southern base of Beacon Hill and is surrounded by Old City Hall, the Boston Common, the Bulfinch State House and the Old Meeting House. This poured-in-place concrete structure will house ground floor retail, 24 stories of condominium residences and a parking garage. This elegant design uses contemporary materials and construction technology to mediate the scale and texture of the surrounding historic and mid-twentieth century context.

http://www.brunercott.com/library/45Province/45P_ViewfromSchoolSt.jpg

http://www.brunercott.com/library/45Province/45P_NightView1.jpg

http://www.brunercott.com/library/45Province/45Province040804.jpg

Karp considers condos to pilot Pier 4 plan
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, February 26, 2005



Developer Stephen Karp is hoping the Hub's hot residential market will give his long-planned redevelopment of the landmark Pier 4 waterfront site a lift.

The Newton executive who made a fortune developing a mall empire said he is exploring a phased build-out of the famed pier that now holds Anthony's Pier 4. He would focus initially on plans for an upscale condo high-rise.

That would mean leaving plans for an office building, and possibly a hotel, to a later phase.

The idea would be to take advantage of the city's hot residential market - where condo sales have recently crossed the once-unheard-of $10 million threshhold. By contrast, demand for new office space is almost nonexistent in Boston, where downtown tower vacancy rates hover around 20 percent.

``We are trying to feel out the market,'' Karp said. ``We are a little more optimistic about trying to figure out how to get some of the residential started. We are looking at that and if that makes sense to do.''

Karp's comments come as the developer prepares to win final City Hall approval for his Pier 4 redevelopment plan, possibly in two weeks at the next meeting of the Boston Redevelopment Authority board.

Meanwhile, plans for a $1.2 billion waterfront complex at the adjacent Fan Pier site are stalled as Chicago's billionaire Pritzker family looks to sell off the prime waterfront site

http://photos.***************/prizm/random/Pier4rendering.jpg

Zoning 'tools' help developers push limits
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | August 7, 2004


The developer of Russia Wharf -- a $300 million hotel, office, and condo project near the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Fort Point Channel -- has received a zoning variance to build a tower whose roof line will be 395 feet high in an area where building heights were previously zoned at 125 feet.

The project along Congress Street has all major city approvals; it still requires an OK from the state, said Pamela McDermott, a spokeswoman for the developers, Equity Office Properties.

Russia Wharf wouldn't be the tallest building in the neighborhood. The nearby Federal Reserve Bank Building stands 614 feet high.

Building heights are often an issue with neighbors, and variances can be overturned by the courts. Some other projects, including the Residences at Kensington Place near Chinatown, have gotten relief from height limits by other means, sometimes by persuading the city to designate projects as "planned development areas," or PDAs. With a PDA, such elements as building height are determined in negotiations involving the city, the developer, and the community. With Kensington, developers proposed a 290-foot tower in a neighborhood with a general limit of 155 feet for projects smaller than an acre.

PDAs have an advantage for developers: No legal challenge has been successful against a Boston PDA.

"PDAs are virtually bulletproof," said Shirley Kressel, a landscape architect and a critic of the city's planning agency, the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

By discouraging lawsuits, a PDA can make it easier for a developer to obtain financing, said the developer of Columbus Center last year after a PDA was given to his project, which proposes connecting the South End and the Back Bay by building over the Massachusetts Turnpike.

So why did Equity Office choose a variance over a PDA when it sought zoning relief in June?

McDermott noted the city, the state, and community members recently finished a Municipal Harbor Plan, an extensive review of development issues for this part of town.

"The most efficient route for us was a zoning variance that confirmed what the community, city, and state had already embraced in the Municipal Harbor Plan," she said.

"We told them the best way to move forward was with a zoning variance," added BRA director Mark Maloney.

A PDA requires a lengthy public review, he said. It can be quicker to get a variance. Both are zoning "tools," he said; depending on the project, one tool may be more "appropriate."

PDAs, said Kressel, undermine the zoning code by brushing aside rules for limiting height. "A PDA is whatever you say it is," she said.

Kressel cited Kensington as an example of "anything-goes" zoning. To get a PDA, a project needs an acre of land or more. Kensington's boundaries were drawn to include public sidewalks to reach the acre threshold.

Kressel claims PDA projects generated unwanted publicity, and the BRA now urges developers to seek variances instead, something the BRA denied. Maloney defended PDAs as a valuable zoning tool only rarely granted; in four decades, 40 PDA projects have been completed.

"There haven't been an awful lot of PDAs," Maloney said. "There has been an awful lot of talk about them."

Saying that building heights of projects like Russia Wharf should "step back" from the shore, Kressel said, "You're not supposed to feel like an ant overwhelmed by towers on the waterfront."

Russia Wharf has widespread support, said Maloney, adding: "If the vast majority of the community and the vast majority of abutters approve the project, we can't let a few people who don't want any change to stop it."

http://home.comcast.net/~poolio/russia_wharf_elevation.jpg

http://www.cbtarchitects.com/images/projects/office_mixed/proj_photo_render_pic1.jpg

In the rendering, the part with the atennae would be lit at night.

Preconstruction, Mandarin condo prices hit new highs
Word-of-mouth credited for healthy interest in high-end units
Michelle Hillman
Journal Staff



Hitting record per-square-foot prices, the new Residences at the Mandarin Oriental have sold well over 50 percent of the condominium units in the luxury mixed-use project adjacent to the Prudential Center -- all with no formal marketing campaign to speak of.

Thanks to simple word-of-mouth marketing and attention from the press, not a penny is expected to be spent advertising the project's 50 luxury condominiums, which are priced from $3 million to $12 million, according to Robin Brown, the Mandarin's developer, who partnered with CWB Boylston LLC's Julian Cohen and Stephen R. Weiner.

"What happened was, I think word just got out over the last few years," said Brown. "It just seems to be working so we'll never have to run an ad."

The condominium units range from 2,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet in size, with the per-square-foot prices in the range of $1,200 to $2,000.

Brown began selling the units by keeping a record of friends and associates in a ledger book. With 40 to 50 names to start, Brown has been quietly meeting with the people on the list since last year. He said he knows personally a majority of the people buying units and continues to meet with a couple of people privately each week.

After several setbacks, including a difficult hotel-financing climate following the September 2001 terrorist attacks and an increase in steel prices that added to what has been the $220 million price tag, Brown said the 450,000-square-foot project at 800 Boylston St. is set to break ground this summer. The project includes 50 condominiums, 35 apartments, 149-room hotel and 30,000 square feet of retail space.

The financing for the project is "100 percent done," said Brown, referring to loans secured last month from Bank of America Corp. and HSBC Bank. At one point, CWB was in line to receive a $15 million loan from the city of Boston, but decided to finance the project on its own.

With the financing secure and presale efforts hitting near-record per-square-foot prices, Brown and partners need only to close the deal on the land acquisition from current owner Boston Properties Inc.

The land sale, for an undisclosed price, is set to close later this month, with complicated site-preparation work under way, said David Barrett, the senior vice president at Boston Properties. The site preparation is being done by Shawmut Design and Construction in Boston.

Barrett said the sale of the 47,000 square feet of land is imminent. "We've just gotten to the point where that's appropriate," said Barrett. "Our expectation is, it will close this month."

Barrett said the site work will continue for another six months, with the hotel portion breaking ground in July or August.

The project originally was set to break ground in 2003, with the completion date targeted at 2006. Though two years off the groundbreaking schedule, Brown anticipates a September 2007 opening.

The contractor hired for the Mandarin project is Suffolk Construction Co. Inc., the architect is CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc. with S.R. Weiner & Associates Inc. acting as the development manager.

The mixed-use project will be closely tied to the Prudential Center along Boylston Street. Brown, former general manager of the Four Seasons, said residents of the posh Mandarin can choose from amenities like private gardens with elevators, roof decks and access to room service and a private spa.

Brown likens the units to homes and confirmed some of the units have sold for close to $2,000 per-square-foot.

"The quality of this project is what's setting the record," he said. "It will certainly be one of the more expensive."

Brown, who compared the homes to "hand-built" Bentleys and said the units are priced in accordance to the finishes and cost of construction for the project, which he admitted is "definitely behind schedule."

This is an old rendering. I can;t find the new one. Anyone who can find it can post it here.

http://www.mandarinresidences.com/images/renderings/large/06.jpg

http://www.mandarinresidences.com/images/renderings/large/05.jpg

High-rise residences at FleetCenter proposed
Bill Archambeault
Boston Business Journal



Boston Garden Development Corp. on Wednesday formally submitted its proposal to build a 37-story, 368-unit residential tower at North Station to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.


The $150 million proposal, called the Nashua Street Residences, seeks to build a 415-foot-tall tower on Nashua Street with a combination of market-rate apartments and condominiums adjacent to the FleetCenter, which Boston Garden Development's parent company, Delaware North Companies developed and owns. The parent company, which has $1 billion in revenues, also owns the Boston Bruins.

The 577,000-square-foot residential tower is part of Delaware North's master plan for a 2 million-square-foot development at its North Station site. The company is developing plans for two additional towers on the site that could include a mix of office, retail and hotel uses, said Charlie Jacobs, executive vice president of the FleetCenter and the Boston Bruins. But this tower is expected to be purely residential and available for occupancy in 2007.

The company has not yet established a price range for the units, but Jacobs said they would not be high-end units despite the commanding views they will offer. There will be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units.

"We took an inventory of the market and realized that there was a lot of luxury out there," he said. "We felt this was more appropriate for market-rate. This whole area is going to have a radically different feel and look. We felt this tower would be best suited to the young professional who would use mass transit to commute to work."

Plans call for 244 parking spaces, but residents will have access to public transportation via a covered walkway to the FleetCenter.

The company filed a project notification form on Wednesday, setting the permitting process in motion.

"We're excited to get the process started," said BRA spokeswoman Meredith Baumann.

However, the building's height could raise objections. At 415 feet, it would be among the two-dozen tallest buildings in Boston. The proposed tower would be about 35 feet shorter than 125 High St. and 100 Summer St.

Though the city's zoning restrictions allow a maximum height of 415 feet on the site, tower proposals often run into staunch opposition from residents and end up lopping off several floors to win approval. But Jacobs said he does not think the building's height will be a problem.

"Honestly, I think people are looking forward to having a high-rise tower here. A, I don't think we've had much resistance from the BRA, and B, I think it's appropriate," Jacobs said, noting that the BRA staff has been supportive of the concept.

"They've been very positive," he said. "The mayor wants more people living in Boston, living downtown, and they've been very supportive about this."

The development team includes New York City-based architecture firm Costas Kondylis and Partners LLP, Boston-based development consultant Meredith & Grew Inc., environmental permitting consultant Epsilon Associates and the Boston-based law firm Goodwin Procter LLP.

Park Essex and The Clarendon are very attractive designs IMO. Good mix of new forms and local context for the generally conservative Boston (architecturally speaking).

Luxury hotel project underway
Waterfront building to wrap around Big Dig vent system

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | June 10, 2004

Construction began at 500 Atlantic Ave. this week on a 424-room InterContinental Boston hotel, whose upper floors will house 130 luxury condos, developer Intell Boston Harbor LLC said yesterday.

Today the site in the Financial District between the proposed Rose Kennedy Greenway and Fort Point Channel is occupied by structures that are part of the ventilation system for the new depressed Central Artery, including two 237-foot high cement towers, said Brian Fallon, an owner of Intell Boston Harbor.

Plans call for a $330 million waterfront hotel and condo building to wrap around the ventilation system. When the 20-story project is completed in mid-2006, the vents will be hidden from both pedestrians and from airplane passengers looking at the Boston skyline while flying in or out of Logan International Airport. Residents paying $1.4 million or more for a condo will not be able to see, smell or hear any evidence that the innards of the building are venting air from the new Artery tunnel, developers said.

''The vents will be invisible," said Gary Barnett, an owner of Intell Boston Harbor.

The InterContinental will be ''a signature Fort Point Channel building" that will help turn the area into a lively neighborhood, said Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Coupled with such projects as a proposed glass-enclosed botanical garden for this stretch of the Greenway and the proposed renovation of neighboring Russia Wharf, this part of the city is ''going to be the big scene for Boston for the next 10 years," he added.

Given the challenge of building around a vent system, it's taken 14 years to get from the glimmer of an idea for the 500 Atlantic Ave. project to the start of construction, Fallon said. Barnett added Intell Boston Harbor is about to close on a financing package of roughly $250 million with HSBC, a financial services company based in London.

On the Fort Point Channel side of the project, the developers envision a European-style plaza similar to Post Office Square. The building's upper eight floors will be condos, most with harbor views. Given the hot condo market, they are crucial to attracting financing.

''To an extent, we're subsidizing the hotel with luxury condos," Barnett said.

The site is also important to InterContinental.

''We are pleased to introduce the first InterContinental Hotel in Boston in this stellar location overlooking the Boston Harbor," Stevan Porter, president of the InterContinental Hotels Group, the Americas, said in a statement.

Combining a luxury hotel with luxury condos also allows condo owners to enjoy such hotel amenities as room service or access to a hotel spa, Barnett noted.

Residences at the InterContinental, the condo component of 500 Atlantic Ave., will likely have starting prices of $800 to $900 per square foot, he said. That would translate into a price range of $1.4 million to $1.6 million for an average two-bedroom unit.

A neighbor of InterContinental also has big plans for the area between the Greenway and Fort Point Channel.

Equity Office Properties has put forward a $300 million proposal to transform Russia Wharf into a mixed-use development that would include office, residential, hotel, and retail space as well as a public plaza on the water. The hope is to begin construction next year on a 32-story tower expected to open in 2008.

Channel Side
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/500A-Back.jpg

Downtown Side
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/500A_fron.jpg

Construction pic
http://home.comcast.net/~poolio/500_atlantic_water.jpg

Blackfan project wins final OKs as leasing kicks off
Michelle Hillman
Journal Staff


Two and a half years in the making, the Blackfan Research Center is fully approved and is set to break ground this summer, a project that will add 575,000 square feet of research space to the booming life sciences research sector of Longwood Medical Area.

The $250 million Lyme Properties LLC project won approval from the city's Zoning Commission last week and is already entertaining proposals for space in the 18-floor building, negotiating with prospective tenants that include the medical institutions already located in Longwood and life sciences companies that could move there. The first leases could be announced in the next several months, said Scott Dumont, who is managing the project for Lyme Properties.

"There is a significant amount of demand with Longwood and elsewhere," said Dumont. "This will be a state-of-the-art building."

The Blackfan Research Center joins a crowded field of projects slated for the area, which is home to Merck & Co. Inc., the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based pharmaceutical company that built a 466,000-square-foot Boston Research Center.

Future neighbors include 300,000 square feet occupied by researchers from Children's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, which will be adding 430,000 square feet for medical research.

Many of the city's top hospitals and health care institutions are clustered in the Longwood area, which has drawn pharmaceutical companies and research entities looking to locate facilities among the medical research field's heavy hitters.

Sarah J. Hamilton, director of planning and development for the Medical, Academic and Scientific Community Organization Inc. -- or MASCO, a consortium of institutions in Longwood -- said new developments such as the Blackfan project will continue to underscore the area as the prime address for top-notch medical research.

"It's truly becoming a new research quadrangle in that area," said Hamilton.

The Blackfan Research Center will be adjacent to the Merck building and next to the Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School facilities.

"It's right in the middle of the new research area," Dumont said.

http://www.nii.net/~wired781/blackfan.jpg

can any of the Boston forumers give us a quick run down of Boston developments, commercial or residential?

Good to see Boston get it's own development thread

now that I've looked at the thread more...lol

Boston has some great talent designing this stuff, much better than most urban development I have seen thus far from most cities nationwide.

If Boston could create something like "San Antonio's Riverwalk" that would be really wild, with the wharfs right there, it would not be too far fetched.

Arch Boston...I'll check it out

The rendering quality for the Mandarin project are insane!

Loews Boston

An economy unfriendly to hotel development long stalled the proposed Loews Boston Hotel, but after a reworked plan, the 25-story building should break ground in 2006. Located at what is now a parking lot at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets, the tower will include close to 70 condominiums on the top ten floors and 198 hotel rooms on the lower levels. Loews Boston's developer, Sawyer Enterprises, had originally proposed a 390-room hotel project in 2001 but, according to Sawyer, because of the economy the project stalled.

"It will be rare to see a straight hotel proposal [without a residential component] these days," said John Connolly, Sawyer's vice president of development. Connolly said that by mixing residential and hotel, "you can get a blended level of financing." Sawyer is ironing out the specifics of the revised plan, which will need to be reviewed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The design has been changed so there is no rendering yet.

Boston Folio

Financial District goes residential
As Kennedy Greenway plans advance, housing emerges
Tom Witkowski
Journal Staff

When the Broad Franklin Development Trust bought a parcel of land at 80 Broad St. a decade ago, the trust's vision was to build an office tower on the edge of the Financial District. But when the developers break ground on their project early in 2004, they will be building 96 condominiums instead.

The $60 million Broad Street project is just one of a number of residential developments planned for the streets on or near what will eventually be the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

As the Broad Franklin Development Trust awaits its final permits, a loft condominium proposal, part of a hotel and office building development a few blocks away, is about to begin the city's permitting process. A handful of other properties nearby are also preparing for, or are in the middle of, that process. Another developer has approval for a hotel and condominium project at 500 Atlantic Ave. and will break ground in January.

The developers have arrived downtown in full. Three of the larger residential projects planned will bring 276 condominiums to the neighborhood by 2008. Smaller projects will add to that number.

And as the city crafts a 24-hour residential neighborhood in the granite and glass canyons of the Financial District, those developers await their buyers.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority added to the momentum last week when the agency named urban designer Ken Greenberg of Greenberg Consultants Inc. to come up with a vision for the three park areas and adjacent development parcels that will replace the elevated Central Artery. The naming of Greenberg, who previously crafted a master plan for the Fan Pier, is a key step. Developers, whose projects are in some cases ahead of city and state schedules for completing the greenway, are counting on significant progress on the park to aid the marketing of their residential buildings, some of which will have prices of over $1 million per unit.

"You will have the highest-valued office, residential and hotel properties up and down the Rose Kennedy Greenway district," said Brian Fallon, managing director of New York-based Intell Management and Investment Co. and Intell Boston Harbor LLC, the developer of 500 Atlantic Ave.

Intell has an agreement with London-based Intercontinental Hotels Group for a 424-room luxury hotel, topped with eight floors with 130 luxury condominiums, a $300 million building constructed around what is a ventilation shaft for the new underground highway and bordered by the channel on one side and the greenway on the other.

"It's time to convert all the talk and all the dreams to the reality of what will be an elegant park system," said Fallon.

"I think we all would hope there would be enough financial resources committed to complete the park system. I would hope the political leadership would help bring closure to the financial commitments as well as the political governance commitments," Fallon said.

How the final greenway will be funded and what entity will oversee the land are two of the questions still hanging as the elevated artery is taken away piece by piece.

Near Fallon's project, Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust plans a $300 million renovation and development at Russia Wharf that will include 50 residential lofts overlooking the greenway, as well as a hotel and office building overlooking Fort Point Channel. The developer hopes to finish the project in 2008 and start selling the lofts in 2007. Equity's expectation is that the greenway plans will be coming to fruition at that time.

"I want to be marketing finished projects, an approved program and plan, a clean harbor, activity on Fort Point Channel," said Maryann Suydam, Equity's regional senior vice president in Boston.

While the final plans for the greenway are yet to be ironed out, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is optimistic and encouraging residential investment along the greenway and in the Financial District. Last year the agency devised a plan to entice owners of certain parcels in the Financial District to develop them into residential buildings. Many of the parcels are still available to be developed, said Mark Maloney, director of the BRA.

"As the highway has been coming down and huge amounts of green space are becoming visible, the reality is sinking into the marketplace," said Maloney.

What is not a reality yet is the final plan for the parcels of the greenway to be developed.

The YMCA of Greater Boston is waiting for a decision on whether it will have dibs on developing one parcel of the greenway, for example. Another parcel in question is outside 500 Atlantic Ave.'s front door. That land is slated for a $70 million botanical garden, to be developed by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Last month the nonprofit organization hired Linda Haar, a former BRA planning chief, to get the plan back on track. The proposal, and related fund raising, is behind where the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the entity overseeing the Big Dig, wants it to be.

"The Mass. Hort parcels are definitely going to be developed for use by the public. I think their sense of use is understood, with the specifics being finalized. We do need to make sure the Mass. Hort plans move forward and get the funding to build their building," said Maloney.

Another part of the city's plan yet to fall into place is making the neighborhood more active 24-hours-a-day, instead of just during work hours. The two combination hotel and residential projects include amenities that will support a residential neighborhood, such as restaurants and small retail spaces. And the cluster of new projects on Broad Street and Atlantic Avenue increase residential density in the neighborhood, developers said. Several restaurants already exist in the area, and people have lived for years in the condominiums in Harbor Towers and Rowes Wharf, as well as lofts in the Leather District, Maloney said.

The pace of the greenway development has been criticized in the past, but what is perhaps the most significant sign of progress is already evident and giving developers more optimism, said Michael Rauseo, the trustee for the Broad Franklin Development Trust. At the end of Broad Street, a block from his condominium project, crews are cutting up the former southbound lanes of the elevated highway.

"Taking down the elevated artery," Rauseo said, "is our best advertising."

http://www.folioboston.com/images/building.jpg

The Madarin rendering is the most recent and is accurate. The Russia Wharf renderings, however, are not. They made some slight adjustments to it to make it appear slimmer but there has not been a rendering of what it looks like since those changes were made.

Other projects under construction:



Trilogy. A 17 story, 576 unit apartment building located in the Fenway neighborhood.


http://www.elkus-manfredi.com/images/hr2l.jpg

http://www.morelloart-design.com/images/architecture/large/Fenway_Park_Develop_3.jpg

http://www.morelloart-design.com/images/architecture/large/Fenway_Park_Develop_2.jpg

Residences at Kendall.


24 story, 321 apartment unit apartment building located in Kendall Square, Cambridge.


http://www.twiningproperties.com/properties/current_projects/cambridge/:v_get/2716/photo1/_res/id=sa_Image

http://www.twiningproperties.com/properties/current_projects/cambridge/:v_get/3073/overview/_res/id=sa_Image

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/galleries/eastcamb/kendall.jpg

lol... I was looking at the rending you posted above, thinking :that is so not Boston"... Then noticed it's in Cambridge, where it will fit right in with the eclectic mix of architecture.

When I was in Boston a few years ago, Cambridge was easily my favorite nieghborhood (even though it seemed quite yuppified), though I also liked Newton quite a bit too.

100 Landsdowne. 18 story, 203 unit apartment building located in Cambridge.



http://www.fceinc.com/content/100%20Landsdowne%20Rendering%2010.8.03.jpg


(can't find a bigger rendering, sorry)

I like Cambridge a lot better than Boston. I think it has a bigger chance for future highrises in Boston if they can get enough people into working or living in the city. The reason why is because Boston is pretty much taking people from neighboring cities and having them work there.

Boston Harbor Residences and Marriott Renaissance hotel. This is located on the South Boston Waterfront.


The residences are made up of three buildings ranging from 13 to 19 stories and a total of 465 condo units. The hotel is 475 rooms and 21 stories.


http://photos.***************/prizm/random/BHR3.jpg

http://photos.***************/prizm/random/BHR1.jpg

http://photos.***************/prizm/random/BHR2.jpg

Institute of Contemporary Art. South Boston Waterfront.


http://www.icaboston.org/Files/Images/SouthwestSS.jpg/

http://www.icaboston.org/Files/Images/NewICA/NorthwestSS2.jpg/

http://www.icaboston.org/Files/Images/NewICA/E_Facade%20copySS.jpg/

http://www.icaboston.org/Files/Images/NewICA/Harborwalk_night%20copySS2.jpg/

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2002/11/10/arts/muscenlarge.jpg

I like Cambridge a lot better than Boston. I think it has a bigger chance for future highrises in Boston if they can get enough people into working or living in the city. The reason why is because Boston is pretty much taking people from neighboring cities and having them work there.


No way. Cambridge is a much harder place to build highrises than Boston, hence nothing over 300' and nothing over 300' planned or even whispered about. It just ain't gonna happen there.

And speaking of Cambridge (again), here is another Cambridge apartment project. This one is approved and is due to start construction by this summer.


23 East Street. This is phase one of the project and has 426 apartments:


http://cache.boston.com/realestate/galleries/eastcamb/cambridgeresidential.jpg

Joslin Place. Longwood, Boston.

150 apartments. 29 stories, 310'. At 310' it will be the tallest in the Longwood section of Boston.


This project is approved and financed and will begin construction this summer. Sorry about the crappy rendering ... it's supposed to be an all glass tower.


http://www.keefecompany.com/photos/joslinmodel032503.JPG

Loews Boston

An economy unfriendly to hotel development long stalled the proposed Loews Boston Hotel, but after a reworked plan, the 25-story building should break ground in 2006. Located at what is now a parking lot at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets, the tower will include close to 70 condominiums on the top ten floors and 198 hotel rooms on the lower levels. Loews Boston's developer, Sawyer Enterprises, had originally proposed a 390-room hotel project in 2001 but, according to Sawyer, because of the economy the project stalled.

"It will be rare to see a straight hotel proposal [without a residential component] these days," said John Connolly, Sawyer's vice president of development. Connolly said that by mixing residential and hotel, "you can get a blended level of financing." Sawyer is ironing out the specifics of the revised plan, which will need to be reviewed by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The design has been changed so there is no rendering yet.


Loews - 25 stories/302'


http://img214.exs.cx/img214/6981/loews14sl.jpg

http://img214.exs.cx/img214/4151/loews9ms.jpg

Portside at Pier One, East Boston.

490 apartments/condos. Approved with construction scheduled to begin this year.


http://www.dimellashaffer.com/portfolio/rs/images/RS1page1.jpg

http://www.dimellashaffer.com/portfolio/rs/images/RS1page2.jpg

http://www.dimellashaffer.com/portfolio/rs/images/RS1page4.jpg

Loews - 25 stories/302'


http://img214.exs.cx/img214/6981/loews14sl.jpg

http://img214.exs.cx/img214/4151/loews9ms.jpg

I heard that Loews Hotel's design had changed. Those were the original renderings. Are there new renderings?

