đź”· Open Thread

Regarding the Boston Masonic building at Tremont & Boylston, does anyone know if they have the whole building there or is there office space upstairs (or, apartments)?

 
The building does have offices, but they are related to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Most of the building is taken up with very large, ornate meeting rooms of greatly differing architectural styles. There is also a collection of early Massachusetts artifacts.
 
Messing around on Emporis, and while I'm not a height fetishist, it's interesting to note how long ago our 5 tallest buildings, and only 600+ footers were completed:

The Hancock (790 feet) - completed in 1976
The Pru (750 feet) - 1964
Federal Reserve Bank Building (615 feet) - 1977
One Boston Place (601 feet) - 1970
One International Place (600 feet) - 1987

As 2013 draws to a close we are seeing the construction of the first 600 footer in Boston and my, and many of our, lifetimes. Over the last 26, even 36 years, we have seen a slow period in skyscraper construction. Here is a look at "recent" additions to the skyline:
  • At 590 feet, completed in 1983, One Financial Center is the second tallest building completed in Boston in the last 36 years.
  • At 554 feet, completed in 2002, 111 Huntington Avenue is the tallest building completed in Boston in the last 26 years.
    • In the 26 year period from 1988-2013, there were zero 560+ footers built.
    • In the 26 year period before that (1962-1987), there were seven 560+ footers built in Boston.
  • At 538 feet, completed in 1992, Two International Place is the second tallest building completed in Boston in the last 26 years.
  • At 503 feet, completed in 2003, State Street Financial Center is the tallest building completed in Boston in last 11 years - and considered the last true skyscraper this city has seen. 2002-present is the longest drought without a 510+ foot building completed since before the Pru was built in 1964.
  • At 477 feet, completed in 2004, 33 Arch Street is the tallest building completed in Boston in the last 10 years. 2003-present is currently the longest drought without a 480+ foot building constructed since 1947-1964.

Most recent:
  • At 395 feet tall, Atlantic Wharf is the tallest building completed in Boston in the last nine years. 2004-present is surpassing 1992-2001 as the longest drought without a 400+ footer since 1947-1964.
  • At 336 feet tall, The Clarendon is the second tallest building completed in Boston in the last nine years.
  • At 301 feet tall, The W Boston Hotel & Residences is the third tallest building completed in Boston in the last nine years.
  • At 299 feet tall, The Kensington is second tallest building completed in Boston in the last four years and tallest in two years.

Is the era of the skyscraper over in Boston or just dormant? Why has it been so tough to build skyscrapers, or even high-rises, lately?
 
bigeman312 said:
Is the era of the skyscraper over in Boston or just dormant? Why has it been so tough to build skyscrapers, or even high-rises, lately?
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My vote is that it is dormant. There is a time and a place for more towers and Boston has been doing well lately getting those details to converge. We have much higher demand for new housing than new office space, so we'll see primarily residential and mixed proposals in the years to come.

I would be surprised to see a pure-play office tower unless it is built by and for a single company. Jobs growth will spur demand for office space, but the changing nature of office work and office layouts means that companies are using less space. That is allowing the same floor space we already have to be stretched further without new construction. Those smaller firms that really value new construction and the latest amenities will likely end up in mixed-use towers.

I say that is all for the best. Neighborhoods that are dense with both homes and jobs are the most lively and I see little improvement to the urbanity of Boston with the addition of new office towers. We are still largely a live-work segregated city with only a few areas that have a good mix and those are relatively expensive. No one is going to allow office towers built in residential neighborhoods (nor should they) so we can look forward to residential towers built in and around traditional business districts.
 
It was dormant for a while, but CSC, Copley Place, and Millennium Tower are all coming.
 
I don't think this was covered here, but some site called vocativ.com released a month ago a ranking of The 35 best U.S. cities for people 35 and under and they seem to have done a decent (or at least thorough) job in coming up with their results.

They looked at 20 different categories--from rent for a 2 bdrm on down to who has the "cheapest ounce of high-quality marijuana"--and determined that basically no Midwest city is worthy enough...the only ones to make it are Columbus, Milwaukee and Minneapolis (no Chicago). Rather, the results are somewhat heavy on the desert Southwest as well as the usual targets.

Boston came in 12th, while the top 10 were, in order: Portland in 1st, then Austin, San Fran, Seattle, Minneapolis, Vegas, Atlanta, Long Beach CA, Denver and Phoenix. DC came in 11th.

As for Boston...

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It's worth checking out because they give you the breakdown of city by city and then the rankings of who's best in each category. It sure isn't one of those Forbes hack job rankings.

And funny, I just calculated my age and sure enough, as of today I'm 30.77 years old...yay me hitting the median age on the nose!
 
I'm from Columbus ... I'd much rather be in Chicago than back there. (And I'd much rather be in either one than in Las Vegas, Atlanta, or Phoenix!)
 
