🔹 What's Happening With Project X?

Chiofaro Co called this afternoon and asked me to invite the contributors of ArchBoston who support Chiofaro Co' efforts to redevelop the Harbor Garage – to come out and show our support at the Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan (MHP) meeting on September 28th from 3:00-5:00 PM in Room 900.

It's a crucial meeting, and a unique opportunity not only for the important people to hear many enthusiastic voices – but, that we might counter dissent. You never know if someone who speaks in support of the project might say something that serves to assuage genuine concerns people might have. Your genius voices could make a world of difference for Boston.
 
odurandina said:
Chiofaro Co called this afternoon and asked me to invite the contributors of ArchBoston who support Chiofaro Co' efforts to redevelop the Harbor Garage – to come out and show our support at the Downtown Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan (MHP) meeting on September 28th from 3:00-5:00 PM in Room 900.

It's a crucial meeting, and a unique opportunity not only for the important people to hear many enthusiastic voices – but, that we might counter dissent. You never know if someone who speaks in support of the project might say something that serves to assuage genuine concerns people might have. Your genius voices could make a world of difference for Boston.
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^I would attend if it would make any difference. But voicing support does not matter if Don insists on a project exceeding the Chapter 90 parameters imposed by the state, so his two-tower proposal is an effort in futility. I don't understand why he keeps beating that dead horse.
 
i'll try to clarify my earlier post;

Don's not beating any such dead horse. 2 towers has been dead for a while. There is no solution for the HG that involves '2.' The arithmetic + politics leaves us with a very narrow path on the site plan and tower design. As time passes, the 2 tower idea will continue to fade from memory into the collective unconscious. i have no opinion as to whether or not 2 towers was a good idea. But the politics would never allow Chiofaro to build a triangular shaped wall ranging from 450-600' that blocked so much of the sky in front of Boston Harbor, with a tiny sliver of public space wedged between.

A design that is both economically, and politically viable, conformative to chapter 91 + shade restriction/s - is not easy to do.

i believe there exists no combination of 2 towers that can satisfy the 4 major design imperatives. My design meets all of the obligations but 1: It expands from the BRA's set number of 900,000 to 1,050,000 sq ft to reach economic viability.

But, the combination of mixed use w/ innovation space allows the Chiofaro/Pru development group to reduce the project from Don Chiofaro's minimum of 1.1M sq ft by an additional 50,000 sq ft.

Study it and you'll shrink the design into a margin that varies by an amount no wider than a crack in the sidewalk. It's about 20 stories of (innovation) offices topped by about 28 stories of residential.

Given the marketplace, economics and the design requirements, i believe any number of architects would reach a nearly identical design solution; and come very close to offering the tower i rendered.
 
odurandina said:
i'll try to clarify my earlier post;

Don's not beating any such dead horse. 2 towers has been dead for a while. There is no solution for the HG that involves '2.' The arithmetic + politics leaves us with a very narrow path on the site plan and tower design. As time passes, the 2 tower idea will continue to fade from memory into the collective unconscious. i have no opinion as to whether or not 2 towers was a good idea. But the politics would never allow Chiofaro to build a triangular shaped wall ranging from 450-600' that blocked so much of the sky in front of Boston Harbor, with a tiny sliver of public space wedged between.

A design that is both economically, and politically viable, conformative to chapter 91 + shade restriction/s - is not easy to do.

i believe there exists no combination of 2 towers that can satisfy the 4 major design imperatives. My design meets all of the obligations but 1: It expands from the BRA's set number of 900,000 to 1,050,000 sq ft to reach economic viability.

But, the combination of mixed use w/ innovation space allows the Chiofaro/Pru development group to reduce the project from Don Chiofaro's minimum of 1.1M sq ft by an additional 50,000 sq ft.

Study it and you'll shrink the design into a margin that varies by an amount no wider than a crack in the sidewalk. It's about 20 stories of (innovation) offices topped by about 28 stories of residential.

Given the marketplace, economics and the design requirements, i believe any number of architects would reach a nearly identical design solution; and come very close to offering the tower i rendered.
Click to expand...

Odurandia -- he needs to take a page from Verizon [Harrison ave Bldg] and sell a "condo interest" in the top floor and air space above the existing garage to Millennium Partners with Pru doing the financing -- Don can redo the garage into his idea of public space and the Millennium Partners can do Millennium Tower Waterfront
MP can get it done if anyone can

Don won't of course get to do the tower personally but he'll get to orchestrate the project he's been dreaming about for years

RR had a sign on his desk he got from some old Movie Magnat "There's no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit"
 
Weigh,

Spot on. I'll bet a lot of people that work/present/deliberate up there in Room 900 have thought exactly this same thing! If Millennium says it; then it's true. So you give them the permits and shovels. Don was mistreated badly by Menino. All they needed to do is have an old-school shouting match at Frank Santarpio's restaurant in East Boston and they'd uv solved it.
 
stick n move said:
I can barely get on this site anymore so I have no idea if this has been posted or where it goes but I guess a Raleigh "tech giant", Red Hat, is moving in next door to GE.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/real_estate/2016/09/it-s-official-red-hat-opening-fort-point-office.html
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Stick -- there were rumours in the past -- but now it seems that Red Hat will open a fairly significant office 45,000 sq ft. on 300 A. corner of Necco St. -- but mostly hidden behind the parking garage from the future GE HQ complex
 
^ thanks for repeating what the article and then what stick said, I wasn't clear. Jesus christ
 
When will the four seasons tower start rising?

It seems like it's taking a long time.
 
odurandina said:
the hidden 7th wonder off the Common topped 6 weeks ago, and Bullfinch/Merano parcels topped, so, it's kind of lame there's nothing of significance rising in Back Bay, Downtown or the West End.
any updates for
1350 Boylston
Pierce
Bullfinch Triangle/Merano
Emerson dorm
the Lucas
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My, my, my, aren't we the impatient one...

Here we are in the middle of the most sustained building boom in Boston in any of our collective lifetimes, and you are worried that nothing significant is "rising". How dare these pesky developers take time to build proper foundations for their buildings before they shoot out of the ground. They should just build fast and loose like Millennium Tower in San Francisco -- that's turning out really pretty!
 
Yap. :thumbup:

the reason i mentioned... is a possible recession at some point.

hoping to see these out of the ground before the next panic.
 
Sprngh2o said:
Copley?
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Been covered numerous times on the Copley thread.

It is going to seem slow because they have to complete the new ADA compliant entrance at Dartmouth and Southwest Corridor before they can start work on the tower (which will take the current ADA compliant entrance at Dartmouth and Stuart Streets out of service for the build duration.)
 
Even when the ADA entrance is done Copley will seem very slow because they still have to build the support truss system they are using to bridge the Mass Pike.
 
citylover94 said:
Even when the ADA entrance is done Copley will seem very slow because they still have to build the support truss system they are using to bridge the Mass Pike.
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I don't mean to exude impatience; I'm just curious from a project management standpoint: can any work be done on the the support truss system in parallel with the ADA entrance? Or does it entirely involve top-down work/digging in the area in front of the current ADA entrance?
 
Does anyone know the estimated opening for the GLX? I haven't been able to find an updated schedule.
 
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