I didn't hear about a design change. There was a rumor posted on SSG that said the hotel would be a W hotel instead. But that rumor does not appear to be true according to the recent story in Sampan.


It's possible there might be some kind of change in design because of the switch from hotel to hotel and residential, but I'd be surprised if it was much different than what was proposed before.

In Fenway, a housing, retail project
$100m building would rise in neighborhood targeted for revitalization by the Sox

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | April 6, 2005

Boston developer Samuels & Associates detailed plans yesterday to build a $100 million mixed-use building near Fenway Park that would include 210 condos and rental apartments, only a few weeks after the Boston Red Sox outlined their vision to revitalize the neighborhood near the ballpark.
ADVERTISEMENT


The building at 1304-1330 Boylston St. would be 14 stories at its highest point. It would be constructed at the corner of Jersey Street; the 1.1-acre site is currently occupied by a parking lot, a Domino's Pizza, and the Baseball Tavern, said Steve Samuels, the firm's president.

''We believe upper Boylston Street has great potential, and we are confident this project will serve as one more major element in its revitalization," said Samuels, who submitted his proposal to the Boston Redevelopment Authority last week.

Last month, Red Sox officials confirmed that Fenway Park will be the team's permanent home and said they were seeking to buy properties around the park, such as the Town Taxi garage on Ipswich Street and the McDonald's restaurant and WBCN radio studios, both on Boylston Street.

With its emphasis on housing, the Samuels proposal is the kind of project that would transform the neighborhood in keeping with most residents' wishes, said Bill Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association. This part of Boylston Street is currently an uninviting stretch of gas stations. Projects such as Samuels' would help make the area more pedestrian-friendly, he said.

Richardson said the Red Sox might have concerns, though.

''I think they're concerned about people moving in, then complaining about traffic and noise," he said.

Samuels doesn't expect that to be an issue. He noted that Major League ballparks coexist with residential neighborhoods in Baltimore and San Francisco.

Calls to the Red Sox were not returned.

Samuels said the building would step back from the street, with its height ranging from eight to 14 stories. Plans call for 25,000 square feet of mostly ground-floor retail space. Samuels hopes to attract such tenants as a restaurant, a dry cleaner, and a coffee shop. The building would include a 293-car underground parking garage; 85,000 of the building's 340,000 square feet would be set aside for office space, Samuels said. He added that he's currently in talks with Fenway Community Health Center about the possibility of its relocating there.

As for housing, the split is likely to be two-thirds condos, one-third apartments, Samuels said.

Samuels hopes to have permits by year's end. Construction could take two years.

Samuels is involved in another big development nearby. In a joint venture with William McQuillan of Boylston Properties, he is building Trilogy, a $200 million mixed-use project. On a site near Boylston Street, Kilmarnock Street, and Brookline Avenue, Trilogy will include 576 apartments. The first tenants could move in just over a year from now.

BRA spokeswoman Meredith Baumann said Samuels' project at 1304-1330 Boylston ''moves us closer to realizing the city and the community's vision of making this area of the Fenway a vibrant, mixed-use district."

In other development news, Millennium Partners-Boston has submitted a draft of a project impact report to the BRA for building on a parking lot on Hayward Place, near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Towers, which Millennium built across the street from Boston Common.

In 2003, the BRA selected Millennium to erect an office building at Hayward Place. Rival developers had proposed to build mostly housing.

Last year, noting the soft office market and the hot housing market, BRA officials asked Millennium to consider both offices and housing. That drew complaints from some rival bidders, but BRA officials said they needed to weigh the alternatives.

Millennium outlined several possibilities for the site. One was a mix of offices, 181 condos, parking, and ground-floor retail space. Another alternative was for ground-floor stores, parking, and 277 condos, but no office space.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/04/06/in_fenway_a_housing_retail_project/



I'm looking for the included render right now.

^ rendering:


http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Graphic/2005/04/06/1112788493_5079.jpg

Its great to see this thread come alive....and I was starting to think there was nothing going on in Boston! :)

Now if we could get the NYC threads jump started!

I think New York has too many projects to list. It is going to end up with at least 10 or more pages and most of those pages won't be view because there are too many projects going on.

Nothing over 300' in Cambridge?

^ wow. I just found out that. I wish they would build taller and more so it would look similar to NYC-Jersey City. Too bad they aren't.

^^ Yea.

Boston and New York have had their own seperate forums for several years. That probably explains why there isn't as many people here from those cities as you might expect.

Very few of the people I see posting on the Boston forum post outside of it. I'm sure it's the same with the New York forum.

Emerson College is filling in this gap on Boylston Steet with a 14 story dorm:

http://photos.***************/prizm/random/EmersonDorm1.jpg


http://www.emerson.edu/emersontoday/images/piano_row2.jpg

Its great to see this thread come alive....and I was starting to think there was nothing going on in Boston! :)

Now if we could get the NYC threads jump started!


I was seriously wondering about Beantown myself...


However, there's no need to get NYC threads going, as they already keep a metro forum group pretty active. That's not to say that NYCers can't partake here a well, but that's thier choice. :)

Battery Wharf, North End. Regent International Hotel and residential project.

150 hotel rooms
104 residences


http://cache.boston.com/realestate/luxliv/premium/pics/battery6_376.jpg

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/luxliv/premium/pics/battery5_376.jpg

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/luxliv/premium/pics/battery3_376.jpg

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/luxliv/premium/pics/battery4_376.jpg

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/luxliv/premium/pics/battery8_376.jpg

Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. South Boston Waterfront.

17 stories, 790 rooms. Under construction.


http://www.starwoodhotels.com/en_US/Media/Graphics/Brands/Westin/Properties/1528/images/na1528wb1_lg.jpg

These are the new renderings for Russia Wharf.
http://www.hshassoc.com/jobsheets/2001204.00.jpg

http://img166.exs.cx/img166/4030/russiawharf056td.png

The building to the right of it is the Intercontinental Hotel.

http://www.emerson.edu/emersontoday/images/piano_row2.jpg
I think they should redesign this. I'm not sure if the rendering make it look bad but this is so boxy and it reminds me of the Saltonstall Building.

Game plan for Garden site
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, April 7, 2005 - Updated: 04:07 AM EST

An ambitious and long-delayed plan to redevelop the vacant lots that surround the Celtics and Bruins North Station home is poised to take a major stride forward today.

City Hall's development arm is expected to give the green light to a proposed 37-story condo and apartment tower on a site near the newly renamed TD BankNorth Garden.

The tower will soar more than 400 feet into the Hub's skyline, featuring a mix of upscale condos and rentals.

With that key city approval in hand, BankNorth Garden owner Delaware North hopes to begin work on the residential tower by early next year, if not sooner, said arena executive Charlie Jacobs.

But that's just for starters.

With plans for the residential tower moving forward, Jacobs - whose family owns Delaware North - said new attention will be paid to long-dormant plans to build out a large site near the arena that was once home to the old Boston Garden.

While that rickety sports hall was demolished a decade ago, efforts to develop the site have languished.

But Jacobs said he expects planning for that project to accelerate now. A plan laid out years ago calls for two towers in the 40-story range, filled with offices, entertainment and retail uses.

He declined to comment extensively, citing today's pending city decision on his project.

But Jacobs acknowledged that the timing may be right for new development, given the changes that are helping transform the area near his family's sports complex.

A series of parks are slated to take shape near the North Station sports complex on land freed up by demolition of the old Central Artery.

In addition, the elevated rail tracks that for years darkened the street in front of the sports arena have been torn down.

``It is very attractive, especially for us,'' Jacobs said of the changes.

Still, any plan to build a large amount of office space will hardly be a slam dunk.

Even as the economy has rebounded, corporate suites in towers across downtown Boston sit empty, with the city's office-vacancy rate hovering near 20 percent. [continue]
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=76913

Although i hate jacobs for what he has done to the bruins, this is good news. Any renders?

Their was a render of the tower in the back of todays business section. I have looked online but can't seem to find it. I'll scan it if theirs any interest, but i can't promise anything quality wise.

Their was a render of the tower in the back of todays business section. I have looked online but can't seem to find it. I'll scan it if theirs any interest, but i can't promise anything quality wise.
Here is the rendering from ArchBoston.com

http://img214.exs.cx/img214/2193/nashuastreetresidencesren3sw.jpg

Looks bad but it might just be the newspaper.

Ya thats the one. Its ok, i guess, i need to see a colored quality render before i pass judgement.

^ I always like towers featuring intertwined masses to break up the bulk... Of course, the tower probably looks like a blank wall of shite form the opposite corner...:)

This is on this week's Boston Courant. Luckily the height itself is not scaled down but it will become slimmer.

The Clarendon Is Scaled Down
by Jason Burrell
Courant News Writer

Developers of a proposed 32-story complex on Clarendon Street have slimmed down their project and made it less imposing, according to a filing they submitted to the city late last week.

Square footage of The Clarendon, a 400-unit residential development planned for the corner of Clarendon and Stuart Streets, was reduced from 466,000 to 418,000. The developers decreased the building's density so it will not block abutters' views.

The new design also moves the building 15 feet back from its original edge along Clarendon Street.

"It gives the design more distinction. It also makes it much better for pedestrians and allows us more of a streetscape," said Peter Nichols, senior vice president for The Beal Companies, which is developing the project along with The Related Companies.

A public meeting on the project will be scheduled for late this month or the next.

The developers, meanwhile, have been discussing some details of the proposal with the Impact Advisory Group (IAG), a group of citizens that advises the city on the development.

Several IAG members said they could not comment on last week's report, known as a Draft Project Impact Report, because they have not had a chance to review the document.

They said, however, that their primary concerns were deveopment's height and effect on wind.

The building is designed in series of levels that start at 29 feet and step up to a high point of 336 feet. Half of the building is above 155feet.

IAG member Doug Fiebelkorn said he does not want The Clarendon to set a precedent for tall residential buildings replacing commercial space in that section of the Back Bay. The Clarendon will be built on a parking lot abutting the Hard Rock Café.

"If they get the height here, that could be the start of something. A whole bunch of tall buildings might not be the best fot the area," Fiebelkorn said.

Nichols said he has relayed comments about the building's height to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the agency that oversees planning for the city and will ultimately decide whether to approve The Clarendon.

Some residents have expressed hope that the development will make the wind better and worse in different spots while having no significant effect overall, according to studies outline in the DPIR.

Nichols, however, said that developers are examining ways to block wind from pedestrians on Clarendon Street.

"We're looking at putting in some street features, which may be trees or statues, that might help out with the wind problem there," he said.

The DPIR also analyzes the project's impact on shadows, traffic, groundwater and air quality.

From the cover of todays globe. Long read, but worth it.


With more than $1 billion being raised for new museums and other arts facilities, Boston is in the midst of an unprecedented cultural boom, one that museum directors hope will elevate the city as a cultural mecca without overbuilding or saturating the market.

The construction wave occurs a century after Boston's major institutions -- the Museum of Fine Arts, Symphony Hall, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum -- opened their current homes. This time, the projects are more varied, ranging from a contemporary art museum on the waterfront and downtown theaters to a pair of cultural centers slated for open space created by the Big Dig.

''It's staggering," said Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, which funds a wide range of cultural and civic groups. ''Boston has always had a lively cultural scene, but I think we're seeing the kind of arts renaissance catching up with the tremendous revitalization Boston's undergone over the last 25 years."

The boom is occurring as New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Dallas are also expanding their arts offerings.

''What we're going through is very much like the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when the great fortunes were made," said Richard Florida, a professor at George Mason University and a specialist on cultural affairs. ''These people realize how much value there is in the arts."

In one case in Boston, a cultural institution is taking the lead in an area where commercial developers have failed. The Institute of Contemporary Art's $62 million replacement for its Boylston Street quarters, due to open in 2006, is the first major piece of construction on the 21-acre tract alongside the federal courthouse on Fan Pier. It will be the first new art museum since the Huntington Avenue home of the Museum of Fine Arts was completed in 1909.

The MFA, which announced a $425 million capital drive in 2001, has already raised $245 million for a building program that will include a new American wing. The Gardner, a block over in the Fenway, announced in December that it will build a 56,000-square-foot building alongside the museum's Venetian palace. Italian architect Renzo Piano has been hired to design the wing, and the Gardner is getting ready to launch a $100 million fund-raising campaign.

The Museum of Science and the Children's Museum on the waterfront have also announced expansions. And organizers for the New Center for Arts and Culture and the Boston Museum Project plan to build cultural centers, with galleries and theaters, on different sections of the Rose Kennedy Greenway. In addition, several colleges and universities are planning museum projects.

''In a sense, this boom shouldn't be surprising," said Florida, author of ''The Rise of the Creative Class." ''All the wealth that's been built up as a result of the creative economy is very much concentrated in a small number of regions. Boston, New York, and Seattle are putting so much distance between themselves and other cities."

Florida said that these projects give cities like Boston a distinct economic edge over comparably sized cities in drawing scientists, musicians, innovators, and others who flock to an urban area because of its cultural riches.


For decades, the land next to Anthony's Pier Four has been targeted by developers for high-rise condos, hotels, and restaurants. Yet the first project to rise from the dusty parking lots will be an art museum that over the last decade has averaged 24,000 visitors a year in a cramped, converted police station on Boylston Street. The new ICA, with its glass walls and dramatic, 75-foot overhang, will redefine a long-neglected stretch of waterfront.

When the Gardner and the MFA were built early in the last century, they, too, were on Boston's frontier, at that time the swampy Fens that were being reclaimed through a series of flood-control projects.

''I love the MFA and Gardner, but those places are deeply established with long-term strength," said ICA director Jill Medvedow. ''The ICA is an underdog's story, and it's a story about risk."

By risk, she means the selection of architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro instead of a more established figure such as Norman Foster, hired by the MFA, or Piano, signed on by the Gardner. Medvedow also sees risk in the ICA's moving first on the Fan Pier, before more seasoned commercial developers.

The ICA's leaders believe this new space -- which will have a 325-seat theater, waterfront café, and triple the gallery space of its current home -- will increase attendance dramatically. To break even in its first year of operation, the new ICA will need to attract 200,000 visitors, five times its highest annual total over the last decade. There is already some skepticism about that goal.

''It sounds ambitious, and I hope there's a large enough market," said Jay Finney, deputy director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. ''But do you really think there are five times the market for the ICA's program than there is right now and the only reason they're not getting them now is building size?"

Finney concedes that his own institution had trouble attracting big crowds before 2003, when the Peabody Essex Museum finished a $194 million expansion that more than doubled its space. In its first full year after reopening, the museum raised its attendance from 140,000 to 350,000. The challenge, he acknowledges, will be to sustain those kinds of numbers once the novelty has worn off.

Other new institutions have been searching out new audiences. The Opera House, closed for more than a decade until Clear Channel spent $40 million on a renovation, drew sellout crowds to upper Washington Street for weeks when it reopened last spring with ''The Lion King." In the South End, the Boston Center for the Arts opened two new theaters in 2004, the first built in the city in 75

The roots of the boom, fund-raisers and cultural leaders say, can be traced to the strong base of wealthy individuals in the region -- exemplified by Fidelity Investments chief executive Edward C. ''Ned" Johnson III, who has quietly contributed to the Peabody Essex and MFA over the years -- and to the newer wealth, the ''creative class" of techies and entrepreneurs eager to become part of the city's cultural community.


''It's really given me a sense of place philanthropically," said Andrew Spindler, 41, an antiques dealer who was drawn to donate to the MFA through the Museum Council, a support group of young professionals.

Individual donors are particularly important because of the region's startlingly poor record of public support for the arts. Legislators feel the same way about museums and theaters as they do about sports stadiums: They want them to be part of the tourism economy, but they don't want to provide money for them. The ICA is getting just $130,000 from the state for its new building. The MFA has received $2 million from public sources for its expansion.

''We have great private resources and because of that, there's been a sense of complacency," said Dan Hunter, executive director of Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities.

In a 2003 report, the Boston Foundation highlighted the gap in public giving between Boston and other cities. In the most recent year charted, 2001-2002, Boston's Office of Cultural Affairs contributed $870,000 to arts groups. That was easily surpassed by public agencies in Dallas ($5 million a year); Charlotte, N.C. ($14 million); Pittsburgh ($28.5 million); and San Francisco ($37 million).

Those figures don't even take into account collaboration between institutions and private, nonprofit agencies.

In Minneapolis, for example, the Greater Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association will host a party in New York City in May to highlight $500 million worth of new arts building projects set to open in Minneapolis over the next two years.

One of Boston's closest competitors as a cultural center, Philadelphia, has spent millions of public dollars on cultural projects in recent years, including significant contributions to the $265 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Philadelphia Symphony; the $139 million National Constitution Center; and the $14 million Liberty Bell Center. In January, Mayor John F. Street of Philadelphia proposed selling the naming rights to the Pennsylvania Convention Center and using the proceeds to fund arts and culture.

In addition, the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Salvador Dali show has been publicized across the country, thanks to a $2.6 million marketing campaign, a third of it paid for by the nonprofit Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. Boston drivers couldn't miss a Dali billboard visible from the Southeast Expressway.

Officials of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, also a nonprofit organization, say they couldn't afford to mount a similar campaign because, unlike their counterparts in Philadelphia and other cities, they don't get hotel tax money to devote to the arts. The Philadelphia marketing operation receives 35 percent of its $12 million annual budget from a portion of the city's hotel tax.

''Philadelphia is eating our lunch," said Lou Casagrande, president of the Children's Museum, which plans a $25 million expansion. ''They have a strong marketing association for the cultural industry, and I think they are looking to make the cultural institutions more of a driver for the city and the regional community. We need to watch that."

By 2009, when the expanded MFA opens its doors, Boston's arts community will face a critical test. There will be more than a half-dozen other new or expanded facilities competing for patrons in the Boston area by that time, not to mention the museums and concert halls operated by Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and other local institutions.

Despite the competition, MFA director Malcolm Rogers says he is not concerned about the MFA being able to create enough new revenue to support the larger staff and increased programming that the new wing will necessitate. The MFA's $425 million fund-raising campaign includes money, on top of construction costs, to operate the expanded museum.

''What I think would be a great mistake would be to pin all your hopes on a vast increase in attendance," Rogers said.

Finney, the Peabody Essex deputy director, doesn't doubt that a new museum can draw a larger attendance when it opens a new facility. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, his former employer, enjoyed an increase in its gate from 250,000 to 800,000 after opening a new building in 1995. But attendance leveled off at around 600,000. At the Peabody Essex, Finney says, attendance declined the second year after the new museum opened.

''The first year doesn't matter," Finney said. ''It's everybody looking at it because it's there. The 'lookyloos,' I like to call them."

Boston's arts leaders have already faced one consequence of increased competition: There were more holiday shows in town than ever before, with the Opera House in operation and the Wang Center for the Performing Arts bringing in ''The Radio City Christmas Spectacular." As a result, many longtime institutions, even the Boston Pops, have suffered at the box office. Boston Ballet has had to lay off staff members and cut performances to save money in the face of declining attendance.

''It's sustainability that really matters," Finney said. ''You have the advantage of having a lot of people see you quickly, and they'll make the decision whether they want to come back."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2005/04/10/1113128304_3940.jpg http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2005/04/10/1113128756_6070.jpg

Pier 4. A three building, 1 million sq/ft residential/hotel/office project nearing approval for the South Boston Waterfront:


http://img207.exs.cx/img207/3937/pier45cu.jpg

Man South Boston will look really great esp. for the 1st impression of Boston for the passengers of cruise liners and other passenger ship. It's great to see Boston finally have some good looking project that will enhance its beautiful waterfront.

ICA Update.

Credit goes to DowntownDave over at http://architecturalboston.com/Forum/index.php for the pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/IMGP1724.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/IMGP1730.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/IMGP1729.jpg http://www.icaboston.org/Files/Images/SouthwestSS.jpg/

Those are indeed some fine pics of the ICA. It looks really small if viewed from across the channel, but looks nicely sized up close like that. :)

Sigh. Bad news for Bostonians. Another great tower knock down so far and the reason is ridicules too. I want to vent my anger but I'll try to hold it back.

South Station developer rejected by panel
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - Updated: 03:42 AM EST

A grand scheme for a giant development on the city's southern gateway - including plans for the Hub's tallest tower near South Station - has hit a stumbling block.
Members of a key community panel reviewing the South Bay project are urging a rethinking of the developer tentatively selected to execute this grand vision.
In a recent letter to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the South Bay Planning Study Task Force lays out a litany of concerns about the Boston Residential Group's plans, including a lack of a major office component in a development vision that was originally supposed to include a skyscraper.
``We find both the approach and design unacceptable,'' states the community panel it its letter.
As overseer of the Big Dig, the Turnpike is looking to cut a lucrative development deal for a broad swath of land and buildings off Kneeland Street near South Station. Turnpike officials are marketing the acreage, which includes the Big Dig's headquarters, as the giant highway project winds down.
The panel's letter comes a few months after the Turnpike tentatively selected Boston Residential. The company was the only one to bid for the site.
But Curtis Kemeny, chief executive of Boston Residential, said in a statement his firm is still hopeful of winning the coveted designation. Such a step would allow the firm to begin work on a plan that ``brings to life many of the concepts developed by the task force'' while also being ``economically viable.''
Task force members, however, say development guidelines should be fully hashed out before the property is put back on the market. With a better understanding of what exactly can be built on the downtown land, more developers will show interest.

In a recent letter to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the South Bay Planning Study Task Force lays out a litany of concerns about the Boston Residential Group's plans, including a lack of a major office component in a development vision that was originally supposed to include a skyscraper.
``We find both the approach and design unacceptable,'' states the community panel it its letter.
Lack of major office component?! The office vacancy percentage in Boston is 20 %. We don't need more office space! We need residential space but nOOoooOoo, they decided not to build a freaking 800ft residential tower that could aleviate the housing problem in Boston. And what is unacceptable about the damn approach or design. Looks real good to me esp. if they are building a freaking park that makes the city and the project look better. And the approach?! Hello! We need the freaking housing. What? You don't want the city to grow? These are terrible excuses and terrible community panel that starves the city of Boston from growing. it look as though they don't know what is happening in Boston, the problems in Boston, and frankly, they don't know what they are doing. :mad: :soapbox: :mad2: :tongue: :bleep:

That article says nothing about knocking down any proposed tower or towers for whatever is eventually developed there.

Damn...boston has quite a boom going on...and all the buildings are quite stunning

45 Province Street is approved and set to start this year. It is said to be 305ft tall

The BRA board also approved a 30-story tower with 150 condominiums at 45 Province St., near Downtown Crossing. The $85 million project will be built by Abbey Province LLC and will include ground floor retail space, a health club and 294 parking spaces.

Ten percent, or 15, of the units will be affordable. The developer will also give $873,000 to the BRA's affordable housing fund for the creation of nine more affordable-housing units. Abbey will break ground later this year as well and expects an 18- to 24-month construction period.

Here is the rendering:
http://www.brunercott.com/library/45Province/45Province040804.jpg

BRA approves $110M residential building project for Leather District
Boston Business Journal

The Boston Redevelopment Authority Friday approved a $110 million 15-story residential building to be built in the Leather District. The project, Two Financial Center, was previously approved as an office building, but will now will be 162 condominiums.

Rose Associates Inc., the developer, will also include 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and below-ground parking for 250 vehicles. The developer expects to break ground later this year and complete the construction in 18 to 24 months.

Of the 162 units, 11 will be considered affordable. Rose is also contributing $2.1 million to the BRA's affordable-housing fund, which will enable the construction of 22 additional affordable-housing units elsewhere. Rose is also giving $180,000 to the BRA's Crossroads Initiative Fund and $20,000 for Project Place in Chinatown.

Finally some news. It's been a slow week.

Just for a heads up. There will be BRA meeting discussing whether to approve The Clarendon or not on May 2 at Copley Library at 6:30 pm. Anyone going?

Is this the Clarendon before the scaling?

http://img36.exs.cx/img36/9101/97-Clarendon.jpg

A tale of two projects: Towering over the Mass. Pike
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, April 30, 2005 - Updated: 08:55 AM EST

A soaring air-rights tower that would bridge an ugly highway canyon dividing the Back Bay and South End is poised to move forward this summer after years of debate.
Developer Arthur Winn's Columbus Center team is finalizing a series of financing and regulatory agreements needed to start construction in late summer on the 400-foot hotel/condo/retail complex, say executives close to the planning.
The 35-story tower development would take shape on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike and would include an upscale hotel, multimillion-dollar condos, parks and an array of neighborhood shops.
The $500 million mini-neighborhood would be one of the largest highway air-rights projects ever built in the country.
Project director Roger Cassin said he's bullish about the prospects for the development, which he expects will open in 2008.
The progress comes amid both a red-hot market for urban living and a disappointing track record in recent years for big Boston development plans.
``There is this whole conversation: Can big deals get done in Boston? This proves that big deals do happen in Boston,'' Cassin said.
No slam dunk, however. Winn began eyeing the air-rights project back in 1997.
But after an official unveiling in 2001, the sweeping plan soon met opposition from some South End homeowners. They expressed anger over the prospect of quaint streets of 19th century residences overshadowed by a modern high-rise.
After more than 100 meetings spanning two years, City Hall gave a green light to the proposal in 2003.
But the Columbus Center developers then faced the challenge of drumming up hundreds of millions of dollars in financing in a still-weakened economy.
However, the overall market for big projects has since started to rebound. And demand for housing - especially high-end condos - has shifted into overdrive.
``We are going ahead,'' Cassin said. ``I am busy with my construction guys, getting my plans in place. I am busy in financing meetings, making sure the money is in place.''

