BCEC expansion | Seaport

dwash59 said:
Still a bad idea. Building more hotels in the area with small meeting spaces that can be used as overflow isn't a terrible idea though. As long as the state reimburses the city of Boston appropriately for the land they transferred.
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Agree. Several hotels are obviously in the pipeline right now, but Boston will need more.

And perhaps NAMBLA can use one of the new hotels for their annual meeting.
 
My mother was a school teacher who hated the union so perhaps it was she who put the idea in my head that one equated with the other. If so, John Stewart owes her royalties.

Someone else asked but I can't find an answer, what will happen at 400 D Street, now that the MassDOT testing facility (moved to Hopkinton) there has been abated and demolished, anyone know?
 
odurandina said:
lesser-known pedestrian tunnel.....

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...ay-cold-one/neSYpMwn6e1dW94ay4duNI/story.html
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Sweet. An underground gerbil tube to the parking garage. Thank goodness the traffic on Summer St. won't have to slow down....
 
CSTH said:
leungmap.jpg


Sweet. An underground gerbil tube to the parking garage. Thank goodness the traffic on Summer St. won't have to slow down....
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No. The tunnel only goes to the Omni. The lighter blue line is an outdoor covered walkway at grade.
 
I like it. Very Montrealesque. If people can connect between the two convention spaces (WTC and BCEC) and the Silver Line without getting wet or freezing their balls off, I don't see a problem.
 
It's really just a tunnel from convention center to main hotel. This is common at almost all convention centers I've been to. Warm or cold climate.

Chill.

Also, since there will be a real "neighborhood" below Summer Street now, I see nothing wrong with walking access at the lower level of the convention as opposed to up high. There is nothing at Summer Street level, but there will be plenty at Congress Street level. (whatever street is actually down below.)

More options is usually not a bad thing. And, as a semi-regular convention goer. It is quite nice to be able to go straight to your room and change when you're finally let out. Then go out into actual public again.
 
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What a pedestrian pedestrian walkway. I can just imagine how cool it would look if it were being built in China.
 
SeamusMcFly said:
It's really just a tunnel from convention center to main hotel. This is common at almost all convention centers I've been to. Warm or cold climate.
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Yeah to be clear I think it's hard to argue against a direct connection to an anchor hotel. Its mostly the covered walkway concept, and the attempt to describe it as somehow continuous with the tunnel, that seems misguided to me.

There's a 'covered walkway' for the 'transportation center', both of which annoy me. And there's a tunnel for the anchor hotel, which does not.

Arguing that together they represent something real and good also annoys me.
 
This is joke urbanism. This should be a covered arcade but instead we have a complete lack of planning and design. This is such a waste.
 
Yall realize that the Hynes convention center is connected to like 10 hotels indoors right?
 
Apparently there's going to be a bike path on D st? But not on Seaport blvd?
 
Rover said:
I like it. Very Montrealesque. If people can connect between the two convention spaces (WTC and BCEC) and the Silver Line without getting wet or freezing their balls off, I don't see a problem.
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I wish Boston were more like Montreal when it comes to being pedestrian friendly. They have at least a couple miles of pedestrian only streets. We have one tiny pedestrian zone and it has vehicles constantly going through it and they let cabs drive through it starting at 6PM. Boston has effectively zero pedestrian only streets. Its pathetic.
 
jass said:
Yall realize that the Hynes convention center is connected to like 10 hotels indoors right?
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This ain't exactly the prudential arcade....more like the old prudential plaza..
 
I believe you mean Summer Street? Yes, apparently. It was approved as part of a $6 million state funding package. To begin construction in the fall. A cycle track, even.

No path on Seaport, as far as I know. New striping has bikes using streets, like cars.

Smartiro said:
Apparently there's going to be a bike path on D st? But not on Seaport blvd?
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The thing is I get the Pru-Copley skymaze. They built a mall on top of a highway interchange, not exactly the best place for pedestrian urbanism, and I think it's pretty successful. But that doesn't mean we need to keep repeating ourselves. The Seaport was a blank slate and a chance to learn from the past. There have been countless planning blunders here and this is just another lost chance. WTC Ave is elevated so that complicates things but there is good precedent a few blocks to the west on Summer St of how to integrate multi level streets into the urban fabric. Unfortunately we live in the era of private-public space which needs to be controlled Big Brother style so space is carved up like this.
 
From Banker and Tradesman:

Plans for a greatly expanded Boston Convention and Exhibition Center are moving forward for the first time in more than two years.

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which owns and operates the BCEC and the sprawling 40 acres of land the building currently sits on, issued a request for proposal on Wednesday for master planning and feasibility services for the project.
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According to David Gibbons, executive director of the MCCA, the approval of the new Omni Hotel, filling the need for a new headquarters hotel, has paved the way for moving forward with an expansion of the BCEC. The goal is to create a building program that is financially self-sufficient. In addition, the expansion should connect the building into the South Boston neighborhood, the Fort Point Neighborhood and South Boston Waterfront. The article doesn't indicate what Governor Baker thinks about this.
 
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