Fan Pier Developments | Seaport

TheRifleman said:
To put this in perspective, the $800 million development will mark the largest private construction project currently underway in the nation. It will employ 1,200 construction workers and, later, 1,800 full-time Vertex workers.]
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This does not pass the smell test
 
New renderings? These are from today's Herald and Wall Street Journal:


7d1813_vertex.jpg

http://bostonherald.com/business/re...on-bound_vertex_breaks_ground_on_fan_pier_hq/

MI-BK081_DWEEK_G_20110621170307.jpg

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304887904576400004219776450.html


This is the older one from a couple pages back:

539w.jpg
 
better, but not good. I'll take it and am excited to watch these babies rise!
 
The best we can hope for is that the final neighborhood is better than the parts. I imagine this to be Boston's Battery Park City, a collection of mostly boring buildings that in the end actually make a nice, if suburban, place to live.
 
Phew. At least we're no longer getting Rt 128-by-the-sea...back to typical Boston mediocrity.
 
Yes! The white and ribbon windows are gone, replaced with a glass curtain wall!

I'm not thrilled about the gridded facade on the rounded building though.
 
The typical stumpy Fallon garbage. Fan Pier is a showcase of fail.
 
briv said:
The typical stumpy Fallon garbage. Fan Pier is a showcase of fail.
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I actually think they would look good in Cambridge but this location. The vision for Seaport will defintely fall short. What are you going to do. It's over now. Seaport Distict willl probably not end up being a destination area for tourists.
This is a Biotech area, with upscale & luxury housing and a slew of bars & restaurants.

I would rather live in Davis Square or Harvard Square.
 
TheRifleman said:
I actually think they would look good in Cambridge but this location. The vision for Seaport will defintely fall short. What are you going to do. It's over now. Seaport Distict willl probably not end up being a destination area for tourists.
This is a Biotech area, with upscale & luxury housing and a slew of bars & restaurants.

I would rather live in Davis Square or Harvard Square.
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Yes, because heaven forbid that people be able to live, work, and eat in this neighborhood. You just described an excellent mixed-use area, which is supposed to be what folks on this board are all about.

A true development for tourists would have to include the same hotels and convention center expansions which are being so derided on other threads. If the Seaport turns out as you described it, Boston will be exceedingly lucky.

Also, don't blame Fallon for the height of these buildings. The FAA killed anything taller.
 
Equilibria said:
Yes, because heaven forbid that people be able to live, work, and eat in this neighborhood. You just described an excellent mixed-use area, which is supposed to be what folks on this board are all about.

A true development for tourists would have to include the same hotels and convention center expansions which are being so derided on other threads. If the Seaport turns out as you described it, Boston will be exceedingly lucky.

Also, don't blame Fallon for the height of these buildings. The FAA killed anything taller.
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The neighborhood I'm talking about is a corporate one. Nothing else. Too expensive to ever be unique
 
Looks like they went from 80s model to 90s model.

The good thing is the facades can and are changed. Its the mass of the building that will not likely change for 80 years.
 
Developer: Condos next for Fan Pier
By Brendan Lynch
Thursday, June 23, 2011


As Fan Pier developers broke ground yesterday on the largest private-sector project in the United States so far this year and celebrated the biggest commercial lease in Hub history with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, they pledged to soon add residential buildings to the long-stalled South Boston site.

“Adding 1,800 employees means we’ll be adding residential. It’s not rocket science,” said developer Joseph Fallon. “You bring people to the waterfront, you add more people, there’s going to be more demand for that use.”

Fallon said his company would be selecting an architect at the end of the year to begin work on the 200-condominium, 225,000-square-foot residential development.

The condo building will be on the water, directly behind the two buildings that will house the Vertex headquarters. A Fallon spokesperson said parcels on Northern Avenue would also be developed as a hotel and more housing.

Fallon and Vertex threw a lavish groundbreaking party on Fan Pier yesterday with about 25 ceremonial shovels, multiple tents, ice sculptures of the Vertex and Fan Pier logos, and a lunch reception.