Is Fan Pier deal near?
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, April 30, 2005

High-powered Hub real estate firm Spaulding & Slye Colliers International could emerge as a contender to buy a portion of the key Fan Pier waterfront development site, real estate executives say.
The firm has been involved for years with the high-profile site on South Boston's waterfront, acting as the local development team for the billionaire Pritzker hotel family of Chicago.
Now, as the Pritzkers try to sell the waterfront tract and its long-stalled plan for a $1.2 billion harborside development, Spaulding & Slye is exploring a deal of its own - one that could include breaking up the nine-city-block site into two separate pieces, executives say.
Under this scenario, Spaulding & Slye would take over a section near Anthony's Pier 4 that includes office high-rises that are planned but not currently in demand.
That could allow the bulk of the site - where residential high-rises were planned - to be sold with relative ease.
Still, Spaulding & Slye has competition - including a deep-pocketed team led by Florida home builder Lennar Corp., which briefly had a tentative deal for the site.
The Pritzkers recently rejected another bid by Lennar and local developer Leggat McCall, who apparently offered millions below the $125 million asking price.
The behind-the-scenes Fan Pier bidding comes as City Hall weighs plans to use tax incentives to help spur development, said Sam Tyler, head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
City officials have been fielding requests from would-be Fan Pier buyers for various tax sweeteners, executives say.

So, does anyone feel that the Big Dig's completion has helped fuel growth?

Is it easier to get into the DT area? Is the area otherwise nicer in any way?

From personal experience, it now only take about 10 minutes for me to get to the airport. In the past it has taken me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour 30 to get there. I don't know about other driving experience's because i don't usually drive when im otherwise in the city. If only it was better managed and run.

I will get an update on trilogy tomorow because im going to the sox game. :cheers:

500 Atlantic Ave.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/500A-Back.jpg
http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic1.JPG
http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic2.JPG
http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic3.JPG


( ^ images courtasy shiz02130 at
http://architecturalboston.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=58&start=15 THANKS shiz02130!)

Some Bullfinch Triangle renders.
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos1212/1/10/56/43/13/3/313435610106_0_ALB.jpg
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos1212/1/10/56/43/13/5/513435610106_0_ALB.jpg
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos1212/1/10/56/43/23/2/223435610106_0_ALB.jpg

North End Greenway Park (construction has started.)
http://www.masspike.com/img/big_dig/parks/nepplan.jpg


all picture property of their respective owners.

To all involved....Thanks for putting together this great and informative thread.

A few comments:

Someone said it's too bad Boston doesn't have a riverwalk like SA. It does have a harbor walk that is continuous for miles around the ends of all the piers from south Boston to Charlestown. There are lots of interesting places along the way including parks, restaurants, bars, museums, acquarium, etc. Not the same as river walk, but great and getting better every year.

Boston has a little known observatory on top of 451 Atlantic Ave, the building next to the new intercontinental hotel. You can actually walk around on the roof, take pictures, and lean way over the edge if you're into that.

Most people know the north end of Boston as a little italy and an incredible neighborhood. Many don't realize it is a waterfront area with incredible condos and restaurants on the old piers and great views of the harbor.

I think that the big dig has done great things for Boston in traffic, the beauty of the city and private development near it.

I agree that Cambridge is unlikely to have buildings over 300' in the foreseeable future, although it does have lots of tall buildings.

Boston and SF are probably the only two US cities that constantly choose a greater number of somewhat shorter buildings over a few very tall buildings. This approach works great at street level, but is frustrating if you want a few supertall buildings on the skyline.

Hot fight over a steam plant
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, May 21, 2005 - Updated: 08:21 AM EST

Could new ownership of downtown's 1930s steam plant remove one of Boston's most intractable obstacles to development?

The pending acquisition of Trigen Energy Corp. has at least raised hopes that a new sheriff in town might prove more amenable to moving the plant and its towering smokestacks.

The plant, which belches steam into the sky off Kneeland Street near South Station, sits smack in the middle of the Massachusetts Turnpike's planned South Bay mega-development.



Turnpike executives last year brought in a private development firm to begin sketching out the area's future.

Initial plans call for the Hub's tallest tower, thousands of condos and apartments, shops and parks.

But all of those grand ideas might end up stuck on the drawing board unless the Turnpike and the eventual developer of the key downtown site can convince Trigen to move its plant.

``The last thing (developers) will want is a dilapidated steam plant immediately adjacent to the grand entrance of this development project,'' said David Seeley, a community activist monitoring development plans for acreage off Kneeland Street.

However, past discussions with Trigen have proven inconclusive.

Allan Murray, Trigen-Boston's general manager, confirmed plans for a sale of the plant, which provides heating and cooling for 250 downtown businesses and institutions.

The new owner, Thermal North America, will be based in Boston and will own steam plants in several cities, he said.

However, Murray didn't know what approach the plant's new owners will take towards relocation.

Greenway gets glass pavilion
By Scott Van Voorhis
Friday, May 20, 2005 - Updated: 07:15 AM EST

A Big Apple architect has won a key commission to design the first public building for downtown Boston's new Greenway park system.

Stephen Yablon took first place with a design for a ``shimmering glass box'' that will serve as an information center and ``gateway'' for tourists and others looking to take a ferry to Boston Harbor's island parks.

Yablon will work with the Island Alliance, which is paying to construct the building on a section of the planned Greenway at Long Wharf. The downtown ribbon of greenery is just now starting to take shape with the end of the Big Dig on land where the old elevated Central Artery once stood.

A jury of architects, led by Gary Hack, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, picked Yablon.

Yablon's proposed glass box includes clear walls that will also function as screens onto which images of various sizes and patterns can be cast. The 2,500-square-foot pavilion will include a cafe, bookstore and public restrooms.

Runners-up include a proposed glass structure shaded by a rectangular screen of recycled steel. There were 65 entries in all, from architects spanning the country and globe.

Cathartes wins BRA approval for Charlestown condo complex
Boston Business Journal
Cathartes Investments will build a four-story, 146-unit condominium on the Charlestown-Somerville border. The project will include a five-story parking garage for 190 vehicles.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved the project May 19. Construction is expected to begin in December, and the project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

City Lofts of Charlestown, as the building has been named, will go up between I-93, the Sullivan Square MBTA station, the B&M Railroad station and the abutting residential neighborhood.

The approved plan is a revision of an earlier plan that Cathartes put forward. The building, originally known as Little Neck Lofts, was reduced by 35,000 square feet to 160,000 square feet, and the parking plan was revised as well.

The developer has committed $25,000 to the parks and recreation department to improve a park on nearby Caldwell Street. Cathartes will also pay for $75,000 in neighborhood improvements, including weekly maintenance of a path from the new building to the MBTA station. The project won the approval of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council in March.

ICA UPDATE

Pictures thanks to DowntownDave at http://www.archboston.com

4/17/05
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICACloseCast.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICAClosestCast.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICAProfileCast.jpg

5/14/05
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICA0509-4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICA0509-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/ICA/ICA0509-3.jpg

Picture thanks to bowesst
https://wfs.bc.edu/bowesst/ab/ica.jpg


all pic property of there rightful owners.

Great idea Palindrome. I am going to post some updates too.

By Bowesst. The Trilogy:
https://wfs.bc.edu/bowesst/ab/trilogy/IMG_5413%20copy.jpg

https://wfs.bc.edu/bowesst/ab/trilogy/IMG_5417%20copy.jpg

https://wfs.bc.edu/bowesst/ab/trilogy/IMG_5414%20copy.jpg

Seaport update by BOSDevelopment and Bowesst:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/BOSDevelopment/IMG_0564.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/BOSDevelopment/IMG_0563.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/BOSDevelopment/IMG_0562.jpg

https://wfs.bc.edu/bowesst/ab/seaport.jpg

Here are some news. This next project may end Boston's tallest proposal for a Harvard project.

Harvard's hot new downtown purchase
By Scott Van Voorhis
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - Updated: 01:01 AM EST


Harvard University is getting involved in downtown Boston, but forget about labs or ivy-covered buildings.
Instead, think of Kneeland Street's smokestack-topped 1930s steam plant, which has long been the rotten tooth of the Hub's gleaming high-rise skyline.
Boston-based Sowood Capital, a Harvard-backed investment fund, is bankrolling a controversial deal for the smoke-belching plant - one that could thwart plans for South Bay, the Hub's next mega-development, critics say.

The energy plant that Harvard endowment money is helping buy sits amid a newly reclaimed swath of highway acreage near South Station eyed for the Hub's tallest tower, thousands of condos and apartments, plus playgrounds, parks and shops.
In fact, some suspect the steam-plant purchase is really part of a bid to make a real estate killing.

``This is probably as much as a real estate investment as a utility investment, but that's life,'' said Larry Rosenblum, a neighborhood activist and a member of panel overseeing South Bay development plans.
Not so, argued Megan Kelleher, Sowoo
d's general counsel, who defended the deal and minimized Harvard's role.
Sowood, which is purchasing the plant through the newly created North America Thermal, is interested in the utility business, not real estate, Kelleher said.

For its part, Harvard owns a limited partnership in the Sowood investment fund financing acquisition of the Kneeland Street plant and other similar parcels in several cities. The plants provide steam heating and cooling to downtown businesses.

There are no plans to sell or move the plant, Kelleher said.
``We want to enhance the ability of the site to service existing Boston customers and new customers,'' she said.

Trilogy is really going to improve the fenway area, but i hope they also aesthetically improve the some of the other buildings around it (like the one with the dangelos) as well.

Thought I'd add these pictures, also by Bowesst, to show how far the big dig has come. They are about to finish the surface roads, plant and build some civic buildings on it. There are skyscrapers set to go up at both north and south ends (a crane is visible putting up steel in the bottom picture near international place).

http://users.rcn.com/tocoto/northendpano.jpg

http://users.rcn.com/tocoto/fromcustomhouse.jpg

dam those are some great shots ^!

Here are construction photo of Park Essex about two weeks ago. It added about one or two floors since then I think.
By shiz02130

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/parkessex1.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/parkessex2.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/parkessex3.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/parkessex4.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/parkessex5.JPG

This is the construction pictures of the Intercontinental Hotel 2 weeks ago by shiz02130.

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic1.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic2.JPG

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/05.10.05/500atlantic3.JPG

Just wanna post some high-rise projects from our sister city, Cambridge, that we forgot to mention.

One First(???):
http://cache.boston.com/realestate/galleries/eastcamb/cambridgeresidential.jpg

This is how the tower above will look next to another developement called North Point:
The One First project is the gray building at the lower right side before the two Museum Towers.
http://www.cbtarchitects.com/html/works/images/2004/03/northpoint2.jpg

The rest are pics of North Point:
http://www.cbtarchitects.com/html/works/images/2004/03/northpoint1.jpg

http://www.cbtarchitects.com/html/works/images/2004/03/northpoint4.jpg

http://www.cbtarchitects.com/html/works/images/2004/03/northpoint3.jpg

Bostons new mosque.

http://www.isbcc.org/Slide12.JPG
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http://www.isbcc.org/Slide15.JPG
http://www.isbcc.org/Slide9.JPG
http://www.isbcc.org/galleries/gallery20/DSC_4186smaller.jpg

Developer Breaks Ground on Charles Street Jail Hotel
By Beverly Ford
Last updated: May 27, 2005 11:35am


BOSTON - A project that will turn the 19th century Charles Street Jail into a $100 million, 308-room, four-star hotel gets under way today when Boston developer Richard Friedman breaks ground on the hotel located at the foot of Beacon Hill. The hotel, which will take about two years to complete, is expected to open in early 2007.

The effort will turn the historic 150-year-old granite structure into a luxury hotel and will include a 16-story adjacent building housing most of the hotel rooms that will be situated on land that was formerly occupied by Buzzy’s Fabulous Roast Beef. Massachusetts General Hospital which bought the land for $2.75 million, will lease it back to the developer.

Designed by local architects Cambridge Seven Associates Inc., the construction will preserve elements of the landmark structure, such as the stone exterior, and also include an underground parking garage that will be shared with the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care, a recently opened addition to nearby Massachusetts General Hospital.

The project has faced several hurdles since its conception, including financing and construction issues which drove construction costs up from $80 million to $100 million since Friedman received city permits for the project in 2002. MTM Management LLC of Seattle will manage the property. Friedman, chief executive of Carpenter & Co., which is spearheading the $100 million transformation, also owns the luxury Charles Hotel in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.


http://www.globest.com/news/294_294/boston/134708-1.html

Jackson Square to get $200M makeover
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, June 4, 2005


A $200 million housing-and-retail complex would take shape on the hinge of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury under an ambitious plan being hammered out by a team of private developers and community groups.

The proposed redevelopment of rough-hewn Jackson Square envisions 430 new apartments, condos and townhouses in a series of low- and mid-rise buildings. A large contingent of rental units aimed at lower-income tenants would be balanced by market-rate condos selling in the $300,000 and $400,000 range, the developers say.

There are also plans for tens of thousands of square feet of new neighborhood shops, a new community center and an indoor skating rink.

The Jackson Square revamp will bethe biggest Hub housing development outside of downtown, developer Bart Mitchell said.

``This is the largest one on the books in the city,'' Mitchell said.

Plans for revamping Jackson Square have been in the works since 1999.

But the effort took a big step forward earlier this week when Mitchell's firm agreed to work with a group of previously competing nonprofit builders and private firms.

Mitchell's new partners include the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. and Roxbury nonprofit Urban Edge.

The coalition plans to redevelop a swath of city- and state-owned Jackson Square properties, including a sprawling highway-department road-salt depot.

``We knew this was a big enough project that we needed some private partners to get this done in a reasonable amount of time,'' said Mossik Hacobian, Urban Edge's executive director.


http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=87979



more information: http://www.hydesquare.org/news_and_events/prs/jacksonpartners.pdf

BRA approves plan for Basilica Court
Boston Business Journal


The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved a plan to convert a Mission Hill school to housing and to demolish a neighboring church hall and convent to make room for two residential buildings. When completed, the Basilica Court condominium project will have 229 units, with 28 considered affordable housing.

The Mission Church itself will remain a church. The convent and St. Alphonsus Church Hall have long been vacant. The convent will be replaced with a 116-unit, 14-story building. The church hall will be replaced with an 85-unit, eight-story building. The four-story school will be converted into 28 units.

The Mission Church Complex is a Boston Landmark and is on the State Register of Historic Places. The sale of the three buildings to developer Weston Associates will enable the Redemptorist Fathers, who operate Mission Church, to make the needed capital improvements to the church.

The future of the complex has been in question since the 1990s. A Mission Hill Citizen Advisory Committee appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino suggested adaptive reuse of the school and that the best use for the buildings would be residential.

The conversion of the church property to housing will put the Mission Hill property back onto the city's tax rolls and generate $1 million in annual property taxes once it reaches full occupancy.


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2005/06/06/daily53.html

Children's Museum gets BRA approval for addition
Boston Business Journal


The Children's Museum got the green light from the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build a three-story 22,000-square-foot addition to its existing building along Boston's Fort Point Channel.

The expansion to the existing 150,000-square-foot, six-story building will enable the museum to expand programming. In addition to the addition, the museum will renovate space throughout the building.

Expansion plans include a new central entrance, a new and dramatic lobby atrium and climbing structure; a new "adventure center" on the second floor will house health exhibits and a "global gallery" on the third floor will feature large traveling exhibitions from around the country and the world. The project will continue to be subject to BRA design review. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2006 and is expected to be complete in about 18 months.

According to previous reports in the Boston Business Journal, the museum has hired a team to design and construct the renovation and addition including: Cambridge Seven Associates Inc., Foley Hoag LLP, Leggat McCall Properties LLC and Shawmut Design and Construction.

The expansion will be the first major addition since the museum moved into the 117-year-old former wool warehouse in 1979. The Children's Museum is a private, nonprofit educational institution situated along the Fort Point Channel in South Boston.


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2005/06/06/daily55.html?jst=b_ln_hl

The Museum of Fine Arts's ambitious fund-raising campaign -- far and away the largest in the history of a Boston cultural institution -- is getting even bigger.

What began in 2001 as a five-year, $425 million drive to fund a massive expansion program could now extend to seven years and $525 million, according to internal e-mails between the MFA's deputy director, John Stanley, and trustee Alan Strassman, chairman of MartingaleAsset Management in Boston. ''The length of the campaign may be 7 not 8 years and the amount may be 525 not 500," Strassman wrote.

A museum spokeswoman, Dawn Griffin, confirmed there is ''going to be an increase in the campaign, but the board voted not to disclose it until September." She said the increase was not due to rising construction costs, but due to ''further enhancements" of the project, which includes new galleries, shops, and a 70-foot, roof-level crystal spine. As of May, the MFA reports it has raised $265 million, or 62 percent, of the original $425 million goal.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/06/10/the_money_dance/



http://128.11.41.140/fif=zoom/msp/aerial.fpx&obj=iip,1.0&hei=400&cvt=jpeg

http://128.11.41.140/fif=zoom/msp/american_wing.fpx&obj=iip,1.0&hei=250&cvt=jpeg

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http://128.11.41.140/fif=zoom/msp/jewel_day.fpx&obj=iip,1.0&hei=250&cvt=jpeg



construction is set to begin later this year.


more here: http://www.mfa.org/newmuseum/

Suffolk sees MDC site as new dorm
By Scott Van Voorhis
Friday, June 10, 2005



The relentless march of collegiate expansion in the Hub is poised to take another step forward with Suffolk University eyeing a 31-story dorm on Beacon Hill, according to a public official briefed on the deal.

Suffolk is tentatively ranked as the front-runner to buy 20 Somerset St., the old Metropolitan District Commission headquarters on Beacon Hill, a spokesman for the state's Division of Capital Asset Management acknowledged.

Suffolk has proposed tearing down the 1930s office building and erecting a high-rise dorm on the north side of Beacon Hill. Tentative plans call for more than 300 dorm rooms and a student center, said state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay).

A university spokeswoman declined comment.

The move comes as City Hall and others push local colleges and universities to build dorms for students in hopes of relieving pressure in a tight housing market.

``It's always good in my view when the local colleges and universities are adding dorm space,'' Walz said.

``It helps stabilize the local rental market for apartments.''

Trammel Crow Residential, in turn, was picked for continued consideration in a backup role should a deal with Suffolk fall through, according to the state agency, which sells surplus public property. Trammel Crow's plan also calls for demolition and a condo tower with as many as 21 stories.

Once known as a commuter school, Suffolk's interest in the old MDC building is the latest expansion move the university has pursued over the past few years.

Suffolk recently closed a deal for 73 Tremont St., an office high-rise near Government Center, where it plans to move offices and its library.

Over the last several years, Suffolk has also built its imposing new law school on Tremont near Park Square, as well as another dorm a few doors down from the Somerset building it is now looking to buy.



http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=88732

Pier 4 plan hits shoals
By Scott Van Voorhis
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - Updated: 12:23 AM EST

Mega-developer Stephen Karp's vision for redeveloping Anthony's Pier 4 harborside perch includes a deluxe marina alongside a giant residential, retail and restaurant complex.

But while Karp may be seeing green, his proposal for a 50-slip haven for millionaire yachtsmen has harbor pilots who guide big ships through Boston Harbor seeing red.

The Boston Pilot Association is threatening to hold up Karp's 1 million square foot Pier 4 redevelopment plan unless the dean of Hub development drops plans for a posh marina built to moor large yachts.

Gregg Farmer, president of the harbor-pilots group, said a Pier 4 marina would all but make it impossible for large vessels - from U.S. Navy destroyers, to cruise ships - to dock at the adjacent, state-owned Commonwealth Pier.

``Most of the ships require a tug assist in order to berth safely,'' Farmer said. ``If there is a marina at Pier 4, it wouldn't be possible to dock. It would tear the marina up.''

Karp's New England Development, while reluctant to drop the marina plan, has pledged to come back with a creative proposal that harbor pilots can live with.

But Farmer is skeptical that any marina alongside Pier 4 will work.
The slice of harbor between Pier 4 and Commonwealth Pier where large ships occasionally berth is simply too small - with only a few hundred feet to work with, he said.

A cruise ship with a tug alongside would span roughly 260 feet - and that's before taking the ship's propeller and engine into account, Farmer said.

He said that as a cruise ship slid into its berth at Commonwealth Pier, the boat's giant propeller would churn up nearby water - smashing yachts docked at Pier 4 and damaging the marina itself.

The harbor pilots' concerns have the potential to hold back Karp's long-in-the-planning Pier 4 redevelopment.

Having acquired development rights to the landmark site back in 1998, Karp is finally closing in on the last of the regulatory approvals he needs to start building.

But his final hurdle could be the highest - a Chapter 91 waterfront review process in which a small-but-determined group like the harbor pilots could have significant leverage.

``I think it would be difficult for them to get their Chapter 91 license,'' Farmer said.

Here's to the ICA and the Mosque...

Neighbors angry over Fort Point

Activists say city holding private talks with developers, breaking vows on consistency and transparency in zoning
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | June 15, 2005

City of Boston officials have angered neighborhood groups in the emerging Fort Point Channel area near Gillette Co. by negotiating behind closed doors with four major developers on the size, height, and density of the big projects they want to build, and the makeup of the neighborhood surrounding them.

The negotiations -- with Gillette, Boston Wharf Co., the US Postal Service, and Beacon Capital Partners LLC -- run contrary to promises the city made five years ago to establish and abide by consistent zoning rules that allow public participation, community activists say.

''The community didn't have the opportunity to weigh in or comment," said Shirley Kressel, an urban planner and consistent critic of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which is striking an agreement with the companies on the broad shape of the 90-acre area.

''This is private zoning," she said. ''They arrange the character of the project, and they negotiate it out, and the community doesn't know any of that."

This kind of fight has played out before, most recently with the Residences at Kensington Place, in Chinatown.

By negotiating privately, city officials argue, they can wrest more goodies like parks and roads from developers, in exchange for allowing bigger, taller buildings. Neighborhood groups say the process allows developers to get way too much at the expense of people who already live in the area.

''It's just another way for them to avoid the public process," said Becky Dwyer, an artist who lives on A Street, the heart of the Fort Point area.

In Boston lingo, the city is using a ''planned development area" process, which allows the BRA more flexibility on matters like building heights when it negotiates with a developer.

There's a twist, though. In the Fort Point area, the city for the first time has proposed multiple planned development areas, plus an initial ''master plan" that lays the groundwork for them. The agreements with land owners secured in recent talks will be guaranteed through that master plan, providing enormous public benefits that regular zoning would not, said Kairos Shen, director of planning for the BRA.

City officials add that it's not a done deal. The master plan has yet to be approved by the Boston Zoning Commission, and that's when the public will get to comment.

Shen said that developers originally wanted to build out 8 million square feet in the area, but the city agreed to only six million. In exchange for a first phase of 4 million, and 2 million later, the city secured several acres of parks, millions of dollars in street improvements, and $1 million a year for maintenance of public spaces.

''They called them secret meetings -- we called them working with four major landowners and getting them to agree to things that are not necessarily in their best interest," said Susan Elsbree, a BRA spokeswoman.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday defended the agreement. One part of the deal, he said, was that the city won commitments from Gillette and the Postal Service to remain in the city with their thousands of employees.

Menino also said the process will finally get projects moving. ''The next phase after the agreement is to start the buildout," he said.

Menino said the city has listened to the community, which wanted more open space, and will provide 8.4 acres of parks, or about a quarter of the vacant areas remaining. He said the public review will continue.

''They will have a say in what goes on down there," Menino said, as each individual project is proposed in detail.

The maximum height the city tentatively negotiated with the developers is 200 feet. Asked whether any exceptions will be made, Menino initially said no. But then he added: ''If they want to go higher they'll have to pay a premium, but the premium is very extreme."

The city's pledge to set up zoning dates back to February 1999, when it was developing a vision for the South Boston Waterfront, with a lot of public input. Called the Seaport Public Realm Plan, it said, ''Once the land use and dimensional recommendations of this plan have been thoroughly reviewed by the public, a zoning amendment will be drafted."

Instead, it became clear over the last couple of years to residents like Steven Hollinger, cofounder of the Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design, that the more public process of establishing strict zoning rules was giving way to the planned development area process.

In the absence of new zoning rules based on the extensive goals outlined in the 1999 plan, Hollinger said, the community is presented with a ''Hobson's choice: Accept variances from existing zoning on a project-by-project basis, or you will be looking at parking lots for decades to come."

Urban planning specialists say Boston maintains considerably more zoning subjectivity -- city officials call it flexibility -- than most other cities. ''Boston is essentially an all-discretionary review process," Jerold S. Kayden, now a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, said in 2003.

While developers are sometimes initially frustrated by the lack of established rules for their projects, some say planned development areas and similar tools have produced good results in a historic urban setting like Boston's, where strict zoning laws don't allow for desirable outcomes such as blocks with multiple uses.

Planned development areas ''provide more flexibility for public and private sectors to work to create the kind of unique places that make great cities tick," said Yanni Tsipis, vice president of Meredith & Grew Inc./Oncor, a real estate services firm.

Said Eric Kraus, vice president of communications for Gillette: ''This process provides a significant benefit over the more established zoning process. People have a true understanding of what the parties need to thrive in that area."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

:bash:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/15/neighbors_angry_over_fort_point/

Bidding adieu to Lafayette Center
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, June 16, 2005

Celtics partner and long-time Hub developer Robert Epstein is shooting for a big real estate score as he shops a top downtown office complex he bought just a few years ago.

Epstein's Abbey Group has hired a local firm to market the Lafayette Corporate Center, the failed mall turned successful office complex near Downtown Crossing, real estate executives say.

Epstein could not be reached for comment.

But the local developer, who is also an owner of the Celtics, is looking to top the $133 million he paid more than three years ago to buy the complex, executives say.

Epstein is seeking as much as $200 million for the office complex, located on Lower Washington Street.

Filled with financial-service workers under a lucrative lease deal with State Street Corp., Lafayette Corporate Center sits roughly across the street from Millennium Partners' Ritz-Carlton condo towers in what was once the city's Combat Zone.

With the market flush withreal estate investors seeking stable office buildings to invest in, the State Street lease might provide a good draw, executives say.

Still, Epstein has had less success filling in an empty stretch of retail storefronts that line the office complex's Washington Street side.

In its pitch to potential buyers, Epstein's marketing agents are seeking ways to excite investors.

These include talking up the potential for adding a high-rise atop the relatively low-slung office complex, one executive said.

BRA approves plan for Basilica Court
Boston Business Journal
The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved a plan to convert a Mission Hill school to housing and to demolish a neighboring church hall and convent to make room for two residential buildings. When completed, the Basilica Court condominium project will have 229 units, with 28 considered affordable housing.