It is? The rail trail ends in Wellfleet, and I thought that was because the right-of-way no longer exists beyond there.
 
tobyjug said:
I believe the railbed is intact all the way out.
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The ROW is almost entirely existent. It is broken into a couple segments, one owned by a federal or state entity and the other by a private gas/electric company, I believe. It may be owned in very small patches by private residents/local towns, but no significant stretches.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
The ROW is almost entirely existent. It is broken into a couple segments, one owned by a federal or state entity and the other by a private gas/electric company, I believe. It may be owned in very small patches by private residents/local towns, but no significant stretches.
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It ran in people's backyards along 6A in Truro and Provincetown and through a lot of beachfront property, so after that much postwar buildout there's nothing left to preserve. Except for a missing bridge over a marsh, it's fully intact up to Commercial St. in Wellfleet about 2 blocks north of the town pier (look for the conspicuous "Railroad Ave." with no railroad near it). Rail trail ends 2-1/2 miles short of there.

If you look past Wellfleet, though, it's only sorta traceable on a map. Couple small pieces of public trail, then a lot of the rest is chewed up by private driveways and backyards of the uber-rich. It'll never be walkable without trespassing on a whole lot of very special private property. Not sure why those last 2.5 miles of trail are held up, as it's free and clear the whole way. Probably some persistent NIMBY abutters gumming up the works. Getting that last leg to Wellflett does get you right by the beach, the beachfront density, and a considerably bike-friendlier street grid than Route 6. Would increase the trail's utilization immensely to get it that far. Google seems to think the end of the current trail is a happening-enough place.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
It ran in people's backyards along 6A in Truro and Provincetown and through a lot of beachfront property, so after that much postwar buildout there's nothing left to preserve. Except for a missing bridge over a marsh, it's fully intact up to Commercial St. in Wellfleet about 2 blocks north of the town pier (look for the conspicuous "Railroad Ave." with no railroad near it). Rail trail ends 2-1/2 miles short of there.

If you look past Wellfleet, though, it's only sorta traceable on a map. Couple small pieces of public trail, then a lot of the rest is chewed up by private driveways and backyards of the uber-rich. It'll never be walkable without trespassing on a whole lot of very special private property. Not sure why those last 2.5 miles of trail are held up, as it's free and clear the whole way. Probably some persistent NIMBY abutters gumming up the works. Getting that last leg to Wellflett does get you right by the beach, the beachfront density, and a considerably bike-friendlier street grid than Route 6. Would increase the trail's utilization immensely to get it that far. Google seems to think the end of the current trail is a happening-enough place.
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Huh, upon re-checking the state rail map, I never before realized that there's no ownership between Wellfleet and P-town. However, I did find that the section of in-tact ROW which is not yet trail is the federally owned segment. I wonder who the federal entity is, and why it is federally owned. Is/was there a navy, coast guard, or air force base in Wellfleet? The rest of the ROW which is actual trail appears to be DCR owned, though the key doesn't seem 100% accurate, so its hard to tell.
 
datadyne007 said:
Santa, I want DC United's stadium for Christmas!!!!!!!

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Better to ask this on the open thread than to get people's hopes up. Any one heard about The Revolution building a Stadium in Somerville, or Revere or anywhere?
 
BostonUrbEx said:
Huh, upon re-checking the state rail map, I never before realized that there's no ownership between Wellfleet and P-town. However, I did find that the section of in-tact ROW which is not yet trail is the federally owned segment. I wonder who the federal entity is, and why it is federally owned. Is/was there a navy, coast guard, or air force base in Wellfleet? The rest of the ROW which is actual trail appears to be DCR owned, though the key doesn't seem 100% accurate, so its hard to tell.
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Passenger service east of Hyannis-via-Yarmouth was kaput by 1938. The line was abandoned to freight from Eastham to Provincetown in 1960, way before landbanking existed. Then withered quickly back to South Dennis. It's only west of SD where the cutbacks were recent enough for the state to still hold the operating charter in-hand.

Chatham Branch was an even earlier abandonment, expunged for all traffic shortly after the end of passenger service. It's amazing that ROW is still absolutely 100% intact to the airport parking lot with no breaks or encroachment. That might be the oldest preserved abandoned ROW in the entire state that's still contiguous, connected, and unencroached from origin to destination.


I wouldn't get any ideas about new service on either of these branches. No landbanking means everything is all-new, freshly-chartered service. And if you thought de-landbanking was hard...try overcoming the NIMBY's with no legal leg-up whatsoever.



Fed ownership is on the National Parks Service land. You can see on Google Maps the whole east coast area of the Cape that's shaded green corresponds to where the ROW ownership on the state rail map switches over to fed jurisdiction.
 
The hi-speed ferry (strike, ferries) between Boston and Provincetown work great so there's really no need for another mode of transportation, in my opinion.

Now if they'd just offer a dog-free ride ...
 
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