As the shoveling began, giant renderings of the 1.1 million-square-foot project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013, unfurled from the top of the tent, smoke billowed from the stage and confetti blasted out of cannons.

Boston Redevelopment Authority director Peter Meade said he expects the residential development to get under way next year while Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he expects it “shortly.”

“This is the first part of it,” Menino said. “This is a great piece for the city of Boston and it sends a strong message for this whole South Boston Waterfront and the Innovation District.”


Link
 
Ok, so now everyone is just throwing out the claim that it's the biggest construction project in the country...?


"To put this in perspective, the $800 million development will mark the largest private construction project currently underway in the nation. It will employ 1,200 construction workers and, later, 1,800 full-time Vertex workers."

So $800 million apparently builds two stumps in Boston.


$750 million builds an 850ft tower in Oklahoma City
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=156332


So with that line of thought, id assume that anything built in NYC is a bigger project. We have to exclude the WTC, which is probably the most expensive development in the country, because it's funded by government monies.


How about a 1,003 ft tower?
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=161764
large.jpg


$1.3 billion > $800 million

This project, at 1,200 feet doesnt have a price tag I can find...
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=130306

But Im going to assume bigger = more expensive.

So x>$1.3billion


Lets compare to other stumps.

In total, Mission Bay is slated to include nearly 4 million square feet of office and lab space, as well the 2.6-million-square-foot UCSF campus and the 2.5-million-square-foot UCSF hospital. Blout said he is optimistic enough that Mission Bay will be fully built out and occupied that the city should start thinking about other parts of the city where life science development makes sense. Hunters Point Shipyard and Pier 70 are both possibilities, he said.

vs

This morning, the boldfaced world will gather for the official groundbreaking of two new Joe Fallon buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet of research and office space, the headquarters of a pharmaceutical company called Vertex.

So bigger by a factor of 4. Im going to go on a limb and guess that 4 million square feet of office and lab space in earthquakeland is more expensive than 1 million in Boston.


Great fact checking there media. Makes me wonder how much actual reporting goes into these glorified press releases.
 
It's also absolutely frightening how much Mission Bay looks like our lovely "Innovation District"

5766435086_4cd29f57d7_b.jpg
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
The best we can hope for is that the final neighborhood is better than the parts. I imagine this to be Boston's Battery Park City, a collection of mostly boring buildings that in the end actually make a nice, if suburban, place to live.
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An interesting observation, and I think you're right. I stayed in Battery Park last October, and it was essentially a bedroom. It was a very nice looking bedroom, but every excursion from the hotel involved subway to somewhere else.
 
On one hand, there should be room for significant optimism since the Seaport District under the jurisdiction of City planners (not Massport or BCEC) is still largely a vast plain of vacant parcels. Things could change to focus a future, revitalized BRA on improving the outcome.

On the other hand the BRA under this administration has already gifted property owners with rezoning and approvals, and those property owners have been cashing in on public investment without developing anything, so there are fewer teeth for a future, revitalized BRA to lend bite to a grand plan. To some degree, property owners don't need to argue for new projects -- they simply say they are proceeding "as of right" with the approvals and agreements already given to them.

Here's a great article on this topic. It takes a little time to load, but well worth it, as are the comments.

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2011/06/01/paying-for-infrastructure-value-capture-and-the-use-of-private-land/
 
Congrats to:
Fallon and MassMutual + Cornerstone
Vertex
Boston and Mass

to paraphrase Ben Franklin on creation of US

'You have an Innovation District if you can keep it innovating and innovational" (see the MIT150th theme "Innovational Wisdom")

let's get the bones in place for a venue where people want to work, live, play and tourists from near and far want to visit

later there will be time and place for a few distinctive towers to provide a visible signature from the harbor and Logan -- these can be built on the difficult and expensive sites (air rights and such) back from the water's edge
 
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