The Mission Church itself will remain a church. The convent and St. Alphonsus Church Hall have long been vacant. The convent will be replaced with a 116-unit, 14-story building. The church hall will be replaced with an 85-unit, eight-story building. The four-story school will be converted into 28 units.

The Mission Church Complex is a Boston Landmark and is on the State Register of Historic Places. The sale of the three buildings to developer Weston Associates will enable the Redemptorist Fathers, who operate Mission Church, to make the needed capital improvements to the church.

The future of the complex has been in question since the 1990s. A Mission Hill Citizen Advisory Committee appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino suggested adaptive reuse of the school and that the best use for the buildings would be residential.

The conversion of the church property to housing will put the Mission Hill property back onto the city's tax rolls and generate $1 million in annual property taxes once it reaches full occupancy.

renders? ^

http://www.weston-associates.com/images/smithst_001.jpg
http://www.designerscadd.com/Services/Gallery/BasilicaCourt.jpg

Bostoners,

I just want you all to know that YOU are the city that caused me to change my mine about American cities. Your great urbanist projects that are apparently going up everywhere and attractive modern/postmodern condo projects are GREAT and it is my favourite American city although I have not been there. I plan to visit though!

-SP!RE

Great to hear SP!RE (course I meant great to read) and I am very happy for you that our city was able to change your mind of American cities. I hope you enjoy looking at other cities beside Boston also. Boston is only one great city in the US so don't be afraid to check others out.

Here are some update shots of the Intercontinental Hotel by Justin of ArchBoston.
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Here are some updated shots on the Folio by Joe_Schmoe of ArchBoston.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b291/Joe_Schmoe/Folio.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b291/Joe_Schmoe/match.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b291/Joe_Schmoe/notmatch.jpg

ICA update by Justin of ArchBoston.

http://img280.echo.cx/img280/9124/ica42xa.jpg

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http://img280.echo.cx/img280/6657/ica28sl.jpg

Ashmont TOD Project Brings 105 New Units to Dorchester, 75% Affordable

The BRA Board approved the Ashmont Transit Oriented Development project, which will bring a six-story neighborhood retail and housing complex, containing 105 rental units, to an underutilized MBTA parcel next to Ashmont Station in Dorchester. Because of the project¡¦s proximity to the Red Line and bus routes, this project is an excellent example of a transit-oriented development, which the City and the BRA have prioritized when considering new developments. The project contains a tremendous affordable component, with 75% or 79 units affordable on-site. The project is bordered by Dorchester Avenue on the west and the Ashmont Station busway on the east, and will greatly help eliminate the blighted conditions in the area and contribute to the overall revitalization of Ashmont Station.

Developed by Trinity Ashmont Limited Partnership, led by James G. Keefe and Patrick Lee, the principals of Trinity Financial, Inc., the project was part of a five-year comprehensive community process. Led by the Ashmont Design Committee, working with various Dorchester community groups, the city, the MBTA and the state, the design of this project and the redevelopment of Ashmont Station now fully adhere to the vision outlined through the community process.

Total project cost is estimated at $47 million. The developer expects to commence construction in July 2005 followed by an 18-month construction period.



http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/press/PressDisplay.asp?pressID=271

Updated shots of Residences at Kendall in Cambridge by ckb of ArchBoston.

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Here is a rendering of the Blackfan project (aka Center for Life Sciences). With these new developements and others combined with the existing highrises, Longwood may soon become the third skyline of Boston after the Financial and Back Bay area.

http://www.centerforlifescience.com/images/popups/pop_aerialview.jpg

Park Essex update by Justin of ArchBoston.

http://img211.echo.cx/img211/8528/pe19ur.jpg

http://img211.echo.cx/img211/5106/pe26ea.jpg

Trilogy Update by Justin of ArchBoston.

http://img286.echo.cx/img286/6983/tri16zh.jpg

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Westin plans to be front, center
By Jesse Noyes
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Waterfront residents and conventioneers may not have to make the trip to Faneuil Hall to find some nightlife when The Westin Boston Waterfront opens next year.

Developers said the convention center headquarters hotel, slated to open in July 2006, is looking to do more than add business to the giant meeting hall in South Boston. It wants to stand out as the waterfront's dining and nightlife destination.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Westin's development team were on hand as the final beam was raised to the top of the building's skeleton yesterday.

The Westin will be ``the impetus for better business for the convention center,'' Menino said.

The hotel will feature 100,000 square feet of retail space - much of which will be filled with restaurants.

``We'd like to build a restaurant complex here,'' said Doug Karp, vice president of New England Development, which is working with Westin. Karp is the son of retail developer Steve Karp.

The Westin complex would feature four to six dining options offering an eclectic mix of high-end eateries and some cheaper alternatives.

The waterfront is typically not known for its nightlife. But developers say there's a demand they want to tap into by appealing to both area residents and out-of-town visitors. The hotel will have its own ``T'' stop.

New England Development made a trip to the International Council of Shopping Centers' convention in Las Vegas last month in search of prospective retail tenants.

Other stores will likely be included in the hotel's available space, but for now developers are focused on getting restaurants on board, Karp said. They hope to have the retail space filled by the hotel's scheduled opening next year.

Partners on the move - hospitals eye two expansion sites
By Scott Van Voorhis/Herald Exclusive
Thursday, June 23, 2005 - Updated: 01:17 PM EST

In the latest sign that Boston's hospital sector is booming, the giant Partners Healthcare hospital empire is poised to thrust out from its downtown campus, real estate executives said.

Best known for flagship medical centers Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Partners is already in the midst of a major Boston expansion that includes a lease deal for a big new Cambridge Street lab complex.

Now, Partners is on the hunt for a large expanse of office space beyond its downtown locale - enough for more than 1,200 staffers and doctors, real estate executives say.

The hospital network is in talks to take as much as 200,000 square feet in Charlestown's former Schrafft building, according to one real estate executive familiar with the pending deal.

Partners is also eyeing a major office North Shore property. It's weighing a deal for 100,000 to 125,000 square feet of space formerly occupied by Osram Sylvania in a Route 128 office complex in Danvers.

``If it happens, it would be the biggest office deal of the year for the North Shore,'' said Rich Ruggiero, a director at Cushman & Wakefield.

Together, the Charlestown and Danvers sites could give Partners 325,000 square feet of space - enough to almost fill a third of the Prudential tower.

The possible expansion comes as financial-services firms and other mainstays of Boston's economy scale back and cast large chunks of empty office space onto the market.

But local hospitals and biotech companies, bouyed by rising pharmaceutical spending and research, are growing.

Overall the state's health care sector added 5,000 jobs over the past year, with total employment hitting 585,000 in May.

``Health care has been a very strong driver for employment in the state,'' said David Begelfer, head of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' local chapter. ``It's probably one of the bright spots for solid growth.''

But how much of Partners' real estate moves represent expansion vs. simple consolidation is unclear.

Petra Langer, Partners' communications chief, declined to comment on either deal, but said any such real estate moves were likely to involve consolidation.

Partners has some offices in Charlestown now, including space at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

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Union calls for boycott of new Hub luxury hotel

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | June 23, 2005

Boston's local hotel workers union is calling for a boycott of the InterContinental Boston hotel and Residences at the InterContinental, the shiny, mirrored-glass building that is going up at 500 Atlantic Ave. and set to open next summer.

Janice Loux, president of the Boston Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 26, said this week that a disagreement over whether the new hotel will be operated by union employees is continuing.

''We're declaring a boycott on the place," Loux said, ''both a boycott of the hotel and campaigning against the sale of the condominiums."

Loux, a frequently successful veteran of battles to ensure that new Boston hotels are run by members of her union, suggested the boycott would affect the hotel with respect to advance bookings, not development of the structure itself.

The hotel is in the middle of construction, having topped off its steel structure only last month. Asked whether the disagreement has affected construction, Loux said, ''Not yet."

Hotel owners and operators, especially those with luxury facilities, often try to avoid using union workers, which they say are harder to manage and can increase costs because of union rules.

But many hotels in downtown Boston, a strongly pro-union community, are staffed by Local 26. And the administration of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has had strong support from Loux in the past, has leaned on developers to agree to use union employees.

Brian Fallon, the local partner of Extell Development Co., the New York firm that is developing the property, said, ''The InterContinental Hotels Group is our tenant, and it is neither our right nor our decision to make regarding union affiliation."

Fallon noted that on Tuesday there were 339 union construction workers on the site. ''We are investing over $310 million in the City of Boston," he said. ''It's helpful when people are all pulling in the same direction."

In a statement issued yesterday, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary, said it is ''early in the development of this hotel," and that ''we have preliminary discussions scheduled with the local union in mid-July at their request."

The InterContinental is an unusual case because the union issue was not resolved before the project got its approvals from the city to proceed.

''They're one of the largest hotel operators in the world," Loux said. ''They're a formidable foe."

Asked why this matter is still being fought when the glass exterior is already going up, Loux said: ''Some of them are just sort of tougher than others. This has taken us longer. We still have our teeth in it, and I hope we're turning the corner in negotiations."

Asked about the Mandarin Oriental Boston and Residences at Mandarin Oriental, another high-profile Boston project that is underway, where the labor issue also hasn't been resolved, Loux said she is ''in negotiations" with the company.

Loux would appear to have less leverage on the Mandarin Oriental because the owners have agreements to purchase all but three of the 50 high-priced residential units in that project, located on Boylston Street at the Prudential Center in the Back Bay.

Fallon said that about half of the 130 condos at the InterContinental are already sold. They range in price from $400,000 to $6 million, averaging $1.5 million.

No one from Mandarin Oriental could be reached for comment yesterday. Most of Boston's luxury hotels are nonunion.

The Westin hotel now being built to serve as the headquarters for the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and a Marriott Renaissance hotel, also underway on D Street in South Boston, both will be operated by union workers.

The InterContinental is on a coveted three-acre slot on an old Boston Edison site, which has the Fort Point Channel on one side and soon will boast the Rose Kennedy Greenway on the other.

The hotel and condos are wrapped around a 237-foot-tall ventilation structure that serves the Central Artery tunnel and has the capacity to carry 3.4 million cubic feet of air per minute.

The $310 million, 20-story project broke ground a year ago. The hotel will have 424 rooms and suites. It was designed by Elkus/Manfredi Architects of Boston.

Asian CDC, New Boston Submit Only Proposal for Parcel 24

By Adam Smith

The Asian Community Development Corporation and New Boston Development Partners together submitted the only proposal for Chinatown's Parcel 24, a strip of land along Hudson Street that is now a highway ramp.

The deadline for submissions set by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which owns the parcel, was March 15.

"We will take an initial look at the proposal and if it appears to meet basic submission requirements, then we will continue with the full-scale evaluation of the proposal," said Steve Hines, chief development officer of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

The team's proposal is for a 315-unit project with a maximum height of 20 stories near the corner of Kneeland and Hudson Streets, and a minimum height of four stories near the far southern end of Hudson Street. A total of 70 units would be rental housing and 245 units would be condominiums. A "significant number" of the housing would be affordable to middle- and low-income earners. A total of 70 apartment units are slated to be affordable as are 99 of the condo units. The project would include about 5,000 square feet of retail space, 6,000 square feet of space for "community uses," and a total of 165 parking spaces.

The evaluation of the proposal, said Hines, would include getting comments from the Chinatown Parcel 24 neighborhood task force, the mayor's central artery completion task force, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's development agency.

Hines said "it's difficult to say" how long the evaluation process will take.

Jeremy Liu of the Asian CDC said on the day of the deadline that he hoped the proposal would show the community that the team wanted to stick to the ideals of the Chinatown "vision" for Parcel 24. For several years, a coalit ion of Chinatown groups have met to design a "vision" for what they feel should go on the 70,000-square-foot strip of land. The coalition favored a housing project with a large amount of low-income housing, including condominiums. Over the years, the Asian Community Development Corporation led much of the advocacy around development goals for Parcel 24, but recently stepped down from that role so it could compete to develop the parcel and fundraise for the project.

Up until the 1960s, Parcel 24 was home to many Chinese and Lebanese immigrants before their homes were taken by the state and razed to make way for a highway ramp.

When asked to comment on why no other developers bid on the project, Hines said: "I really wouldn't speculate... I never expect anything. We put the request for proposals out and it's a free market and they have an opportunity to bid on it."

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Task force pushes for more res. halls in campus center
By Michael Naughton
Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2005


The Community Task Force analyzed and examined a presentation during its meeting Monday, which included a design that replaced on-campus buildings, including Cullinane Hall and the Cabot Physical Education Center, with residence halls, and possibly relocate academic buildings to the edges of Northeastern's campus.

Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs Jeff Doggett said the presentation was in response to the task force's specific ideas and was only an exercise meant to bring about more discussion in the committee.

"The task force asked us to put all housing in the center of campus ... we wanted people to see this visually," Doggett said.

During previous meetings the task force discussed the idea of constructing more residence halls in the center of campus, which the committee defined as between Massachusetts Avenue and the Ruggles MBTA station, and Huntington Avenue and the orange line tracks. Monday's meeting was the first time the committee as a whole was able to visually sense what their idea would look like.

At earlier task force meetings, President Richard Freeland set a goal to provide housing for 75 percent of Northeastern's undergraduate population. Doggett said to achieve that goal, an additional 4,600 beds would need to be added.

During Monday's presentation, David Lee, a partner with Stull and Lee, hired by the university as its Institutional Master Plan architect, said 1.8 million gross square feet would be needed to accommodate the additional students who would live on campus. Northeastern's campus is currently more than 6 million square feet.

When members of the task force asked Lee why he did not add residence halls on Krentzman Quadrangle or Centennial Commons for Monday's option, Lee asked if the task force wanted him to build on one of the university's oldest spaces. Task force members responded with, "My neighborhood's historic too," and, "It's not Harvard Yard."

Most academic and administrative buildings are located in the central core of campus, and task force members said they would rather have those buildings on the edges of campus near their neighborhoods than more residence halls.

Besides more centralized residence halls - including one 20-story hall near Forsyth Street - the presentation examined on Monday also included new buildings in areas on North Lot, Camden Lot, Columbus Lot and Parcel 18 near Ruggles and Tremont streets. An additional 800,000 gross square feet of academic buildings would need to be built to replace the ones removed from the center of campus because of the additional student housing. Doggett said the square footage was calculated using mathematical assumptions.

Lee said during the meeting that as construction would be taking place, Northeastern would have to add an additional 1 million gross square feet for future development to stay competitive with other universities. That brought the total of new buildings as designed in Monday's presentation to 3.64 million square feet - more than half Northeastern's current size.

The heights of some of the possible academic buildings on the edges of campus range from eight stories to 25 stories on Columbus Lot.

The lot on Columbus Avenue was the proposed site for a multi-use athletic stadium the university is currently trying to raise funds to build. The Student Government Association passed legislation last summer to modify and raise the Campus Recreation Fee for students to help fund the building of the stadium.

The heights of some of the academic buildings did not sit well with task force members, including Pat Flaherty. The Mission Hill resident said to make the January proposal deadline for sites where new residence halls can be built, the task force may need to meet more than its current once per month schedule.

"It's complicated and not an easy fix," she said after the meeting. "I think [Monday's meeting] was a good step forward."

Lee said, as Monday's presentation was only an exercise, the residence halls in the center of campus could be taller if their uses were split between housing and academics, creating shorter buildings closer to surrounding neighborhoods.

The next task force meeting is scheduled for July 26 and will address the financial and economic aspects of adding more residence halls in the center of campus.

City to OK Clarendon condos
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, June 30, 2005

City Hall is poised to give a green light to a 32-story Back Bay condo tower, the latest in an explosion of Hub luxury residential projects.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority is expected today to approve veteran Hub developer Robert Beal's proposed Clarendon condo and apartment tower.

The 360-foot-tall high-rise would take shape next door to the Hard Rock Cafe and down the street from the John Hancock tower.

Meanwhile, developer Arthur Winn is preparing to move forward a few blocks away with a 400-foot tall, high-rise hotel and condo complex. Winn's project would take shape on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Still, State Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is urging further review by City Hall of the Clarendon project. Walz said she is worried about the wind tunnel conditions that tower might create, as well as the shadows it would cast on historic Trinity Church.

Millennium tower may still rise over Pike
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, June 30, 2005 - Updated: 12:02 AM EST

A controversial proposal for a tower over the Massachusetts Turnpike near the Berklee School of Music, tabled years ago after a fierce neighborhood backlash, may be poised to make a comeback.

Massachusetts Turnpike chief Matt Amorello said yesterday that New York-based Millennium Partners had recently expressed interest in reviving the once hotly contested project, dormant for the past five or six years.

Millennium backed off the plan after encountering determined opposition from Back Bay and Fenway residents upset over the Gotham-like proportions of the skyrise residential project, at one point slated to rise roughly 50 stories.

But a hot residential market - and Millennium's success with other big condo high-rise plans downtown - may have the Big Apple developer looking for new opportunities.

The company, according to Amorello, expressed strong interest in renewing its option on the Back Bay site after being informed it was due to expire.

Millennium's local chief could not be reached for comment.

Still, not everyone is thrilled with news that the tower project, long given up for dead, may now be resurfacing.

The same concerns remain, including the impact such a tower might have on the already traffic-clogged intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street.

``I couldn't imagine supporting 50 stories at the location,'' said Marc Laderman, a board member of the Fenway Community Development Corp. ``It's very congested.''

Meanwhile, interest appears to be mounting in other air-rights development sites along the Turnpike in Boston.

Clark Development, an out-of-state developer with extensive experience in air-rights development, recently met with Turnpike officials to explore building opportunities in the Hub, the Turnpike Authority said.

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BRA approves "Clarendon" project
Boston Business Journal

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) gave the final approval Thursday to a 350-unit development in the Back Bay called "The Clarendon," to be located on the corner of Clarendon and Stuart Streets across from the John Hancock Building.

The project, which is being developed in a joint venture between The Related Companies and The Beal Companies, includes the building at 131 Clarendon St. and the adjacent surface parking lot neighboring the Hard Rock Cafe. The nine-story building located at 131 Clarendon St., currently occupied by the Hard Rock Café and offices, will be retained and a new, state-of-the-art U.S. Postal Service facility will be included in the new building to replace the existing facility. The project will be 443,300 square feet and include a 393-car underground parking garage.

The development will include a combination of rental and for sale units with 13 percent set aside as affordable. It still needs to be approved by the city's Zoning Board of Appeals.

"The Clarendon will bring with it important economic development

opportunities. New vibrant ground-floor retail and restaurant will create more than a hundred new permanent jobs. Coupled with new housing, these uses will activate the streetscape 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, in a statement. "Also, the significant level of affordability will ensure that the Clarendon becomes home to individuals with a diverse range of incomes.

The project will also benefit the city by providing new annual real estate taxes, plus sales and restaurant taxes."

The project was first proposed in 2004 and was revised to the final version approved on Thursday. The development team also agreed to make a contribution of $825,000 for community benefit projects as designated by the BRA, including funding of a planning study for the Stuart Street corridor.

The project has been designed by Robert A.M. Stern in conjunction with CBT Architects.

Millennium tower may still rise over Pike


:omg:

build that!

Some update shots of Park Essex by DowntownDave of ArchBoston:

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Very big news for Bostonians. A pair of twin towers is propose for Boston. Two that are roughly 30 stories and the other pair which are 23 floors but with a chance for it to be 30 stories also.

Condo tower power: Lafayette plan rises
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Herald Exclusive
Thursday, July 14, 2005


A pair of roughly 30-story residential towers would soar into the Hub's skyline at the edge of Downtown Crossing under a plan floated by a veteran city developer and Celtics owner, the Herald has learned.

Robert Epstein, head of development firm The Abbey Group and a part owner of the Celtics, is pitching plans for the twin towers as part of his effort to sell a major downtown office complex, documents reviewed by the Herald show.

A firm hired by Epstein is marketing the Lafayette Corporate Center, a six-story, 600,000-plus square-foot office and retail complex filled with State Street workers, to prospective buyers.

But in a bid to spice up interest in the property, Epstein's marketing agents are also touting the potential for a pair of 23-story residential towers over the garage of the downtown office complex. The possibility of adding a seventh story of offices to Lafayette is also held out, which would boost any residential towers into the 30-story range.

The 560,000 square feet of residential space would be enough for several hundred condos or apartments.

``Holy smokes,'' said Robert Cleary, president of the Codman Co., a downtown commercial real estate firm, reacting to what he called the New York scale of the plan. ``I would say that is pretty aggressive.''

The proposal comes as a series of new developments - from the Ritz-Carlton towers and renovated Opera House to the new Park Essex apartment high-rise now under construction - remakes the Lower Washington Street area.

Once the city's red light zone on the edge of Downtown Crossing, the area is fast becoming a hotbed of pricey high-rise developments.

Still, the height is sure to trigger protests, said Thomas Meagher, head of Northeast Apartment Advisors, a development consulting and research firm. Activists in nearby Chinatown have waged a long battle against perceived encroachment by luxury residential towers.

``Height is a big problem in that they are going to have to battle . . . the neighborhood activists,'' Meagher said. ``It is an area that is definitely on the rise (but) it is fair to say it's still a bit hardscrabble.''

The twin tower residential proposal floated by Epstein, the Hub developer and sports owner, comes as city condo prices soar.

I think it is time to update the list. Right now it seem as though Boston is going through its bigger high-rise boom in years.

These are only the highrises done in Boston. Some of it I use from Emporis. I might miss some project so tell me if I did and correct any mistakes I made.

U/C
1. Park Essex-26 floors(?)
2. 500 Atlantic-20 floors
3. Westin Hotel-17 floors
3. Mandarin Oriental-13 floors
4. Campus Center & Residence-14 floors
5. Blackfan-18 floors
6. Charles Street Jail-16 floors
7. Boston Folio-14 floors
8. Boston Harbor Residences I-13 floors
9. Boston Harbor Residences II-13 floors
10. MacAllen Building-15 floors
11. Trilogy-17 floors
12. 25 Channel Center-13 floors
13. Marriot Rennaisance Hotel-18 floors
14. 44 Prince Street
15. Charles/MGH Station

Approved
1. 45 Province St.-30 floors
2. 101 Clarendon Street-35 floors
3. The Clarendon-32 floors
4. Russia Wharf-32 floors
5. Loews Hotel-25 floors
6. WTC South-17 floors
7. Nashua Street Residence-37 floors
8. Two Financial Place-15 floors
9. Hayward Place-12 floors
10. Kensington Place-30 floors
11. One Joslin Place-29 floors
12. 1304-1330 Boylston St.-14 floors
13. 776 Boylston Street East Building-13 floors
14. 371-401 D Street-15 floors
15. Basilica Court I-14 floors
16. West End Residences at Emerson Place-14 floors
17. 100 Berkeley Street-14 floors
18. Offices at Channel Center-12 floors
19. YMCA
20. Battery Wharf

Proposed
1. SST
2. Gateway Center-67 floors
3. New Herald Street-50 floors
4. Masspike Tower 2
5. Grand Hyatt Fan Pier-20 floors
6. Fan Pier Condo Tower-16 floors
7. Building at Lovejoy Wharf-14 floors
8. 301-319 Columbus Avenue-10 floors
9. 888 Boylston Street-12 floors
10. Parcel 24-20 floors
11. Pier 4
12. Suffolk University Dorm*-31 floors
13. Northeastern University Dorm*
14. Lafayette Tower I*-23-30 floors
15. Lafayette Tower II*-23-30 floors
16. Boylston Square-49 floors
17. One Kenmore Square
18. 100 Arch Street
19. Bulfinch Triangle Project

* Name of towers are still unknown

It's been a slow week eh?

Park Essex update by DowntownDave of ArchBoston. 7/16
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Three story building approved to make Boston's own little Times Square.

BRA selects Amherst Media plan for Theater District development
Tom Witkowski
Boston Business Journal

The Boston Redevelopment Authority chose Amherst Media Investors LLC to develop a three-story glass-enclosed retail and restaurant space with an electonic video display for the corner of Tremont and Stuart streets in the Theater District.

Barbara Lynch, owner of the Boston restaurant No. 9 Park, and Nabil Sater, owner of Cambridge restaurant the Middle East, have expressed interest in the restaurant and entertainment spaces in the building.

The Wang Center has expressed interest in cultural space in the building for the Suskind Young at Arts program.

The new $5 million building will be 13,000 square feet. The building must include 5,400 square feet of office, rehearsal and conference space as a cultural component. The building will also have 2,660 square feet of specialty restaurant and possibly a ticket agency on the first floor and a 5,400-square-foot upscale restaurant, bar and entertainment use on the third floor.

An electronic sign will wrap around the corner of the building and be visible from Stuart and Tremont Streets, mimicking Time Square signs in New York City. The sign will include an 8-by-17-foot video display on the second level above the building's corner entrance. The video display will be available for commercial sponsorship and a portion of the proceeds will go to the BRA for a Theater District Improvement Fund to pay for streetscape and upkeep of the neighborhood.

The proposal was one of three received in response to a BRA request in September.

The chosen development team includes Elkus/Manfredi Architects as the architects, Shadrawy and Rabinovitz as attorney, O'Neill and Associates as development consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. as engineer consultant and Suffolk Construction Inc. as general contractor.

Parcel 24, a twenty story tower located near the entrance of the Masspike is approved along with these smaller residential development.

Housing projects land $2M for 'green' development
Boston Business Journal

Four community groups received $2 million to help build and renovate more than 800 units of "green" housing in Chinatown, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Cambridge.

The mixed-income housing will contain state-of-the-art environmental and energy design features.

The funding came from community development groups working together as the Green Building Production Network (GBPN).

The GBPN partners are Boston Community Capital, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, New Ecology Inc. and the Tellus Institute. Earlier this year they launched the funding program and issued a request for proposal from Boston-area community development corporations for projects that would highlight affordable housing as an emerging area of green, or environmentally sustainable, development.

The GBPN plans to commit as much as $7 million to the four projects.

"This is the first major private-sector green building initiative to be launched since my Green Building Task Force released its report and recommendations in November," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, in a statement. "Boston's community development corporations have been leaders in the effort to create more affordable housing in our neighborhoods and now they will be leaders in building green, healthy housing for Boston's residents.

The four projects selected are:

* Jackson Square Partnership, a joint venture of the Neighborhood Development Corp. of Jamaica Plain, Urban Edge Housing Corp., and private developers to develop over 450 units of mixed income housing, retail, community center and offices on 12 acres of land adjacent to the Jackson Square subway station in Roxbury.
* Parcel 24, a joint venture of the Asian CDC and New Boston Properties to develop 315 units of new housing on land taken from Chinatown 50 years ago by the Central Artery project and returned recently by the Big Dig.
* Fort Hill Place, a new 36-unit condominium development of the Madison Park Development Corp. in the heart of Dudley Square and at the foot of Roxbury's burgeoning Fort Hill community.
* The Greening of Cambridge Initiative of Homeowners Rehab Inc. (HRI) will eventually upgrade HRI's 900 unit portfolio to healthy, green housing. HRI will use GBPN's investment to revamp the way capital needs planning and capital improvements are done by rental housing owners by incorporating sustainability considerations into capital upgrading of 40 to 60 units of its existing housing.

Rendering of the 'Times Square Project'

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It is kind of dissapointing there is not one building in Boston that is under construction and is above 300 ft. When is 101 Clarendon Street supposed to start construction??

Touch of Times Square wins Hub OK
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | August 12, 2005

The Boston Redevelopment Authority gave preliminary approval yesterday to a Theater District proposal that would let a New Jersey billboard company develop a three-story, glass-enclosed building with a Times Square-like electronic billboard dramatizing the building's facade.

The project, which would have retail, restaurant, community, and cultural space, ''will help bring the Theater District to the next level," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said in a statement.

But the BRA's action prompted a disappointed rival bidder for the site -- a team that includes Tufts-New England Medical Center and the managing partner of the Wilbur Theatre -- to threaten legal action, on the grounds the BRA's selection process is ''suspect."

In May, the BRA suggested that development teams interested in the site should consider a 90-foot-high building, yet three months later, the BRA passed over the Tufts-New England team's proposal for a 90-foot building and chose a bidder with plans for a roughly 30-foot-high structure.

The BRA said it made its selection based on the bidders' financial capacity, the composition of their development teams, their designs, and their ''readiness to proceed."

Since 1997, the BRA has been soliciting proposals for a roughly 5,800-square-foot site at the corner of Stuart and Tremont streets, near the Wilbur Theatre. For 24 years, the site has been occupied by the Hub Ticket Agency, which operates out of a trailer.

The development team the BRA designated yesterday includes Amherst Media Investors LLC of Summit, N.J., an outdoor advertising firm; Elkus|Manfredi Architects of Boston; and Suffolk Construction Co. of Boston.

According to the BRA, the owner of No. 9 Park restaurant, Barbara Lynch, and Nabil Sater, president of the Middle East club in Cambridge, have expressed interest in the building's restaurant and entertainment spaces, and the nearby Wang Center is exploring the possibility of locating an arts-education program there.

In choosing Amherst Media, the BRA passed over a plan from a rival development team that envisioned a 90-foot building connected to a wing of about 13 floors over the Wilbur Theatre. That proposal would have included 78 housing units and a Boston Walk of Fame, where famous locals would have had their names imprinted in the sidewalk. Like the winning bid, this proposal would have included a flashy billboard.

The development team for the unsuccessful proposal included Abbott Real Estate Development LLC of Boston; Tufts-New England Medical Center, which owns air rights over the Wilbur; and Robert S. Merowitz, managing partner of the Wilbur.

Yesterday, Merowitz issued a statement expressing amazement that Amherst Media's proposal for a 30-foot building was chosen over his team's 90-foot structure and urged City Hall to ''review the BRA process, which we believe has been flawed and suspect from the start."

The rejection of his team's bid will cost the city ''at minimum an extra $2 million in additional annual real estate tax revenues" as well as ''much-needed permanent housing in the Theater District," he said.

Merowitz also said that in choosing the Amherst proposal, the BRA ''effectively precludes the Landmark Wilbur Theatre and the Tufts-New England Medical Center, abutters to the project site, from ever utilizing its historical air rights."

A BRA spokeswoman, Susan Elsbree, disagreed with the claim that the BRA's selection of Amherst prevents the development of abutters' air rights.

A spokesman for Merowitz's team made available a copy of a letter that the team's attorney sent to the BRA.

In the letter, Michael F. Donlan wrote, ''We feel that the BRA is proceeding on an unproductive and illegal course that implicates a potential need for the Wilbur Theatre and the hospital to seek legal recourse."

One group hailed the BRA's selection of Amherst Media's proposal.

''This is really terrific news for the Theater District and the cultural community," said Catherine Peterson, executive director of ArtsBoston, a group that promotes the arts.

In separate action, the BRA approved a request by Equity Office Properties to modify its plans for Russia Wharf near Congress Street. An earlier scenario envisioned a 300-room hotel, office and retail space, and 50 residential units. The new plan replaces the hotel with 150 additional residences.

Partnership to purchase Fan Pier

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | August 17, 2005

BOSTON --A partnership made up of Boston developer Joseph F. Fallon and a unit of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has agreed to purchase Fan Pier on the South Boston Waterfront, two months after Mayor Thomas M. Menino prodded the current owners to find a buyer who could make something happen.

The sales agreement was disclosed in a statement Wednesday by Nicholas Pritzker, vice chairman of Global Hyatt Corp., and head of the Chicago family that owns the property.

The statement did not mention a purchase price, but people involved in the sales negotiations said it is $115 million -- about $10 million less than preliminary offers for the property the Pritzker family accepted last year.

Languishing for decades and mostly used as a parking lot, Fan Pier has been a symbol of disappointment on the waterfront. The hope has been that developing Fan Pier would help transform the South Boston Waterfront from an industrial port to the city's next commercial and housing frontier.

"This is terrific news for the city," Menino said. "This is one of the most important developments in our city. It's a gateway to our waterfront, and it's been vacant for too long."

Calls to Fallon and MassMutual seeking comment were not returned. But Fallon, president of the Fallon Co., said in a statement, "The partnership intends to engage an architect to design the first commercial building on the Fan Pier within the next 30 days."

Given the strength of the housing market, and the relative weakness of the office market, it was expected that a developer would proceed with residences first.

Fallon, Springfield-based MassMutual, and a MassMutual subsidiary called Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC have been active in this part of Boston. MassMutual provided financing for South Boston's Seaport Hotel, and Fallon and Cornerstone are partners in the Park Lane Seaport, a 465-unit luxury high-rise complex nearing completion across from Jimmy's Harborside Restaurant. Fallon also is part of a team led by developer Stephen R. Karp with plans for developing nearby Pier 4.

Fallon is part of another team developing a Westin Hotel that will connect to the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston.

The sale for the 20.5-acre Fan Pier site is expected to close by the end of September.

But given past history, that's no sure thing.

Last year, two teams of potential buyers --- one led by Karp, another by Miami homebuilder Lennar Corp. --- made preliminary offers of $125 million to buy Fan Pier. The deals fell through when the buyers reportedly later concluded the price was too high. The Lennar team, which included sister company LNR Property Co., made a subsequent offer of $100 million.

Wednesday, in a statement, David Hall, an LNR senior vice president, made reference to what Fallon and MassMutual have agreed to pay for Fan Pier.

"Fan Pier is a great opportunity, and we wish the winning bidder well," Hall said. "However, LNR was not going to go to that price."

The cost of building on waterfront land and the public amenities any new owner would be required to provide have made potential buyers leery of paying too much for the property. Already underway on the site is the construction of a new home for the Institute of Contemporary Art.

The Pritzker family won control of Fan Pier in 1989 and, after a grueling four-year process, obtained permits that would allow for about three million square feet of development, including residential, office, hotel, and public space. It's been estimated that it will cost $1.2 billion to develop the site.

Earlier this year, Menino grew impatient with what he saw as a lack of progress. In June, he threatened to challenge the Pritzkers' city development approvals for the site in an effort to spur action.

If the city had been able to rescind those approvals, the Pritzkers or another developer would have to spend several more years and millions of dollars to get permission to build on the land.

Fan Pier is near the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse and Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant. It is also close to downtown and the new convention center, which opened last year.

But as other nearby projects got done, Fan Pier continued to defy development efforts, through several economic cycles.

Yesterday Menino was optimistic.

"Today's announcement ensures that Fan Pier will finally become a reality," Menino said.

In a statement referring to Fan Pier's buyers, Pritzker said, "We have been assured they will keep Hyatt's commitments to make Fan Pier a development Bostonians can be proud of for generations."

This is great news!

It is kind of dissapointing there is not one building in Boston that is under construction and is above 300 ft. When is 101 Clarendon Street supposed to start construction??

There are several buildings u/c in Boston at or above 300' including Park Essex (325) and black fan (305). Columbus center (450'?) is u/c but in early stages. There are many others above 300 that are either approved or getting close, and will start in the next year or so including the north station tower, joslin place, russia wharf, province street, kennsington place, clarendon among others. As I recall, the permit for Fan Pier allows buildings up to 300' on the inland side. The project is approved for 9 new city blocks and 3 million square feet of office, residential, and retail. There are no real renderings yet but the new owners say they plan to break ground next year on the first commercial buildings, which will probably be the tallest in the project. Boylston place has also resurfaced, originally proposed at 650', not sure how big it will be this time around.

Re: Boston Theater District's Time Square Project: "An electronic sign will wrap around the corner of the building and be visible from Stuart and Tremont Streets, mimicking Time Square signs in New York City. The sign will include an 8-by-17-foot video display on the second level above the building's corner entrance. The video display will be available for commercial sponsorship and a portion of the proceeds will go to the BRA for a Theater District Improvement Fund to pay for streetscape and upkeep of the neighborhood"
I like the "Times Square Project" in Boston's Theater district but I do not like the idea of the electronic billboards being available for commercial sponsorship. I would much rather see ads for current and future plays in the theater district or something Boston related on these billboards. Something with a little panache. I think it will be boring and tacky to see these billboards flashing advertisement ads for Nikon, Nike or Gap. New York 's Times Suare can pull this off because of its sheer size but I don't think these type of ads fit well within the scope of this project.

I'm looking for renderings or pictures of new post office locations in Boston, MA.

Here in Buffalo, NY Postal relocation officials told us that there are some rather unique urban design concepts that were used or preserved recently in Boston. We would very much like to preserve the urban fabric and the existing streetscape instead of trading it in and being blessed with another McPost Office. We would like to avoid things like this...Another McPost Office? (http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2005/08/latest-about-14209.html)

Any help in locating pics and putting us intouch with community groups that may have had input in the design and or development process would be helpful....

Thanks in advance for your help...

David
Fix Buffalo Today (http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com)

Higher than Hynes: Panel studies tower
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, September 3, 2005


Boston's newest tower would take shape atop the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center under an idea that's now gaining steam.

A blue ribbon Beacon Hill panel weighing the future of the state-owned meeting hall is exploring the idea of topping the cavernous and aging Back Bay meeting hall with high-rise condominiums.

In a first step to sort out whether this idea is structurally possible, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority has brought in an engineering firm to review the Boylston Street meeting complex, built decades ago and expanded in the 1980s.

The study will explore whether the Hynes is strong enough to support a high-rise on top, or if it might have to be torn down, said James Rooney, executive director of the state convention authority.

The decision to bring in the engineers was made at the request of the Hynes panel, slated to offer a raft of recommendations on the hall's future by year's end, Rooney said. That future is being examined in light of the opening last year of the state's $800 million convention hall on South Boston's waterfront, which critics say will eventually make the Hynes center unnecessary.

Meanwhile, with debate over the Hynes' future poised to heat up later this year, the state convention authority is now in the market for a real estate consultant.

The State House panel's recommendations could include shutting the Hynes, among several options, Rooney noted. ``In that case, I have a big real estate issue on my hands,'' he said.

And the authority has other real estate puzzles it also needs to solve.

These range from the timing of a potential expansion of the new Boston convention hall - likely another five to 10 years off - to the future of the Boston Common parking garage, which the authority also controls.

Columbus center (450'?) is u/c but in early stages.

What is the status of the site now???

Site preparation is going on now. CC is a very large project with a deck over the MA Pike and a number of buildings so it will take a while to build. By the time steel goes up, the Clarendon which is around 400' should be going up pretty much right across the street.

Relocated Fenway development draws praise

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | October 5, 2005

The decision to move developer John Rosenthal's planned mixed-use complex a block to the west appears to have broken a two-year logjam and may speed development over the Massachusetts Turnpike and around Fenway Park.

Since the Red Sox disclosed their intention in March to renovate the oldest and smallest ballpark in the major leagues and continue playing at Fenway, pressure to develop the area around the park has intensified.

Under the new plan, Rosenthal's 525 residential units, retail space, and 560-car garage would be built at the edge of the long Beacon Street bridge over the turnpike. It would partially occupy a parking lot targeted for a massive garage by the previous Red Sox ownership.

Two public parking garages with a capacity of 1,800 cars would be built over the turnpike to accommodate baseball patrons and employees of the nearby Longwood Medical and Academic Area.

The move has won backing from Rosenthal, Red Sox management, Kenmore Square and Fenway community groups, the city, and, tentatively, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which must approve it.

''This is a moment in time when the stars have lined up," said Rosenthal, who owns a parking garage on nearby Lansdowne Street and estimates he has spent $1.5 million devising his plan for a residential and retail complex.

The linchpin of the move is the construction of two 900-vehicle garages over the turnpike, on either side of Brookline Avenue.

The previous owners' plans to build a new Fenway Park in the neighborhood hinged on city funding to construct a major parking facility. No developer has yet been chosen to build the garages, but MASCO, a consortium of 21 Longwood institutions that currently leases and operates parking facilities and operates shuttle buses, is a strong possibility.

''There are not too many nonprofits that have the ability to build a garage based on the fact that it can fill them," said Marilyn Swartz-Lloyd, president of MASCO, an acronym for Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization. ''We can do that." Though engineering studies haven't been done yet, she said, MASCO will explore using tax-exempt bonds to finance and build one or maybe both of the large garages. ''This is going to consolidate all the existing spaces in the area," she said.

Rosenthal's and MASCO's investments would be private. But most of those involved expect that public money would be needed to reconfigure local streets and connect them to the new garages.

It is too early for cost estimates, but the Legislature pledged $100 million for improvements in the area when the previous owners of the Red Sox were considering building a new ballpark. ''I think it is potentially available," Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said of the state money.

Maloney said the city ''feels it's a good concept and one worth pursuing." He said city officials want to study traffic impacts, a concern echoed by the city-appointed community group reviewing development proposals in the area.

Maloney also raised concerns about the decision to award Rosenthal the right to develop the turnpike property along Beacon Street, and called for an open, competitive bidding process.

Pamela G. Beale, chairwoman of the Citizens Advisory Committee, called the relocation of Rosenthal's 850,000-square-foot project ''great," but warned: ''If it isn't done right and bogs down the neighborhood, that isn't to anybody's benefit." The plans, put together after the committee in August suggested that Rosenthal and the Red Sox work together to develop the area, were reviewed at a meeting of the committee last week.

At seven floors and five floors, the garages would cover the turnpike gash through the neighborhood but would not block the ''blue sky" views from the ballpark that the team is seeking to protect. The garages would be surrounded or ''faced" by residential units and first-floor retail space along Brookline Avenue.

Janet Marie Smith, Red Sox senior vice president, said, ''For anyone driving into the neighborhood to go to a bar, a game, the hospitals, there's very little public parking that's expected to remain" as development occurs around the park.

Rosenthal said this week that the Lansdowne Street parking garage he owns -- the very piece of real estate that led to his designation as a developer of turnpike air rights in the first place -- might later be sold to the Red Sox. The team could develop it according to its plan to broaden the entertainment theme in the Fenway Park and club district.

An important part of the plan outlined in a recent study completed by the Kenmore Association is improvements in public transportation. Rosenthal envisions a Yawkey commuter-rail station with a platform that extends to Brookline Avenue, and a tree-lined, lighted corridor extending from Fenway Station on the Green Line up to Yawkey Station and Fenway Park.

Rosenthal's ambitious original proposal included residential towers of 29 and 23 floors. Under pressure from the Red Sox and others, he reduced those to 20 and 17 floors, but even that was too high for the owners of the historic park. (The project is known as One Kenmore.) Towers of 20 and 17 floors built farther west, along Beacon Street, with seven floors of parking and residences surrounding them, received a better reception from neighborhood groups.

''What they came back to us with is some pretty exciting stuff -- there were a lot of good things in it," said Marc A. Laderman, a Citizens Advisory Committee member representing the Fenway Community Development Corporation.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
Link

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Graphic/2005/10/05/1128489736_1048.gif

THEY GONE!

What is the status of the site now???
By the way Waterview-Chicago will be America's newest supertall U/C 1050ft

taller than Chrysler Building, 5th tallest in Chi......
until they build the Calatrava at 2000ft then 6th tallest

^^ What a retard.

Thus, the ban. :)

Historic site regains stature
Work to begin early next year on Province Street high-rise

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | October 14, 2005

Construction will begin early next year on a 31-floor tower along Province Street downtown, bringing fancy homes back to the historic Boston street more than two centuries after some of the city's most prosperous families settled there.

Since the 1950s, 45 Province St., half a block from Old City Hall and across a narrow alley from the Omni Parker House, has been occupied by a 13-story brick parking garage and the pint-sized Littlest Bar.

Now The Abbey Group of Boston -- partners who ran music clubs in Kenmore Square in the 1970s, graduated to developing property in the 1980s, and who have become part-owners of the Boston Celtics -- are building 150 luxury condominiums near the heart of Boston's business district.

The garage, which hugs the old granite steps that go awkwardly up to Bosworth Street and Cafe Marliave, and which employs what in the 1950s were state-of-the-art vehicle elevators, will be demolished. As previously reported, The Littlest Bar, doing business since the end of World War II, will close.

That will clear the way on the shallow quarter-acre site for 25 floors of condos over nine floors of above- and below-ground parking, plus a large, three-level restaurant.

A 31-story spire is tall for the low-rise neighborhood. Abbey Group chief executive Robert Epstein said the 60-by-250-foot site isn't commercially viable without such height, and a City Hall ever in favor of housing agrees.

''This is an absolutely appropriate place for that level of density," said Boston Redevelopment Authority spokesperson Susan Elsbree. ''It will bring the vitality and 24-hour character we want to the neighborhood."

The architect, Simeon Bruner of Bruner/Cott of Cambridge, said both the materials -- glass and tan terra cotta prefabricated panels -- and the ''stepping down" of sections of the building to four different heights help it fit the character of the neighborhood.

''The issue for us was how to design a building which was two-thirds of the entire length of the block and not have it be monolithic in a historic district," said Bruner.

The firm has had a lot of time to think about that. Bruner/Cott started designing a 13-floor office building for the site in 1988. But the market for office space evaporated, and when the developers took a shot at a hotel and residences in the 1990s, that didn't work either.

Then came the current, seemingly endless residential boom -- and the city's willingness to let developers go higher. The Abbey Group didn't want to just re-create the past with brick.

''There's a confluence in Boston of glass and masonry," Bruner said. The building he designed ''relates old materials to new and is somewhere in the middle, but clearly new," he said.

The 45 Province St. residences have no formal name or image for marketing purposes yet, but Province House is a name with a rich Boston history.

Until 1833, Province Street was known as Governor's alley, on back side of the Province House mansion, so-called because it was the residence for Colonial governors.

Peter Sergeant, a London businessman and also a judge in the Salem witch trials, built the home in 1679 but quickly yielded to governors with names like Gage and Howe, when they found it comfortable. The roof at one point carried a landmark copper wind vane in the shape of an Indian with a bow and arrow.

Province House was later a tavern and minstrel theater, before being torn down in the 1920s.

For much of its existence, Province Street itself was 10 feet wide with 15-inch sidewalks. In the 1920s, amid allegations of political payoffs, the city widened it to what pedestrians experience today. The developers will expand one sidewalk a little more and add landscaping and new street lights.

Epstein and his brother, David, who is also his partner and president of The Abbey Group, which also created the Landmark Center out of the old Sears building in the Fenway, stood on Province recently gazing at the parking garage. ''This is a gem of a block destroyed by what was here," he said. ''We are going to make the landmark of the future, not replicate the past."

There will be parking for 294 cars, about the same number being eliminated in the existing garage and adjacent surface lot. Some will be available for the public.

The Abbey Group, including partner and chief financial officer John Svenson, distinguished itself in the 1980s by rehabbing Back Bay residences with spiffy, high-quality interiors. The Orpin Group of Easton, and Celeste Cooper of New York are designing the interiors of 45 Province St., which will include outdoor space with more than half of the units.

A pool will top the nine-floor wing, nearest School Street, with an adjacent fitness facility, and a rooftop terrace on the tallest building will offer unchallenged 360-degree views. Even ''the lower-level units are higher than in most any residential building in the city," said Robert Epstein.

Opening is scheduled for spring of 2008; prices haven't been set.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

from to
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Graphic/2005/10/14/1129292616_8662.jpg

Big bucks for condo dreams
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, October 15, 2005


It's not only Hub condos that are fetching sky-high prices.

Developers are also shelling out big bucks for little more than a tract of raw land and a set of glossy plans in a scramble to get into the lucrative condo game.

Local condo builders Peter Bailey and Bill Haney are betting as much as $18 million on a scruffy South End parking lot and a pair of nondescript offices, now slated for redevelopment into ritzy condos, according to an executive familiar with the deal.

Developers Paul Roiff and Joseph Fallon are cashing out with the megabucks property flip.

The tract, at 301 Columbus Ave., slated for a high-end condo mid-rise, was on the market for a number north of $15 million, according to another executive close to the sale.

The developers, who declined to comment through a representative, are working with a financial partner, executives said.

``That is a very big number,'' said Thomas Meagher, head of Northeast Apartment Advisors. ``There is no question that people are still betting on the condo market.''

In the heart of one of the hottest condo markets in Boston, the South End tract comes with something that is now literally golden in the Hub's often difficult to navigate development market - city- and state-approved permits.

The site is ready to go, with approvals lined up for a 10-story, 57-unit luxury condo building. At today's prices, several units could sell for north of $1 million, executives said.

Good Lord! Enough of the bricky clunky crap.

Why do you say that? The only brick tower we have is Park Essex and even that is not completed. I'm glad that Boston will build another one. Gives it more diversity.

Here's the rendering of a new tallest proposal mentioned before. Its the Gateway Center project. Good news is that it seems as though they are going to build two identitical 800ft towers along with maybe 2 450ft+ towers and 4 300ft+ towers alongside it. I really hope this get built.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/756/margulies0mh.jpg

^HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where will the 800 ft. towers go in that rendering? :?

Where will the 800 ft. towers go in that rendering? :?
It's the two tallest tower you see in the rendering. Rendering might be a little off on the height.

Has anybody heard anything new at all on the South Station Tower?

Has anybody heard anything new at all on the South Station Tower?
Inquiring minds, Sigourney of Jamaica Plain in particular, still want to know what's up with the ''people mover" that is supposed to ease the connection between trains to buses at South Station.
''Whatever happened to the people mover connecting the trains to the buses at South Station?" she writes. ''Ill-conceived though it was, finished it would be better than the construction site that's been there for years. Are contracts being drawn? Is construction being reconsidered pending development of a tower on top of the train tracks?"
She asked this question last year. This year, Sigourney wrote to remind us that several years ago, $10 million was devoted to the project. She even sent a digital picture of the footprint, that wide swath of no-man's-land between the sidewalk and the brick wall on Atlantic Avenue that connects the bus terminal with the rails.
Sure enough, that was the future site of the people mover.
But as usual in Boston, things change. According to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, ''the so-called 'people mover' is in the South Station developer's latest design plans in the form of an escalator between the bus terminal and the train station.
''Under this plan, the bus terminal's second floor gate area (for arrivals and departures) would be expanded, and connected to the train station. Customers would be able to take the escalator to and from the train station's concourse and/or commuter rail platforms."
Most importantly, ''a $10 million loan from the Commonwealth has been used to design, engineer, and permit the project to date. It will be paid back at the commencement of construction of the project."

Seems as though its still proposed. This was last week.

Construction update on 500 Atlantic Avenue. It's almost done.

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/7273/dscf04846401kj.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/27/62672224_dd002208c7_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/31/62672031_f655560f8e.jpg

Looks good. Any updates on trilogy? I heard that other fenway building got approved too.

500 is as chintzy and blocky as its renderings. A corporate waste of space that does nothing to improve its immediate surroundings or greater Boston in general. I almost liked it better when all you could see was the ventilation shafts.

i dont liek the building to the left...tear it down :guns1:

500 is as chintzy and blocky as its renderings. A corporate waste of space that does nothing to improve its immediate surroundings or greater Boston in general. I almost liked it better when all you could see was the ventilation shafts.
It imrpoves the waterfront a lot. it may look boxy on the side but this building is far from boxy with a curved front and back and a curved base.

500 is as chintzy and blocky as its renderings. A corporate waste of space that does nothing to improve its immediate surroundings or greater Boston in general. I almost liked it better when all you could see was the ventilation shafts.
Do these pics change your mind?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-03.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-05.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-14.jpg

If it doesn't then you definitely have no taste in architecture.

SLA...are you Shirley Kessel?

Here's the rendering of a new tallest proposal mentioned before. Its the Gateway Center project. Good news is that it seems as though they are going to build two identitical 800ft towers along with maybe 2 450ft+ towers and 4 300ft+ towers alongside it. I really hope this get built.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/756/margulies0mh.jpg

I thought that rendering was just to example what could be made of the area and not an official design.

Do these pics change your mind?

If it doesn't then you definitely have no taste in architecture.

This building is a jumbled suburban glass box dumped on the Fort Point...and can't you see that the first three stories of it are ghastly?

You're a fine one to call out my taste if you're all for this filler-building.

FTW, there are plenty of Boston buildings that I admire, and I like the skyline very much in general. Just admit it, Boston could have had it so much better for such a high profile location.

This building is a jumbled suburban glass box dumped on the Fort Point...and can't you see that the first three stories of it are ghastly?

You're a fine one to call out my taste if you're all for this filler-building.

FTW, there are plenty of Boston buildings that I admire, and I like the skyline very much in general. Just admit it, Boston could have had it so much better for such a high profile location.

Now, now, fight nicely!

As someone who is from Baltimore and has no direct interest in this building, I offer the following observations.

If the structure is simply an office building, then it's god awful.

If it's a hotel/retail mixed use project, then I think it is acceptable. I could invision the first 3 floors being stores with lot's of activity visible from the outside. The upper portion looks like so many of those Hyatt hotels that Portman designed in the 80's. So my take on this building is influnced by what the funciton is. By the way, what is the function?

It all comes down to beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I hated the International Style when it was first introduced in the 60's and I still hate it! I have no idea what style (or lack there of) this structure is.

Its a hotel/condo mix. ^

New addition to the ArchBoston website: This seedwiki provides a list of project going in Boston. There is also a list of Boston's tallest skyscrapers and historical building. There is also a list of famous low-rise to mid-rise buildings from the 17th century to now. Enjoy.

http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/architecturalboston/architecturalboston.cfm

A new tower might loom over the Filene's building.

Filene’s site could sport office tower
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Dealmakers
Friday, December 2, 2005

Goodbye Filene’s and hello office tower?

Developers vying to buy Downtown Crossing’s fading retail anchor are exploring just such a possibility, real estate executives said.

Bids for the historic building, put on the block by national retailer Federated Department Stores, began rolling in yesterday.

John Hynes and New Jersey-based Gale Co. were among the bidders, local retail and residential builder Steve Samuels was also expected to make an offer.

Also in the mix: a group of New York investors eager to buy the landmark property.

At least two of the bidders are looking at the idea of building a high-rise to the rear of the Filene’s structure at the corner of Washington and Summer streets, where a collection of relatively new, low-slung buildings
were tacked on.

The Filene’s building, in turn, would be revamped for a new retailer — possibly a Target, Kohls or another discount chain, executives said.

Given the battered state of Boston’s office market, it may sound odd that any builder with a full set of marbles would entertain such a plan.

But such an ambitious undertaking would likely take years to push through Boston’s Byzantine city bureaucracy. Nailing down a financing package from skeptical banks would be another challenge.

So by the time construction crews are ready to break ground the city’s office market may very well be starting to roll once again.

Still, it’s not a game for those with thin wallets.

Bids are expected to range from $130 million to $160 million, notes James Koury, an executive at Spaulding & Slye whose specialty is selling retail buildings.

“I know there are some buyers looking in that range,” Koury said.

Speaking of John Hynes, the veteran real estate executive has quietly earned a reputation as one of Boston’s top commercial real estate dealmakers.

Hynes hit the home run of the decade when he managed to lease and build his new One Lincoln office tower just as the last recession began to set in. That tower is now State Street Corp.’s new headquarters, and may prove to be one of the last high-rises to rise on the Boston skyline for some years to come.

Lately, Hynes has been flying back and forth to South Korea on a hot new development deal — a grueling but exciting undertaking. Hynes and his New Jersey-based firm, the Gale Co., are helping to plan and build a new city not far from the border with North Korea.

And Hynes is savoring some well-deserved recognition, having won the Building Owners and Managers Association’s industry leadership award.

You can go on top of the building next door to 500 atlantic (brick and green glass) and get a close look at the blue glass building (500 atlantic) from the outdoor observatory there. The area on top of the "3rd floor" looks like it will be a warm weather outdoor restaurant or function area. The views from there are spectacular of the harbor, the old leather district and the seaport district. The building looks pretty good in person, certainly not a bunch of ugly glass blocks. Its curves fit along the curved street in front and echo the waves on the water. Parts of the building are actually built above the water.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/80Broad500Atlantic/Intercont-14.jpg

‘First movers’ race to shake up Hub office market
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Dealmakers
Friday, December 9, 2005

It would seem almost absurd given the morbid gloom encompassing the half-empty towers of the city’s Financial District.

More than one real estate executive has recommended the last rites for Boston’s depressed office market.

Well, you can forget about the funeral.

Because some of the city’s savviest developers are looking ahead to a very different day — a day of champagne and back slapping as Fan Pier’s Joe Fallon or national office titan Sam Zell celebrates the opening of Boston’s newest office tower.

The builders brazen enough to look past the current down market are already racing to be the first to roll out the Hub’s next corporate palace. Call it first mover advantage.

At Fan Pier, longtime city developer Joseph Fallon is scrambling to get into the ground next year with a 500,000-square-foot office high-rise as he pushes ahead with long-delayed plans for the $1.2 billion complex on South Boston’s waterfront.

Meanwhile, just a short walk over the Fort Point Channel to the edge of the Financial District, Zell’s Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust is racing ahead with plans for a new office and residential skyrise of its own.

This is not a quest for some odd real estate bragging rights.

Rather, past history has shown the first tower to open its doors amid a rising market can be a commercial real estate grand slam.

Just ask Don Chiofaro, whose first tower in his twin peak International Place led the market in the 1980s and struck real estate gold.

His second tower, by contrast, fell flat in the rough market of the early 1990s.

While coy about his intentions, it was not a theory that Fallon rejected.

“There has been growing interest in this location from a number of major tenants in Boston for the past 20 years,” Fallon said. “I think we would be one of the first to hit the ’09 market.”

Fallon also appears to have solved a quandary that bedeviled the fruitless, 25-year drive by Fan Pier’s previous owners, Chicago’s billionaire Pritzker family, to build the largest waterfront project in the city of Boston’s history.

Fallon has scrapped plans to build a giant, $200-million-plus parking garage under the harborside site, instead opting for smaller, individual parking garages.

This could help speed up his overall planning — and maybe help him steal a march on Equity Office Properties Trust and its Russia Wharf tower plan.

Hub developer and Celtics owner Robert Epstein said he is exploring whether to make a bid for the historic Filene’s building in Downtown Crossing.

And, the Landmark Center builder plans to break ground on his new Province Street condo tower in February.

Epstein waved off predictions of a residential slide, noting that his new high-rise will take shape at the foot of Beacon Hill — and just blocks from the Financial District.

“It’s a perfect location,” he said.

Boston could soon sport another 30-40 story tower.

High-rise plans looking up: Mayor wants new homes built on parking place
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Another big change is coming to Downtown Crossing, with City Hall pushing a new residential tower to give a badly needed boost to the struggling shopping district.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday said he will put out to bid a city-owned parking garage at Winthrop Square for development into a residential tower.

The proposal is meant to both bring in extra property tax revenue for city coffers while also creating a built-in market for Downtown Crossing’s shops on nearby Washington Street, city officials said.

The move comes as Federated Department Stores shops the landmark Filene’s building.

That site includes a number of modern, low-rise structures behind it that could provide significant redevelopment possibilities. Developers eyeing the historic structure are exploring a retail revamp that would include a residential or office tower staged behind the main building, industry executives say.

But developers may soon have a couple of high-rise sites to choose from, with Menino ordering City Hall’s development arm to seek proposals from developers for the Winthrop Square garage site.

“The location is Boston’s next big thing,” Menino told business leaders yesterday at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting.

In a carrot to would-be builders, Menino signaled the city is also looking for a sizable project with “significant height.” That is likely to be between 30 to 40 stories, according to one official.

The chance to build Boston’s next residential tower will likely draw offers from both national and local housing developers, said Thomas Meagher, head of Northeast Apartment Advisors, which tracks the local rental market.

Key players to watch: Equity Office Properties, which owns one neighboring office tower; and Weston businessman Steve Belkin, who owns a stake in a building on Federal Street.

Any tower built on the site would have some of its views blocked by other buildings. Moreover, the area lacks the amenities that have made the Back Bay a hotspot for new condo towers, Meagher said.

Condo buyers ready to write a check for a million or two are unlikely to settle for obstructed views, he added. That means a more likely project would be an apartment tower of mostly rental units.

“You are in a high-rise canyon with no immediate walk-to, 24-hour kind of amenities, such as what you see in the Back Bay,” Meagher said.

Hawks’ guy has eye for tower
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, December 15, 2005

Steve Belkin, the local credit card mogul turned sports team owner, now wants to try his hand at a very different venture — building downtown Boston’s next tower.

Belkin said he will bid for a city-owned parking garage near Downtown Crossing and the Financial District. City Hall is putting the Winthrop Square garage on the market, with hopes of drawing proposals for high-rise development.

Head of the Trans National Group credit card and travel business empire, Belkin said he would combine the city garage with his 133 Federal St. building, which stands next door.

Combined, the two buildings create a nearly two-acre development site — enough for an office and residential tower that would claim a commanding position on the city’s skyline, rising “at least” 40 stories, Belkin said. Belkin said his Boston-based Trans National will have a major stake in the tower, renting 100,000 square feet.

“I view developing this building as a good business challenge, and it can be a wonderful contribution to the community,” Belkin said.

But he will likely face stiff competition for the city garage.

Logical contenders include: Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust, one of the nation’s top tower owners and an abutter; longtime Hub developer Dean Stratouly, who recently opened the 33 Arch St. tower a few doors down; and Prudential Center owner Boston Properties.

However, Belkin’s position as an abutter to the city-owned garage gives the Weston business executive a commanding position, real estate executives said.

Meanwhile, Belkin is pushing ahead with plans to sell his controlling stake in Atlanta’s basketball and hockey franchises, the Hawks and Thrashers, after a falling-out with his fellow investors. The longtime hoop fan is now searching for another team to put his money in.

D.C. is top destination for Logan travelers
Low fares, timing push it past NYC
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | January 16, 2006

The planned launch tomorrow by JetBlue Airways Corp. of six daily round trips from Boston to Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia reflects a dramatic change in local air travel: Washington is the new New York.

After decades of being by far the leading destination for passengers at Logan International Airport, metropolitan New York has in the past two years slipped to second place behind the Washington, D.C., area. Today, nearly one in every eight Logan passengers is headed to one of the area's three airports -- Dulles, Reagan National, or Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Several factors have pushed Washington to the top of the list for Logan travel, particularly a huge drop-off in New York-bound traffic since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With recommended pre-flight check-in waits and security lines now taking more time than the 40-minute flight itself, industry analysts say many frequent travelers are finding ways to avoid New York business trips, or are getting there by bus, car, or train.

At Peter Pan Bus Lines, for example, Boston-New York ridership plunged after 9/11 but has since recovered and is up 5 percent overall, Peter Pan executive vice president Robert Schwarz said. During the same period, discount Chinatown-to-Chinatown bus services emerged, and Amtrak launched its high-speed Acela trains giving travelers more alternatives.

At the same time, Boston-Washington travel has grown steadily, boosted by the availability of more low-fare tickets on that route than between Boston and New York, and commuting by ''road warrior" workers between the high-tech and professional-services hotbeds that drive the local economies in northern Virginia and the Hub.

In the last four months, Bret A. Cohen, 39, a labor lawyer with Boston law firm Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo P.C. who represents many high-tech employers, has made more than 20 trips between Logan and Dulles. This year, he anticipates splitting his time between Mintz Levin's offices in the Financial District and Reston, Va.

''When you do it as much as I do, it gets very easy," said Cohen, who has come to see as many familiar faces on the Logan-Dulles flights as he did during five years of riding the commuter train from Natick to South Station.

After the demise of bankrupt low-fare carrier Independence Air, which shut down its five daily Logan-Dulles round trips earlier this month, Cohen said he was delighted to see JetBlue coming in with fares as low as $80 round trip. ''I'm getting signed up as much as I can on JetBlue," Cohen said.

For Jeremy Billy, the frequent, affordable service between Dulles and Boston has been key to a major career decision. After eight years as an executive with America Online Inc., Billy, 37, is taking a new position this month based in Marshfield as vice president of US sales for Burgopak, a premium packaging manufacturer. But he will keep his residence in Arlington, Va., commuting at least weekly to Logan.

''I feel a little bit like a pioneer, but I am hoping to avoid having to move from Arlington," Billy said, adding, ''You couldn't have done this five years ago."

Billy said he has been a loyal and happy customer of United Airlines, which dominates the Dulles-Boston route. But having JetBlue as both a second choice and a source of price pressure on United ''is a huge plus," he said. ''I'm looking for the cheapest flight I can get."

Discount flights are a major reason Washington has overtaken New York as the top Logan destination, industry officials say. In the heyday of discount carriers such as People Express and New York Air, air traffic between Boston and New York hit a peak of nearly 4 million travelers in 1984. But it has dropped to less than half that level recently after 9/11 and the demise of discount shuttles, according to BACK Aviation Solutions, a Connecticut consulting firm.

On an average day, about 2,417 Logan travelers head to one of the three New York-area airports, LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International, or Newark Liberty International, compared with 2,437 passengers bound for the Washington-area's three airports, according to data compiled for Logan officials by BACK.

In November, JetBlue began offering nine daily Logan-JFK flights on 100-seat jets, which have proven popular, and could push metropolitan New York back into first place for travelers leaving Logan.

Adam Green, JetBlue's manager of route planning, said of the boom in Boston-Washington air travel, ''Southwest really started this phenomenon 10 years ago when they entered the BWI [Baltimore/Washington International] market" with service from Providence and Manchester, N.H., and proved that offering discounted flights could sharply stimulate demand for travel between the two areas.

Meanwhile, AirTran Airways has increased service to eight daily flights from Boston to Baltimore/Washington International and a ninth on Friday and Sunday nights. And more recently Delta Air Lines Inc. began offering six daily Logan-Baltimore/Washington International flights beginning Dec. 1, using 40-seat jets, to fend off low-fare rivals.

An indication that the Boston-Washington route may be saturated came when AirTran last month abruptly dropped plans to offer four daily Logan-Dulles round trips beginning in February, which would have competed with both United and JetBlue.

Yil Surehan, who leads route development efforts for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said that, come March, 40,249 seats will be available each week on flights from Logan to the three Washington-area airports. That's up from 36,692 in November, and had AirTran gone ahead with its service rollout, it would have raised the figure to 43,408.

''It was a completely rational decision for them not to enter the market," Surehan said. ''It doesn't mean that the Boston-Washington market is not good."

Does anybody know when 101 Clarendon Street is suppose to start contruction?

I like the Columbus Center Tower! Can't wait till it's built. :)
Any new news on the South Station Tower or Gateway Center?

I don't really like the building, but what is Park Essex lookin like nowadays? I forgot to look for it when I was home for Christmas vacation. Is it near completion?

I don't really like the building, but what is Park Essex lookin like nowadays? I forgot to look for it when I was home for Christmas vacation. Is it near completion?
Yeah pretty much. They are furnishing the inside and completing the 'crown'

Future at Filene’s looks up
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Goodbye Filene’s. Hello megadevelopment.

A bidding war is still swirling around the historic downtown retail building, with a New York team trying to nail down the site amid competition from hometown developers.

But whoever lands the high-profile block will probably look to build big — clearing a pair of newer structures behind the Filene’s site to make way for a Big Apple-sized project, according to real estate executives familiar with the deal.

That could mean as much as 2 million square feet of development — enough to fill two Prudential Centers — in the heart of the Downtown Crossing shopping district.

David Begelfer, head of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, sees significant building possibilities.

National retailer Federated Department Stores is now selling the Downtown Crossing block after acquiring Filene’s parent company. The retailer is pushing to close a deal soon and unload the valuable Hub real
estate.

“There is a lot of potential in that location,” Begelfer said. “It is right in the heart of the city.”

At play is a city block, bounded by Washington, Summer, Hawley and Franklin streets, that could provide a platform for one of the biggest downtown projects in years.

Built in 1912, the historic Filene’s building covers 60 percent of the site.

But the remainder of the site — occupied by structures with little historic value — is large enough for some significant new development, executives say.

Developers who have looked at the block have considered plans for one or more residential high-rises in back of the Filene’s building, most likely in the 30- to 40-story range. Some scenarios even called for two high-rises, such as a centerpiece condo tower with a smaller office high-rise next to it.

The Filene’s building itself would be renovated and spiffed up to make room for Target, the likely tenant for a pair of floors no matter who lands the deal.

While developers tend to dream big, the 1 million to 2 million square feet in new residential, office and retail space some executives have eyed for the Filene’s block is also a reflection of big bucks the lucky winner will have to shell out to nail down the high-profile deal, executives say.

A Target deal alone would come nowhere close to paying the bills on the $130 million-plus that Federated is seeking.

“There is no question that any developer will want to maximize that site,” Begelfer said.

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/herald_filenes.jpg

Any new news on the South Station Tower or Gateway Center?

Future at Filene’s looks up
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Goodbye Filene’s. Hello megadevelopment.

A bidding war is still swirling around the historic downtown retail building, with a New York team trying to nail down the site amid competition from hometown developers.

But whoever lands the high-profile block will probably look to build big — clearing a pair of newer structures behind the Filene’s site to make way for a Big Apple-sized project, according to real estate executives familiar with the deal.

That could mean as much as 2 million square feet of development — enough to fill two Prudential Centers — in the heart of the Downtown Crossing shopping district.

David Begelfer, head of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, sees significant building possibilities.

National retailer Federated Department Stores is now selling the Downtown Crossing block after acquiring Filene’s parent company. The retailer is pushing to close a deal soon and unload the valuable Hub real
estate.

“There is a lot of potential in that location,” Begelfer said. “It is right in the heart of the city.”

At play is a city block, bounded by Washington, Summer, Hawley and Franklin streets, that could provide a platform for one of the biggest downtown projects in years.

Built in 1912, the historic Filene’s building covers 60 percent of the site.

But the remainder of the site — occupied by structures with little historic value — is large enough for some significant new development, executives say.

Developers who have looked at the block have considered plans for one or more residential high-rises in back of the Filene’s building, most likely in the 30- to 40-story range. Some scenarios even called for two high-rises, such as a centerpiece condo tower with a smaller office high-rise next to it.

The Filene’s building itself would be renovated and spiffed up to make room for Target, the likely tenant for a pair of floors no matter who lands the deal.

While developers tend to dream big, the 1 million to 2 million square feet in new residential, office and retail space some executives have eyed for the Filene’s block is also a reflection of big bucks the lucky winner will have to shell out to nail down the high-profile deal, executives say.

A Target deal alone would come nowhere close to paying the bills on the $130 million-plus that Federated is seeking.

“There is no question that any developer will want to maximize that site,” Begelfer said.

http://www.seanhenryryan.com/arch/herald_filenes.jpg

awesome!

NEW TALLEST ON THE WAY!!!

This was just announced by Menino yesterday. A 1,000 ft+ tower that would become Boston's new tallest!!!

Construction of 1,000-foot skyscraper urged

February 17, 2006


Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday called for construction of the city's tallest building ever -- a 70- to 80-story tower reaching 1,000 feet high on the site of the Winthrop Square parking garage in the Financial District -- to demonstrate Boston's confidence in its future.

'Here, we'll be looking for proposals that symbolize the full scope of this city's greatness," Menino told the city's business community yesterday, in a speech at the Seaport Hotel on the South Boston Waterfront.

''We will insist on bold vision and world-class architecture," Menino said of the tower envisioned by City Hall planners. In a colorful artist's rendering of the skyline the city envisions, two slender spires extend the building high above downtown's two tallest structures, the One International Place building and One Financial Center, both 46 floors.

Ken Greenberg, an urban designer and founder of Greenberg Consultants Inc. of Toronto, said Boston could use another skyscraper, because the 1980s and '90s brought a series of buildings of much the same height. ''I don't think all tall buildings are wonderful everywhere," said Greenberg, ''but there are some places where they can play very significant roles.

''What this building does is it creates a punctuation. I was struck by this -- it adds a little something special, gives a little focus to the eye."

In his speech at the annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Menino said the city's immediate priorities are addressing increasing crime, meeting the challenges of rising costs, and staying competitive in a world economy where Boston is less insulated than ever from global challenges.

But a new signature tower would show confidence about overcoming those obstacles, Menino said, serving as ''a stunning statement of our belief in Boston's bright future."

Greenberg was interim chief planner at the BRA until last month but was not involved in the Winthrop Square plan, and he continues to advise the city on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway design. ''There is something about dense cities that is good -- the life and activity," he said.

With the office leasing market showing significant improvement, developers are expected to line up as the city seeks proposals over the next two months for the location at 115 Federal St., between Franklin and Summer streets.

''We expect proposals from around the world," said Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. ''Dozens."

The office market is improving in Boston and the surrounding area after a difficult few years, and suddenly there is talk in the Boston real estate community of a new office tower, or even two. Two buildings already permitted and in design are located at Russia Wharf and on Fan Pier. But those are in the range of 30 floors or smaller, like most of Boston's recent buildings.

The Winthrop Square site also could be developed for residential use, or some combination of residential and commercial. Developers are allowed greater height if they include housing. The garage, which is owned by the city, would be demolished.

Building height downtown has been constrained in Boston by a combination of factors, including market demand, opposition from community activists who fight the increased traffic and shadows that towers bring, and a patchwork of complex zoning rules.

Though there are many exceptions, height is limited to about 150 feet in most of the city.

Yesterday's proposal -- about 20 floors higher than the city's tallest building, the 62-story John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay -- would radically redraw the city's skyline. Even at 1,000 feet, however, it is still shorter than other major skyscrapers around the world, including the 1,250-foot-high Empire State Building.

A number of local industry players, including International Place co-owner Donald J. Chiofaro and Landmark Center developer Abbey Group, are interested in bidding on the Winthrop Square site.

''A 1,000-foot tower, really?" said Robert Epstein, chief executive of Abbey Group. ''I like tall buildings. We'll definitely look at it."

A spokesman for Steve Belkin, founder of Trans National Group of Boston, said yesterday that he would consider a bid to develop the site. Belkin owns 133 Federal St., an office building with a key location adjacent to the Winthrop Square garage.

''I look forward eagerly to responding and working diligently with the city to help make Mayor Menino's incredible vision a reality," Belkin, who was traveling yesterday, said through a spokesman.

The last office towers to open in the city -- the State Street Financial Center near Chinatown and 33 Arch St. near Downtown Crossing -- are 36 and 33 floors tall respectively.

The tallest buildings expected to be built on the South Boston Waterfront are likely to be even shorter, because they are closer to Logan International Airport and under flight paths. The two World Trade Center towers are 16 and 17 floors.

Over the past decade or so, community activists have raised vigorous objections to tall buildings. Neighbors of the planned Columbus Center, over the Massachusetts Turnpike between the Back Bay and South End, objected to its height, which was finally approved by the city at 35 floors in 2003.

Menino fought a losing battle with Leather District residents who wanted to keep a site known as Two Financial Center, near the 46-floor One Financial Center, from becoming a tower. It ended up being approved at 12 floors.

John B. Hynes III, president of Gale International, which successfully developed the State Street tower, has been critical of an anti-height movement in Boston that has prevented the Boston skyline from extending upward in recent years.

Winthrop Square is ''probably the best office location left in the city," Hynes said last night. ''We're gung-ho on it."

Way to go Boston!

More good news. The stranded SST tower seems to move another step closer to being developed. Though lopped off to an unofficial 695ft tall tower, it will be a landmark tower regardless.

Final reports filed for 1.8M-square-foot South Station project

Boston Business Journal
March 1, 2006


Hines and TUDC LLC have filed final impact reports with the state and city for the 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use project proposed at South Station Transportation Center.

The development partners filed an environmental impact report with the state and the final project impact report with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The final reports respond to issues raised by the state and city in permits filed in 2000 and 2002.

The filings represent a major step forward in the development of the site, according to an announcement by the development partners.

The documents represent revisions to the proposal in response to comments and concerns raised from such neighbors as the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The revised project includes a proposed 40-story office tower, a 13-story hotel and residential building and a nine-story office building to be built on air rights between the back of South Station and the bus terminal. Hines has proposed $40 million in transportation-related improvements to South Station. The transportation improvements would connect the train station and bus terminal and expand the terminal by 40 percent.

David Perry, senior vice president at Hines, said in a statement the South Station project will generate approximately 2,600 jobs during construction and approximately 6,000 permanent jobs in the hotel and office buildings after completion.

Linkage payments will total approximately $10 million, and real estate taxes are anticipated to be approximately $12 million per year, according to the statement, which said the total private investment in the project is expected to exceed $800 million.

The plan to redevelop South Station first came about in 1963. In 1984 the MBTA, BRA and Federal Railroad Administration announced the plan to redevelop the site into a major transportation and commercial center. In 1991, the BRA designated TUDC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tufts University, as the developer of the air rights above South Station.

TUDC selected Hines to be its co-developer in October 1997 and later selected Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. of New Haven, Conn. as the design architect.

Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide with assets valued at $11.7 billion. Hines has been active in the Boston real estate market since 1980, and is the developer and property manager of 500 Hundred Boylston and 222 Berkeley St.

http://ablarchitecture.com/images/tom/skyline/09.jpg

Updates rendering from the globe.

http://static.flickr.com/52/106822574_33c7de3a6d.jpg

I think i like the older one more. I would love the older one if it wasn't so fat!

I need to see that rendering in color! I'm looking forward to some more information on this project.

A thousand plus footer would certainly be an interesting & dramatic addition to Boston's skyline. But I guess the first thing is a more detailed analysis of the commercial market. Boston has lost some major banking & financial corporations in recent years. Given Boston's skyrocketting housing prices, perhaps a better idea might be more high-rise housing.

Does it have to be solely office ? Seems like mixed-use would be viable. Every city's doing it.

Agree, mixed use with high housing content would be a much better idea than mostly office.

A thousand plus footer would certainly be an interesting & dramatic addition to Boston's skyline. But I guess the first thing is a more detailed analysis of the commercial market. Boston has lost some major banking & financial corporations in recent years. Given Boston's skyrocketting housing prices, perhaps a better idea might be more high-rise housing.

A mixed use buiding is reasonable. There are others already built and U/C in Boston.

That said, Boston lost Fleet bank to BOA. BOA moved its entire wealth management division to Boston, and the net number of jobs is about the same. Mellon Bank also has its wealth management hdqtrs in Boston. Hancock sold itself to TD Bank. TD bank built a new glass highrise in the seaport and has its US headquarters Boston. Liberty Mutual Insurance, one of the top five property & casualty insurers in the US, is actually the biggest insurance company based in Boston, bigger than Hancock, and it is buying and occupying space at a rapid clip. Add in State Street Corp, Fidelity, Putnam, MFS, Bain Capital and Boston has a much larger financial industry than most realize, probably third largest in the US after NY and Chicago. The office market is getting better after 9/11, and office building proposals are starting to pop up all over. On average over the last 20 years, Boston absorbed a little more than 1M sqft of new office space/year. The 750 foot Prudential building is a little over 1 M sqft. As a side note, the Hancock Building is now owned by one of the largest office REITs in the US, Beacon Capital Partners, also headquartered in Boston.

A mixed use buiding is reasonable. There are others already built and U/C in Boston.

That said, Boston lost Fleet bank to BOA. BOA moved its entire wealth management division to Boston, and the net number of jobs is about the same. Mellon Bank also has its wealth management hdqtrs in Boston. Hancock sold itself to TD Bank. TD bank built a new glass highrise in the seaport and has its US headquarters Boston. Liberty Mutual Insurance, one of the top five property & casualty insurers in the US, is actually the biggest insurance company based in Boston, bigger than Hancock, and it is buying and occupying space at a rapid clip. Add in State Street Corp, Fidelity, Putnam, MFS, Bain Capital and Boston has a much larger financial industry than most realize, probably third largest in the US after NY and Chicago. The office market is getting better after 9/11, and office building proposals are starting to pop up all over. On average over the last 20 years, Boston absorbed a little more than 1M sqft of new office space/year. The 750 foot Prudential building is a little over 1 M sqft. As a side note, the Hancock Building is now owned by one of the largest office REITs in the US, Beacon Capital Partners, also headquartered in Boston.

Nice summary. A couple of clarifications: Hancock was bought by ManuLife, another Toronto insurance company, not Toronto Dominion. Boston is actually the second largest financial services center in the US, and the largest mutual fund center in the world (State Street, Fidelity, MFS, IBT, Hancock, Evergreen, Putnam, Wellington)

Thanks for the Boston office market updates. Looks like the Fleet acquistion hasn't turned out that bad for Boston afterall. Given that the JH & the Pru have dominated the Boston skyline for 3 decades, looks like The Hub market could absorb a new tallest!

Hello Boston Skyscraper freaks!
I really like this portal. Big up!
I'm from Rotterdam, the Netherlands and studying for 4 months in Boston. After 2 months i've been on the John Hancock Center, made some photos from the skyline from under the Tobin Bridge and made a lot of street pics. I'd love to share them with you.. but uploading doesn't work anymore from my computer :( (i can mail them to someone who would like to upload them?).

So, im having good times in Boston! But i think there is more to see?
Are there more things i have to see? Please let me know.. Builings with a nice view? waterfronts with a nice skyline view? etc.
Thanks in advance, Jasper

Hello Boston Skyscraper freaks!
I really like this portal. Big up!
I'm from Rotterdam, the Netherlands and studying for 4 months in Boston. After 2 months i've been on the John Hancock Center, made some photos from the skyline from under the Tobin Bridge and made a lot of street pics. I'd love to share them with you.. but uploading doesn't work anymore from my computer :( (i can mail them to someone who would like to upload them?).

So, im having good times in Boston! But i think there is more to see?
Are there more things i have to see? Please let me know.. Builings with a nice view? waterfronts with a nice skyline view? etc.
Thanks in advance, Jasper
Try looking for a thread called Boston+flash. It has great photos. By the way, the big tall blue skyscraper is John Hancock Tower. The John Hancock Center is all the way over at Chicago.

Updated image of the SST in colors.

http://www.hines.com/toolkit_images/Project%20Photos/South%20Station/South%20Station%20Rendering_lres_web.jpg

I hope they light the top up.

I think we can bet on that happening, the crown looks perfect for a lighting crown.

Too little, too late.

I'd be happier with a tower half that size which uses the textures, style, and colours of South Station. This is just more glass boxes tossed together in Boston trying to mimic what's being done in more creative skylines. The location demands much much better.

Yea, I suppose it could definitely be a better design. You are right when you say the location demands better, however it's better than nothing....the only problem in Boston is that as of late too many projects are being described as being "better than nothing". Hopefully we can expect the designs of Gateway Center and Winthrop Square to be more worthy of Boston and make significant improvements to the skyline.

Another slim high-rise though I'm not sure of the official height.

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4075/sausagesitehotel3ox.png

Developer to buy the sausage site
Boston firm plans 500-room hotel on Congress St. land

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | March 30, 2006


The sausage is being sold.

Madison Properties Inc. of Boston says it will purchase a tiny strip of land known as the sausage site on the South Boston Waterfront and build a 500-room hotel there.

Denis P. Dowdle, a principal at Madison Properties, said yesterday his company is buying the Congress Street land, just under 3/4 of an acre, from NStar, which obtained it years ago in a land swap with the Big Dig.

Dowdle declined to say how much Madison is paying for the property, but the hotel project is expected to cost about $100 million, he said.

The site has been on the market since September, brokered by Meredith & Grew Oncor, but it has long been of interest to potential developers.

Dowdle said he plans two hotels in one -- an extended-stay inn on one side, and a limited-service one on the other. Both would feature room prices lower than those expected at other hotels being built around the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Extended-stay and limited-service brands are ''not all that common" in urban areas, said Dowdle. ''It's hard to find parcels that lend themselves to this."

A deal has not been struck with a hotel operator, he said, but he hopes to close on the land in April. He anticipates starting the permitting process this summer, breaking ground next year, and opening before 2009.

Parking for 130 cars would be on the first five floors, with hotel lobbies on floors six and seven. As with most modestly priced hotels, it would not have large restaurants or a ballroom.

The hotel would continue the accelerated pace of waterfront development. Rapid build-out in the area has been predicted for three decades, but plans have often been stalled by downturns in the market, disputes over uses and layouts, differences among landowners, or opposition from City Hall.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who supported 1997 legislation for the new convention center, pledged that almost 5,000 new hotel rooms would be built by the time it opened in 2004 -- a goal the Boston Redevelopment Authority says was reached.

Developer Joseph F. Fallon and his partners are expected to open in June the 793-room Westin Boston Waterfront hotel at the convention center, and two apartment buildings along Northern Avenue.

Also, the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, with 471 rooms, is under construction next to Fallon's apartments.

And Fallon is talking to architects and possible tenants for the first phase of 21 acres of development at Fan Pier -- including an office building, a hotel and condominiums, and retail space.

The sausage site is zoned for buildings no more than 155 feet high, but with city approval it could accommodate about 250 feet, making it taller than the 178-foot-high exhaust stacks on the nearby Big Dig ventilation building on Summer Street over the Massachusetts Turnpike tunnel.

Because of the proximity of Logan Airport in East Boston, Federal Aviation Administration regulations limit building heights on the waterfront.

''One of the prime benefits of this is you certainly block the view from the water and coming up Congress Street as well," Dowdle said.

The architect is Group One Partners Inc. of South Boston. Dowdle said the building would be a combination of glass, like the Manulife Financial tower on the waterfront, and masonry, like the nearby World Trade Center West.

Madison Properties was founded in 2002. The company secured permits for the Residence Inn now open in Dedham and is building a 350,000-square-foot shopping center near Route 146 in Worcester.

Sad News. An accident occurred on the Piano Row Dorm of Emerson College.

Three dead in Boston scaffolding collapse

By Glen Johnson, Associated Press Writer | April 3, 2006

BOSTON --A 20,000-pound construction platform collapsed and then crashed down 13 stories onto a busy downtown street Monday, killing three people and crushing cars stalled in midday traffic.

The collapse occurred about 1:20 p.m. on Boylston Street, which runs along the south side of Boston Common.

Witnesses said there was a terrifying rumble then crash of the platform lift system, which was set up atop a second building next to a 14-story building owned by Emerson College. The platform and scaffolding, which had been used to install a stone facade, were being dismantled around the 13th story when the collapse happened, said acting Fire Commissioner Kevin MacCurtain.

Boston police identified the dead as the driver of the car, Michael Tsan Ty, 28, of Rosindale; and two construction workers, Robert E. Beane, 41, of Baldwinville; and Romilda Silva, 27, of Somerville.

Two other people were taken to Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital where are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was called to inspect the remaining scaffolding and assist in the investigation, said Boston Police Superintendent Robert Dunford.

John D. Macomber, president and CEO of Macomber Builders, the lead contractor hired by Emerson, said at a news conference the dead were believed to be two construction workers employed by subcontractor Bostonian Masonry and a passer-by.

He said the company was still investigating the accident.

"It looks as though one of the moving, movable scaffoldings fell off the side of the building out toward Boylston Street and down. We don't know why that happened yet. They're tied in laterally very well," Macomber said.

He said the procedure was a "typically very safe way to work" and that there was an "extensive safety program inside the company."

Macomber Builders has been cited by OSHA more than 10 times since 2004 including more than five citations for "serious" scaffolding or fall protection violations. OSHA defines a violation as serious if "there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard."

"Generally OSHA is very pleased with us and the other leading contractors in Boston," Macomber said at the news conference. "We try very carefully to keep safe jobs. Typically we're held up as a model of safety."

He did not comment directly on any of the company's previous violations.

Macomber, based in South Boston, has been in business for more than 100 years and helped build Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, according to the company's Web site, which says it has. an employee safety program and a safety director.

"I had just walked through the spot where it fell when I heard this roar," said Dan Rofsky, 19, an Emerson freshman from New Jersey. "To turn around, after hearing this crash 30 feet away," he added, pausing to collect himself, "I just saw this cloud of dust and smoke."

The building -- a dormitory and campus center -- has been under construction for nearly two years, and was scheduled to open for the fall semester, said David Rosen, the school's vice president of public affairs. No students were injured.

"It's very distressing," Rosen said.

Brian Trimmer, assistant manager of Commonwealth Books, said he looked out the store's front window just as an eight- to 10-foot chunk of machinery crashed onto a mid-sized silver Honda that had been headed east on Boylston Street.

"I saw this large orange thing fall out of the sky on top of a car," Trimmer said. "It flattened it."

James Carney, an educational consultant, saw the falling piece of machinery barely miss a white car and crush the Honda in front of it. A cloud of dust rose as a construction worker screamed in pain.

On the sidewalk below his office, Carney saw another construction worker, who looked like he had fallen from the scaffolding above, lying motionless. A pedestrian who had been hit by debris wailed in pain.

When rescuers moved the piece of machinery off the Honda, Carney saw the lifeless body of a young man dressed in green hospital scrubs.

"It was ghoulish and awful," said Carney, chairman of Carney, Sandoe & Associates. "It was just a terrible, terrible day."

John Hynes was driving his BMW the opposite direction of the Honda, west on Boylston Street, when the platform and scaffolding started to tumble.

"You could see it coming down and then I started rolling forward. It started to hit my car, and then I sped up," said Hynes, a Boston resident and grandson of the former Boston Mayor John Hynes.

The debis damaged the roof of his car and smashed his rear windshield. Hynes, however, was not injured.

The collapse occurred on a busy street that borders the Common just around the corner from the city's theater district. The area was crammed with students and passersby.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino looked somber after touring the accident site.

"It's terrible," the mayor said, shaking his head. "People just driving down the street in their cars, construction workers just doing their jobs -- they never knew what hit them."

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Skyline's 'South' pole
Train station condos to be Hub's highest
5 April 2006
Boston Herald

A new condo skyscraper that would be the tallest residential perch ever seen in Boston would soar into the city's skyline above historic South Station under a plan close to winning regulatory approval.

A dramatically revamped proposal for a tower above the train station would provide upper-floor condo buyers breathtaking views second only to the Back Bay's Prudential and Hancock towers.

The mid and lower floors would be rented out as offices.

The tower, proposed by Houston-based Hines, would rise 40 stories above the roughly eight-story South Station, its sleek Caesar Pelli glass and steel design topping all other skyscrapers in the Financial District.

The proposal by the Texas developer comes after years of struggling to advance a late 1990s plan once slated to have been Boston's tallest new corproate office tower.

"The prices that people are paying for residential have obviously risen dramatically," said David Perry, a senior vice president at Hines. "It would be the highest occupied space in the Financial District."

While an all-office version is still possible, the new plan calls for 150 to 200 high-priced condos on the tower's upper floors.

Hines now hopes to have final state and other regulatory approvals in hand this summer.

The revamped lineup of the tower is just one part of a sweeping $800 million proposal that would transform South Station and its environs.

While the tower over the rail hub would be the centerpiece, there are also plans for a 200-room boutique hotel, another residential building and an office mid-rise.

The glass-filled, modernistic buildings would take shape along the Atlantic Avenue side of South Station, their design revamped for a more cutting edge feel.

Hines' first tower plan ran straight into an office market that collapsed, while also crashing into FAA objections that the new high- rise could create problems for jets flying out of Logan International Airport.

So the developer cut height and made other changes, including incorporating a mix of residential into its plans.

New condo high-rises have typically run in the 20- to 35-story range, with developers reserving the most impressive heights for new office towers.

Any addition to Boston's too limted housing supply is always welcome. So a tall residential tower is above South Station is really great news!

Any addition to Boston's too limted housing supply is always welcome. So a tall residential tower is above South Station is really great news!
Problem is that these are condos and most residents of Boston can't afford the price.

Nice looking tower:
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4075/sausagesitehotel3ox.png

Another high-rise proposed. This time it is 28 stories high.

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Stuart St. Tower Proposed
Apr 7, 2006

by Adam Smith
The skyline around Chinatown will continue to rise if a Boston developer succeeds in its plan to construct a 28-story condo building on Stuart Street.

The tower, proposed by Weston Associates, would replace the parking lot of the Jacob Wirth Restaurant and extend to La Grange Street. It will not touch the restaurant, which is a Boston landmark.

Weston Associates, who presented the proposal at this week’s Chinatown Safety Committee meeting, said it would likely devote the first six floors to hotel or office use and the top 22 floors to residential units, likely condominiums.

The project’s proposed height at 303 feet would double the site's zoning cap of 155 feet. In the past several years, buildings of similar height have been approved by the city, including Kensington Place, Park Essex, the Metropolitan, and Millennium Towers. Community groups and Chinatown residents have been divided on the trend of bypassing zoning limits. Some have supported allowing the high-rise projects, saying they will bring new housing and consumers to the area, while others have protested the towers, saying they are out of character with the neighborhood and unaffordable for most residents.

Louis Miller, attorney for the developer, did not say what zoning mechanism the developer would use to get around the height limit. Miller speculated the developer would not seek a planned development area designation, the same zoning mechanism used by the nearby Kensington Place to get approval for its 30-story tower. A planned development area designation allows developers special zoning -- and zoning relief -- for large or complex projects that have a footprint of one acre or more.

Weston Associates will present its proposal at the Chinatown Neighborhood Council meeting later this month.

Located in the Midtown Cultural District, the project site is not technically in Chinatown but abuts the neighborhood.

“We anticipate this is going to be a lengthy development process,” said Miller.

I like what i see.

From: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/04/03/daily20.html
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Manchester Airport may add 'Boston' to its name
Boston Business Journal - April 4, 2006
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Manchester Airport reportedly is considering adding "Boston" to its name to better compete for passengers traveling to and from Massachusetts.

The airport, which is located 55 miles northwest of Boston in Manchester, N.H., is considering adopting the name Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, Director Kevin Dillon told the Union Leader in Manchester.


"It's the passenger in Albuquerque that we're concerned about, that they can geographically understand where Manchester Airport is located and our proximity to all of the major business centers -- not only in the Manchester area, but in the Boston area as well," the newspaper quote Dillon saying.

No timetable has been set for making a change, which would have to be approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Last year Manchester Airport handled 4.3 million flights, one-sixth that of Logan International Airport in Boston. The facility's largest carrier is Southwest Airlines, which had nearly two million customers fly through Manchester, a 19 percent increase from 2004.

From: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/04/03/daily20.html
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Manchester-Boston? Frankly, I don't see the point in adding Boston to the airport name, not with the airport being over 55 miles north of Boston.

Manchester-Boston? Frankly, I don't see the point in adding Boston to the airport name, not with the airport being over 55 miles north of Boston.

Many people from suburban Boston use Manchester airport. Using the Boston name will highlight the fact that Manchester is a viable option for accessing much of the Boston area. Considering the arrival delays and poor bagage handling at Logan, one sometimes might be better off flying in to Manchester and then driving an hour.

Manchester-Boston? Frankly, I don't see the point in adding Boston to the airport name, not with the airport being over 55 miles north of Boston.
Manchester has grown leaps and bounds in the past 5-10 years as a "convenience" airport with respect to Boston. As has Providence from what I understand.

I still don't know if it's logical to add "Boston" to the name though. Manchester is not Boston. By that logic, Ontario Int'l should have LA on it's name.

Manchester has grown leaps and bounds in the past 5-10 years as a "convenience" airport with respect to Boston. As has Providence from what I understand.

I still don't know if it's logical to add "Boston" to the name though. Manchester is not Boston. By that logic, Ontario Int'l should have LA on it's name.

It's funny, long before this I thought it would help if the LA area airports had LA in their names. There's John Wayne, Ontario, ???. I know there are more only because I've been to the LA area many times but I can't remember the names.

Does anyone have any new information about the proposed 1000ft building downtown? I really hope that gets built!

Does anyone have any new information about the proposed 1000ft building downtown? I really hope that gets built!
Here you go:

Mayor aspires to a spire on the cutting edge

By Monica Collins, Globe Correspondent | May 13, 2006

Mayor Thomas M. Menino wants to fill a hole in the Boston skyline with a modern skyscraper. Will the new building resemble a glass pickle, a desert flower, or Buddhist temple?

Those are the playful descriptions for some of the world's more recent tall buildings, 30 St. Mary Axe in London, the Burj Dubai proposed for the Persian Gulf city, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur.

Whether some of those bold -- or outrageous -- designs would fit and be welcome in Boston is another matter. Despite some notable buildings such as the Hancock Tower and the Federal Reserve building, Boston's architecture has a conservative streak.

''The joke is that a lot of Boston office buildings look like the boxes the buildings would come in rather than the buildings themselves," said David Hacin, commissioner of urban design for the Boston Society of Architects.

But Menino's call for a 1,000-foot tower downtown in Winthrop Square, on the site of a city-owned parking structure, has Hacin and other architects and urban planners abuzz about the possibilities. Indeed, City Hall has loudly signaled to the development community it would like the new skyscraper -- Boston's tallest when completed -- to be cutting edge.

While a slim, almost needlelike profile is popular today, the Freedom Tower being built on the site of the World Trade Center buildings in Manhattan is a sturdy yet elegant spire-topped work that is supposed to echo other New York behemoths such as the Empire State and Chrysler buildings.

But at 1,776 feet, the Freedom Tower won't seem so statuesque compared with the giants growing out of the desert sands of Dubai. When the Al Burj, or Tower, is finished in 2010, it will give Dubai the two tallest buildings in the world. The buildings are intended to raise the city's profile -- literally -- as part of an ambitious economic campaign. The other is the Burj Dubai, a tapered, needlelike design that its architects, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, said is derived from a desert flower. It is under construction and scheduled to be finished in 2008. Both are projected to go up 2,300-2,400 feet.

Dubai won't happen here. ''Dubai's like the wild west," Hacin said. ''It's like Houston where anything goes and you get some really good stuff and some really bad stuff. Boston's not 'anything goes.' That's not our mantra here."

Meanwhile the Petronas Towers, the second-tallest buildings in the world, win praise from BSA president Jane Weinzapfel for their distinct Asian influences. She described the buildings' decoration and design as reflective of ''the Oriental temple form."

In London, 30 St. Mary Axe became both an instant classic and the butt of jokes as it grew on the London skyline. Now, the structure is known as ''The Gherkin." Weinzapfel describes it as ''a series of interlocking ovals that are of different dimensions and overlap each other. The building makes this shape that tapers toward the top like a pickle."

Designed by Sir Norman Foster, a skyscraper master, the Gherkin won a British architecture prize soon after it opened in 2004. But Hacin, for one, is not a fan. ''It's a green building and very innovative. But if you've ever seen it live, the building lands in a very uncomfortable position in the London historic fabric. It makes a statement in the skyline, but I'm not a fan of how it plays on the ground."

Many architects, however, said whatever is built in Boston must go beyond being tall and stylish and emulate the Gherkin's environmental attentiveness.

''To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we must judge a building by its character and not by the color of its skin," said Cambridge architect Hubert Murray. ''Architects are just waking up to environmental peril and any major building that goes up in Boston must address these issues."

Murray pointed to the Editt Tower, under construction in Singapore, as an example of a ''living" high-rise. It is designed by Malaysian architectural firm, T.R. Hamzah & Yeang, which describes itself as an ''ecologically responsive" company, and deploys what it calls ''vertical landscaping." Gardens and greenery burst from floor openings as the 26-story building, which is sheathed partly in glass, climbs to the sky.

Construction of 1,000-foot skyscraper urged
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An artist's rendering of how Boston's skyline would look with the addition of a 70- to 80-story tower. The skyscraper is being proposed for the site of the Winthrop Square parking garage.

February 17, 2006

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday called for construction of the city's tallest building ever -- a 70- to 80-story tower reaching 1,000 feet high on the site of the Winthrop Square parking garage in the Financial District -- to demonstrate Boston's confidence in its future.

''Here, we'll be looking for proposals that symbolize the full scope of this city's greatness," Menino told the city's business community yesterday, in a speech at the Seaport Hotel on the South Boston Waterfront.

''We will insist on bold vision and world-class architecture," Menino said of the tower envisioned by City Hall planners. In a colorful artist's rendering of the skyline the city envisions, two slender spires extend the building high above downtown's two tallest structures, the One International Place building and One Financial Center, both 46 floors.

Ken Greenberg, an urban designer and founder of Greenberg Consultants Inc. of Toronto, said Boston could use another skyscraper, because the 1980s and '90s brought a series of buildings of much the same height. ''I don't think all tall buildings are wonderful everywhere," said Greenberg, ''but there are some places where they can play very significant roles.

''What this building does is it creates a punctuation. I was struck by this -- it adds a little something special, gives a little focus to the eye."

In his speech at the annual meeting of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Menino said the city's immediate priorities are addressing increasing crime, meeting the challenges of rising costs, and staying competitive in a world economy where Boston is less insulated than ever from global challenges.

But a new signature tower would show confidence about overcoming those obstacles, Menino said, serving as ''a stunning statement of our belief in Boston's bright future."

Greenberg was interim chief planner at the BRA until last month but was not involved in the Winthrop Square plan, and he continues to advise the city on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway design. ''There is something about dense cities that is good -- the life and activity," he said.

With the office leasing market showing significant improvement, developers are expected to line up as the city seeks proposals over the next two months for the location at 115 Federal St., between Franklin and Summer streets.

''We expect proposals from around the world," said Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. ''Dozens."

The office market is improving in Boston and the surrounding area after a difficult few years, and suddenly there is talk in the Boston real estate community of a new office tower, or even two. Two buildings already permitted and in design are located at Russia Wharf and on Fan Pier. But those are in the range of 30 floors or smaller, like most of Boston's recent buildings.

The Winthrop Square site also could be developed for residential use, or some combination of residential and commercial. Developers are allowed greater height if they include housing. The garage, which is owned by the city, would be demolished.

Building height downtown has been constrained in Boston by a combination of factors, including market demand, opposition from community activists who fight the increased traffic and shadows that towers bring, and a patchwork of complex zoning rules.

Though there are many exceptions, height is limited to about 150 feet in most of the city.

Yesterday's proposal -- about 20 floors higher than the city's tallest building, the 62-story John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay -- would radically redraw the city's skyline. Even at 1,000 feet, however, it is still shorter than other major skyscrapers around the world, including the 1,250-foot-high Empire State Building.

A number of local industry players, including International Place co-owner Donald J. Chiofaro and Landmark Center developer Abbey Group, are interested in bidding on the Winthrop Square site.

''A 1,000-foot tower, really?" said Robert Epstein, chief executive of Abbey Group. ''I like tall buildings. We'll definitely look at it."

A spokesman for Steve Belkin, founder of Trans National Group of Boston, said yesterday that he would consider a bid to develop the site. Belkin owns 133 Federal St., an office building with a key location adjacent to the Winthrop Square garage.

''I look forward eagerly to responding and working diligently with the city to help make Mayor Menino's incredible vision a reality," Belkin, who was traveling yesterday, said through a spokesman.

The last office towers to open in the city -- the State Street Financial Center near Chinatown and 33 Arch St. near Downtown Crossing -- are 36 and 33 floors tall respectively.

The tallest buildings expected to be built on the South Boston Waterfront are likely to be even shorter, because they are closer to Logan International Airport and under flight paths. The two World Trade Center towers are 16 and 17 floors.

Over the past decade or so, community activists have raised vigorous objections to tall buildings. Neighbors of the planned Columbus Center, over the Massachusetts Turnpike between the Back Bay and South End, objected to its height, which was finally approved by the city at 35 floors in 2003.

Menino fought a losing battle with Leather District residents who wanted to keep a site known as Two Financial Center, near the 46-floor One Financial Center, from becoming a tower. It ended up being approved at 12 floors.

John B. Hynes III, president of Gale International, which successfully developed the State Street tower, has been critical of an anti-height movement in Boston that has prevented the Boston skyline from extending upward in recent years.

Winthrop Square is ''probably the best office location left in the city," Hynes said last night. ''We're gung-ho on it."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

^^^That article was posted here 3 months ago

A new tower maybe in the works at the parking lot next to the aquarium.

Chiofaro plans high-rise housing on Greenway
Developer aims to use site of parking garage

By Steve Bailey, Globe Staff | May 25, 2006

With Boston's office market recovering and developers beginning to jockey for position, International Place builder Donald Chiofaro is readying plans for a huge new tower across the Rose Kennedy Greenway from the twin office towers he built in the city's last great building boom more than a decade ago.

Chiofaro, one of Boston's best-known developers, won't comment on his plans, which are preliminary. But two City Hall sources said yesterday that Chiofaro is negotiating an option to buy the parking garage across from the New England Aquarium and wants to build a tower on the site that would largely be residential and rival in scale the nearby 400-foot-high Harbor Towers.

The 1,380-space garage is owned by Urban Growth Property Trust, which bought it six years ago from Equity Office Properties as part of a $180 million transaction that included parking garages in five cities. Urban Growth could not be reached for comment.

Chiofaro is scheduled to present his initial ideas for the site today to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. A BRA spokeswoman declined to comment, but a city official said the agency would be open to Chiofaro's plans to demolish the garage -- considered an eyesore on the new Greenway -- and build a tower with underground parking.

Chiofaro's proposal comes at a time of renewed interest in tall buildings in Boston.

In February, Mayor Thomas M. Menino proposed building a 1,000-foot tower on the site of a city-owned garage in Winthrop Square.

Among other projects in the pipeline: Equity Office's proposed 31-floor tower at Russia Wharf on the Greenway and Boston developer Joseph Fallon's plans for a smaller office building on Fan Pier. And Hines Interests LP of Houston continues to push its long-stalled tower over South Station, while Delaware North Cos. has zoning in place for two 40-story towers at North Station.

The activity has been fueled by declining vacancy rates and rising office rents, particularly in the downtown business district. Commercial real estate broker Grubb & Ellis reports that office vacancies in the central business district fell to 11.5 percent in the first quarter, dipping below 12 percent for the first time in four years. Rents in the top floors of some towers in the Back Bay are being quoted a $60 a square foot, Grubb & Ellis said.

Chiofaro, a model for Tom Wolfe's high-living, highly extended real estate mogul in the novel, ``A Man in Full," has proven himself a survivor in Boston's real estate world. Two years ago, he used bankruptcy protection to block New York-based Tishman Speyer Properties from seizing control of International Place. Proclaiming Tishman and his associates ``a gang of pirates," Chiofaro brought in a new partner, Prudential Real Estate Investors. While he significantly reduced his own stake, and Tishman walked away with an estimated $40 million as a consolation prize, Chiofaro was able to maintain his position atop his beloved International Place.

At best, the tenacious Chiofaro has a mixed relationship with city officials. Currently, he is seeking a tax abatement that would cut International Place's $17.6 million property taxes by $3.75 million for fiscal year 2005. City officials, sensitive to rising property taxes for homeowners, are staunchly opposed.

``They believe they can raise $734 million in capital for the property, and then claim it's only worth $424 million for property-tax purposes," said city assessor Ronald Rakow. ``We disagree."

Chiofaro's partner, Ted Oatis, said they have ``a pending tax-abatement case with the city assessor. It is a commercial disagreement and is in process. We have a fiduciary duty to our tenants and investor partners, and we are relying upon expert advisers. Our only goal is a fair and reasonable result."

Lots of cool stuff going on in Boston!

Chiofaro thinks big as Greenway project would rival the Pru By Steve Bailey and Chris Reidy, Globe Staff | May 26, 2006

Don Chiofaro, the man who built giant International Place, does not think small. And he is not thinking small as he eyes an ambitious new development on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway


According to Chiofaro and City Hall officials briefed on his plans, the huge mixed-use project would total about 1.2 million square feet -- the equivalent of the Prudential Tower itself. It would include a 175-room hotel, 125 condos, 800,000 square feet of office space, and significant retail space. The early concept is for two buildings, including a 475-foot tower -- about 75 feet higher than the neighboring Harbor Towers. Ted Oatis, Chiofaro's partner, said the project would open a pedestrian corridor, creating a view to the harbor.

Projected cost: $600 million to $800 million.

City Hall officials, who met with Chiofaro for the first time yesterday, called the project ``very preliminary." But they and Chiofaro confirmed that the developer has secured an option to buy the parking garage just in front of the New England Aquarium, and plans to demolish the garage and replace it with 1,400 underground spaces. One official estimated it would take two to three years to get the project through the permitting process. The site is about 1.3 acres in all, bounded by Milk Street, East India Row, and Atlantic Avenue.

``This is the most exciting piece of real estate in the city of Boston," Chiofaro said yesterday after meeting with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The project, reported in The Boston Globe yesterday, would mark a remarkable comeback for Chiofaro. Two years ago, Chiofaro was in danger of losing control of International Place to New York-based Tishman Speyer Properties. In response, Chiofaro took International Place into bankruptcy, and brought in Prudential Real Estate Investors to refinance the project. Tishman Speyer walked away with about $40 million in profit, Chiofaro's ownership was reduced, but he retained his position in International Place.

Prudential has had very preliminary talks with Chiofaro about participating in the new project, but is far from a deal, the firm said. ``Don Chiofaro has been a great partner in the International Place deal," said spokeswoman Theresa Miller. ``As with all our partners, we are eager to explore an opportunity that has potential for benefiting our investors. This project could be one of them."

Since he completed the second tower of International Place in 1993, Chiofaro has tried to do other large projects in the city and failed. Chiofaro won and then lost the development rights to build what later became the 36-story headquarters for State Street Corp. on the edge of Chinatown. He later sued the minority investors who were his partner. He also had and lost the rights to develop the South Boston Waterfront site that became Manulife Financial's US headquarters.

Chiofaro is known to have a cool relationship with Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose support is critical for any developer. Yesterday Menino said housing affordability and parking are of particular concern to him.

``Whatever goes there has to be sensitive to the people of Harbor Towers and the aquarium. Both have gone through a lot in the last 12 years," Menino said, referring to the Big Dig reconstruction. The BRA declined to comment.

Early reaction to the Chiofaro proposal was cautious. Until more details are public, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy plans to withhold comment, said Nancy Brennan , the conservancy's executive director. The conservancy is a private nonprofit gradually assuming responsibility for maintaining the new parks.

In general, the conservancy is inclined to look favorably upon development that would bring new life to neighborhoods along the Greenway, she said. ``Residences and offices that bring more families and people who will use the Greenway's parks and amenities would be a great thing for the city and would strengthen the neighborhood," Brennan said.
Joseph T. Baerlein , co chairman of the Harbor Towers Condominium Trust , noted that Harbor Towers residents take up about 400 parking spaces in the garage that Chiofaro wants to redevelop under leases that won't expire until 2018 and 2019. The heating and cooling systems for Harbor Towers also are located in the garage, he said.

Baerlein expects that Chiofaro's project would include underground parking that would replace what would be lost from the garage. Concerns about Harbor Towers parking and its heating and cooling systems are not ``obstacles that can't be overcome," he said. ``It's prudent and wise to have an open mind about this" proposal, said Baerlein. Of the garage, he said, ``We wouldn't exactly be losing a crown jewel here."

Massport considering massive harbor dredging project
29 May 2006

BOSTON (AP) - The Massachusetts Port Authority wants to deepen the 11-mile shipping channel into Boston Harbor another five to 10 feet to accommodate large cargo shops, a project that would move almost 60 percent as much dirt as the Big Dig.

Mike Leone, Boston's port director, told The Boston Globe that the city's 40 foot deep channel puts it at a competitive disadvantage.

"The next generation (of cargo ships) is coming in deeper," he said.

Massport and the Army Corps of Engineers have nearly completed a four year, $4 million study on the economic feasibility of digging through five to 10 feet of rock and clay to deepen the channel to 45 to 50 feet.

The four-year project would have to be approved by Congress because the federal government would pay half the estimated $100 million cost. The project would not interfere with shipping.

Worldwide port trade is expected to double by 2020, and cargo ships are being built larger to transport more goods. Cruise ships are also getting bigger. To accommodate the changes, more than 25 U.S. ports are either expanding their channels or considering such projects, according to the American Association of Port Authorities.

Specialists say that without a deeper channel, bigger ships will bypass Boston for naturally deeper ports, such as Halifax, Nova Scotia, or cities that have invested in deepening projects.

Already some ships headed to Boston must ride the high tide to enter the harbor. The Coast Guard is also investigating whether a container ship scraped bottom off Spectacle Island in the harbor this winter, which could indicate ships could ground there in the future. Coast Guard spokesman Greg Callaghan, said his agency supports dredging to improve navigation safety.

Digging a deeper shipping channel would be the biggest single dredging operation in the harbor since the 1940s, when it was widened, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

The new project would involve dredging about 10 million cubic yards of clay and mud -- enough to cover an area the size of Boston Common, 12-feet deep. The Big Dig dredged or excavated about 17.6 million cubic yards of material.

Environmentalists and fishermen are concerned about the project's impact, particularly on fish migration.

Sound like Big Dig Jr.

Mayor launches push for iconic tower
By Chris Reidy, The Boston Globe
31 May 2006

May 31--Mayor Thomas M. Menino is appealing to developers from around the world to design an iconic tower that could be Boston's tallest building, rising as high as 1,000 feet above the Financial District.

Menino initially proposed the tower in February, saying he wanted a structure that would "symbolize the full scope of this city's greatness."

The city yesterday issued a formal request for proposals for a 47,738 square feet of city-owned land in Winthrop Square that is currently the site of a four-story garage.

The city also paid for ads in major newspapers to entice as many developers as possible to bid on an opportunity to "transform Boston's skyline." Ads ran in the US, European, and Asian editions of The Wall Street Journal, as well as in the global editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times and in the Globe. "We're reaching out to the world and telling them they could miss an opportunity if they overlook Boston," said Mark Maloney , director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

He could not put a price tag on the ads, but said it was a "significant amount."

"We want developers to know we're serious about this project," he said.

Yesterday's request for proposals, for what the city is calling One Fifteen Winthrop Square, is open-ended to encourage creativity, but the winning design is likely to feature a mix of housing, offices, stores, restaurants, and possibly a hotel.

"The canvas is clear, so people can paint an incredible painting," Maloney said.

The city wants the tower to have "civic" space that would bring more nighttime activity to the Financial District. Possible ideas include space for concerts and lectures or an indoor winter garden.

The winning design also must help connect the site to Downtown Crossing and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, and "it should be recognized for breaking new ground in green building design and technology," the request for proposals said.

The lobby should be "one of Boston's grand public spaces," the request said; "architecture should acknowledge its place at the beginning of the 21st century" and the building "must be expressive of Boston's long-standing reputation as a center of innovation."

"This will be a megaproject that requires deep pockets and sophistication in mixed-use planning," said David Begelfer , chief executive of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

"The question is, is the market able to accept that amount of space?" said Begelfer, who added that it could be seven to 10 years before a new tower could be ready for occupancy. City officials are confident the market can absorb such a project.

The deadline for initial proposals is mid-November. "It would be great if we got seven or eight proposals, and then we'd have two to four finalists," Maloney said.

South Station office high-rise gets BRA’s OK
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, June 7, 2006


An $800 million skyscraper complex would soar into the Hub skyline above South Station under plans approved yesterday by City Hall.

After years of debate and reviews, Hines, a top Texas builder, won a green light from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for a new, 40-story office tower that would anchor an ambitious redevelopment of South Station.

David Perry, a top Hines executive, said he hopes to begin construction next year on the new tower, which would rise 680 feet into the air, with South Station in its shadow.

Hines, which is working with TUDC, an affiliate of Tufts University on the project, said “conversations” are already under way with potential corporate tenants. A final sign-off by the city’s Zoning Commission is also needed next month.

“Now we have something to show,” Perry said, referring to planning on the project that dates to the late 1990s.

Along with a new tower, later phases call for a separate, a 13-story condo and hotel high-rise complex, as well as an additional nine-story office building. The developer has also committed to $40 million worth of improvements to South Station and its neighboring bus terminal, which is slated for a 40 percent increase in capacity.

http://business.bostonherald.com/images/real_estate/ssea04052006.jpg

The 335ft Suffolk Dorm proposal:
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/4305/image000064na.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6518/image000048kb.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/4046/image000021pc.jpg

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/3546/image000011yc.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8247/image000037og.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/6526/image000054kv.jpg

I'm so glad the South Station tower is still alive. I really like the new rendering.

New renderings of the North Station Tower.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6889/usanashua03lg6hb.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6012/usanashua02lg8xi.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7844/usanashua01lg3ye.jpg

This is not development related, but I've always wondered what you call a resident of Massachusetts?
Is Massachusettan correct or is it Massachusettite?
(Try saying that 3 times fast :lol: )

I am from MA, born and raised, and have never heard of anything except "the residents of MA" or "MA residents." I do not think there is an abbreviated form such as Floridian, New Yorker, or Nebraskan. Good question!

Copley Place plan calls for condo tower
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, June 22, 2006

You may someday be able to live as well as shop at Copley Place, with the owner of the posh Back Bay mall eyeing a major expansion that includes a new residential tower.

Retail giant Simon Property Group yesterday briefed City Hall development officials on preliminary plans for a major shopping and residential expansion, sources familiar with the planning said.

The Midwest-based retail giant is exploring an expansion of Copley Place onto a little-used plaza next to the mall alongside Dartmouth Street.

That would include shops, plus what would likely be a condo tower in the 20- to 30-story range, sources said.

A spokeswoman for City Hall’s development arm confirmed the meeting, citing Simon’s interest as an encouraging sign for the city’s business climate.

“It shows confidence in Boston’s economy,” said Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. “Their interest in housing in the Back Bay shows they know there is a market for both retail and residential.”

Simon’s mall expansion comes amid a residential boom in the Back Bay.
Trinity Place, with its multimillion-dollar condos, is just a short walk away near Copley Square, while a luxurious Mandarin Oriential hotel and condo project is under construction near the Prudential Center on Boylston Street.

Meanwhile, not far from Copley Square, two new tower complexes that will feature high-end condos are also in the works, The Clarendon and Columbus Center.

Simon may also have an eye on the Back Bay’s booming retail market.
The mall owner has been eager to capitalize on Copley Place’s prime space, recently moving Barneys New York into space filled by a cinema complex.

Meanwhile, store rents in the neighborhood, from Newbury Street to Copley Place, are soaring, executives have said.

We're called Bay Staters usually. I don't take offense to Masshole, either.

Are there any design plans or pics of the hotel that will be built on the old garden footprint. Especially the plans to expand North Station.

South Station office high-rise gets BRA’s OK
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, June 7, 2006


An $800 million skyscraper complex would soar into the Hub skyline above South Station under plans approved yesterday by City Hall.

After years of debate and reviews, Hines, a top Texas builder, won a green light from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for a new, 40-story office tower that would anchor an ambitious redevelopment of South Station.

David Perry, a top Hines executive, said he hopes to begin construction next year on the new tower, which would rise 680 feet into the air, with South Station in its shadow.

Hines, which is working with TUDC, an affiliate of Tufts University on the project, said “conversations” are already under way with potential corporate tenants. A final sign-off by the city’s Zoning Commission is also needed next month.

“Now we have something to show,” Perry said, referring to planning on the project that dates to the late 1990s.

Along with a new tower, later phases call for a separate, a 13-story condo and hotel high-rise complex, as well as an additional nine-story office building. The developer has also committed to $40 million worth of improvements to South Station and its neighboring bus terminal, which is slated for a 40 percent increase in capacity.

http://business.bostonherald.com/images/real_estate/ssea04052006.jpg
...And now:

City approves 40-story South Station tower

A Houston development company received City Hall zoning approval today to build a slender, 40-story office tower designed by the firm of famed architect Cesar Pelli above South Station in Boston.

Nearly a decade in planning, the proposed development by Hines Interests also includes a $40 million expansion of the bus station at South Station and, in later phases, construction of a hotel along Atlantic Avenue, condominiums, and another office building. The complex totals 1.7 million square feet of new construction.

Construction is expected to commence next year, which would it among the first of a new generation of office towers that have been proposed for the Boston skyline. The first phase of the project -- which includes the Pelli tower and bus station expansion -- is projected to cost $500 million.

Hines is building the complex in partnership with a development arm of Tufts University, TUDC LLC.
(By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe staff)

Good news! Unfortunately, it is a little shorter than I'd like.

Good news! Unfortunately, it is a little shorter than I'd like.
The height is fine with me, as long as it's architecturally interesting. It will still be the tallest building down there. And because it's right by the harbor it will make a strong statement on the skyline.

Then again, I'm not really a tall building freak. I'd much rather have shorter interesting/beautiful buildings than reallly tall boring monstrosities. For instance, I love London's skyline. What they have is quality.

That said, I do hope Menino gets the 1000 footer built at Winthrop Square.

The height is fine with me, as long as it's architecturally interesting. It will still be the tallest building down there. And because it's right by the harbor it will make a strong statement on the skyline.

Then again, I'm not really a tall building freak. I'd much rather have shorter interesting/beautiful buildings than reallly tall boring monstrosities. For instance, I love London's skyline. What they have is quality.

That said, I do hope Menino gets the 1000 footer built at Winthrop Square.


It's a little hard to tell by the rendering and description, but I'm fine if it is visibly taller than the surrounding buildings. It doesn't have to stick out like a sore thumb, but downtown really needs a focal point, all the buildings seem to be around the same height.

Something on the SST height posted on the Boston forum...

According to the May-June 2006 edition of the Boston Informer, a reliable newsletter about Boston development, the South Station Tower as approved will be 678 feet tall.

http://www.bostoninformer.com/index.html.

Does anyone know when the Columbus Center is scheduled to begin. Or is that still in approval stages?

It's supposed to begin any day. It's been approved.

was walking around east cambridge yesterday, and there are quite a few residential developments going up. the 23 story watermark residences near kendall square station are almost finished (link (http://www.watermarkresidences.com/)). and the 8 story 5 building "one first" complex across cambridge street from lechmere station is looking good (link (http://www.onefirst.com)). there is also a large 4 or 5 story condo building that is about 75% done south of cambridge street. and i saw three steel frames going up for what appeared to be apartments on the east side of lechmere station. anyone have additional info on these developments?

From what I hear there is site prep work going on at CC so I guess you could say it's started. No official groundbreaking yet to my knowledge.

This residential building is also U/C in Cambridge

http://cache.boston.com/realestate/galleries/eastcamb/cambridgeresidential.jpg

EAST CAMBRIDGE -- It's not much to look at now -- a couple of gaping holes, lots of dirt, a former factory stripped down to its shell. But by the end of next year, a mostly industrial wasteland on the far eastern edge of Cambridge will be transformed by three residential projects now under way.

The projects, totaling nearly 1,300 condos and apartments, will make this small corner of East Cambridge -- once comprising a railyard, warehouses and factories -- one of the most densely populated areas in Greater Boston. It could rank as one of the country's most sudden transformations of an entire neighborhood, said Dennis Carlone, an urban design consultant to Cambridge.

"East Cambridge is really coming of age," said Mark Garber, a vice president of Spaulding & Slye, which is building the massive, 45-acre NorthPoint development that will anchor the neighborhood with 2,700 units by 2015.

The activity isn't limited to construction, either. The Regatta Riverview Residences, a pair of apartment buildings formerly called Museum Towers, are being sold off as condos, with more than half of the 436 units already taken. The company handling that conversion, Crescent Heights, finished selling off 104 units at the Glass Factory, just north of NorthPoint, last month.

As often is the case, it's all about location -- a short walk over the Monsignor O'Brien Highway to the TD Banknorth Garden area and a somewhat longer walk down Third Street to the intellectual and entrepreneurial hub of Kendall Square. It affords easy access to the Lechmere T stop for commuting to work, and equally easy access to a new riverfront park on the Charles.

"I just think it was inevitable," Carlone said.

For the past decade, however, the only residential outposts in this area just north of the Museum of Science were the 168 condominiums in Thomas Graves' Landing and then, in 1998, the Museum Towers. Anyone choosing to live in either place had to make a deliberate choice to do without such niceties as trees, shops or street life.

The coincidental timing of the different projects has fostered a strange mix of competition and synergy among the developers. While they want to keep customers to themselves, salespeople at the smaller projects are using NorthPoint to convince prospective buyers that they aren't just buying into a building, but a neighborhood.

"I think it's beneficial for us, absolutely," said John Soininen, the senior project manager for Leggat McCall Properties, which is turning the old Haviland Candy factory into 196 condos called One First. "It helps to have more residential product in the neighborhood."

The building of One First has been a painstaking process of preservation and restoration, by order of the Cambridge Historic Preservation Commission. For example, it is disassembling a brick wall only to rebuild it, brick by brick, to maintain the original facade. The constraints of remaining within the existing building's shell have resulted in 86 different floor plans, ranging in price from $400,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $1.5 million for three bedrooms.

In contrast, the sleek glass towers of NorthPoint and the adjacent, 767-unit apartment complex by Archstone-Smith, are being built on a relative blank slate. NorthPoint's units, priced from the mid-$300,000s to $800,000, won't be habitable until the middle of next year, but about 25 percent are already sold, Garber said.

As NorthPoint proceeds, however, it will include other features that will alter the locale's landscape -- 2.2 million square feet of commercial space, a 10-acre park, and a new T stop to replace the rundown Lechmere station.

Spaulding & Slye said it hasn't set a start date for the commercial space, but is "actively marketing" lab and office buildings that could be built to suit. The master plan also includes a hotel and retail space that could support a 24/7 community.

thanks, great article. the steel frames i saw must have been the north point and archstone-smith projects. looks like east cambridge is getting huge.

edit: found this side for NorthPoint( http://www.northpointcambridge.com/ ). says the development will be 20 buildings!

Filene’s developer scouts tenants for 30-story tower
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Thursday, July 27, 2006

A massive, 1-million-square-foot, mixed-use complex would become the centerpiece of a sweeping redevelopment of Boston’s landmark Filene’s complex, a top executive involved with the planning told the Herald.

New York’s Vornado Realty Trust recently nailed down a $100 million deal for the key retail block in the heart of the Downtown Crossing shopping district.

Now Vornado, and local partner and developer John Hynes, have begun to brief prospective office tenants on plans for a roughly one-million-square-foot high-rise complex.

About 500,000 to 600,000 square feet would be office space. The rest would be divvied up in a yet to be determined mix of retail space, residential units and possibly a hotel, Hynes said.

“I think the neighborhood and the city is expecting a bold project and we intend to given them one,” Hynes said.

The high-rise complex, which would likely be at least 30-stories according to one local executive, would take shape next door to the 1912 Filene’s building.

While the amount of residential and retail space is in flux, the one “certainty” at this point is a large office component, Hynes said.

Meanwhile, the prospect of a new office high-rise has already begun to stir up interest among would-be corporate tenants.

Major law firm Ropes and Gray, on the hunt for 400,000 square feet, has already begun reviewing the possibilty of a move to a Filene’s tower, an executive said.

The focus on office space comes after earlier plans by Vornado centered on a luxury condo tower. But with the residential market softening, the New York company appears to have backed off that option, though it has not ruled out a smaller residential presence.

Ronald Perry, executive vice president of Meredith & Grew, sees the Downtown Crossing site as ripe for redevelopment into high-end office space. “The traditional boundaries of the Financial District are expanding,” he said.

Question for all of you Boston forumers. I am looking to relocate somewhere and have been thinking about Boston but all I keep hearing about is how much cost of living is. What kind of annual salary do you need to live comfortably?

What is comfortable? How much space do you want and what type of lifestyle do you envisions (urban/suburban) Artsy part of town or ritzy part of town. Do you feel you need a car to survive, are do you think that taking subways is fine.

Well on the matter of cars, i can tell you one is definatly not needed to survive downtown, but it would be a great convinience, so for transportation i would recommend any combination of zip car (http://www.zipcar.com/ $50/year and $8.25/hour last i knew), subway pass($44/month), bicycle
($up to you), or even a good pair of walking shoes (although the latter two would only be good in the non snow months.) Boston is perhaps the most non car friendly city in the country.

Now for real estate, this all depends on where you want to live, and how much space you need. I believe apartments start around $900 a month for a studio/1 bedroom depending on your location, and can go up to even as high as $2500 in some areas for the same sized space.

I can't really answere about food prices and stuff, because i have not lived anywhere else, but i am sure they are relative to the rest of the country. There is always the dollar menu at mcdonalds lol.

I hope this answeres some of your questions. Feel free to PM me with any more.

Mass. Legislature approves 'streamlined permitting' bill
Boston Business Journal - 2:12 PM EDT Friday

The Massachusetts Legislature on Thursday approved and sent to the desk of Gov. Mitt Romney a bill that would streamline the permitting processs for development.

According to the Boston chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the permitting reform bill would:


Create a new permit session of the Land Court.
Allow developers to continue at their own risk in the face of an appeal once a special permit is granted.
Provide funding for the Division of Administrative Law Appeals to remove the backlog of environmental appeals and require a 90 day-decision on future appeals.
Require the MassHighways commissioner to create regulations for expediting access permits.
Create the Massachusetts Permit Regulatory Office within the Executive Office of Economic Development.
Change the Expedited Permitting Act -- also known as Chapter 43D -- to encourage more communities to opt in to a 180-day, site specific expedited permitting process.
Greg Vasil, chief executive officer of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, said passage of the bill is the first step to reinvigorating the tax base of Massachusetts through development.

Vasil said the bill will allow developers to move forward on projects requiring special permits at their own risk even if the projects are being challenged in court. Historically, residents have able to hold up projects in court for years due to a lengthy appeal process that created a back log of cases.

"People don't want a project in their neighborhood, and delay is victory," he said.

New Seaport stay: Hub developer building $100M hotel By Donna Goodison
Wednesday, August 9, 2006

A Boston developer is pushing ahead with plans for a $100 million Congress Street hotel project, aimed at giving visiting conventioneers and tourists lower-priced options for a night’s rest.

Madison Seaport Holdings LLC wants to build a 24-story building that would house two hotels totaling 502 rooms: an extended-stay hotel and a limited-service hotel.

The project has started the permitting-review process with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. It’s targeted for a vacant and sausage-shaped site within 500 feet of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston. Madison bought the land from Nstar this past spring.

The hotels would be located on the seven through 24th floors, with a pool/spa and outdoor sundeck on the 22nd floor.
“They would complement the product that’s down there, which is mostly the four- and five-star hotels,” said Denis Dowdle, Madison’s manager and president of Madison Properties Inc. “There’s a lot of convention business that would prefer a lower-priced hotel room and doesn’t need all the ballroom and meeting space.”

The building’s ground floor would have a lobby and four retail spaces totaling 8,414 square feet. A ramp would provide access to 150 parking spaces on the second through fifth floors.

The hotels would be the first of their kind in the Seaport District.
“Having a variety of hotel rooms in this area is good given the fact that not every conventioneer can afford the top-of-the-line hotels,” said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association.

Madison is talking to hotel companies about operating the hotel, franchising it or a joint venture, Dowdle said.

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4075/sausagesitehotel3ox.png

What is going on with that 1,000ft tower that Mayor Menino announced back in May?