11-21 Bromfield Street | DTX | Downtown

[Boston02124]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

Old Woolworths garage? From Globe article >In May, according to a deed filed in Suffolk County, Midwood spent $18.25 million to buy One Milk Street, a retail building and garage across Washington Street from the condo tower site. Its plans there are unclear

 

[shawn]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

If this happens, our two tallest downtown towers will be residential, and with One Dalton, three of our top five will be residential. Never would have thought that possible in Boston a decade ago!

 

[DBM]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

Old Woolworths garage? From Globe article >In May, according to a deed filed in Suffolk County, Midwood spent $18.25 million to buy One Milk Street, a retail building and garage across Washington Street from the condo tower site. Its plans there are unclear

Well I wish I could say that's an embarrassing miscue by the Globe, but in the era of permanent skeleton staffs/perpetual mass layoffs, probably a pretty run-of-the-mill mistake.

Definitely no garage at 1 Milk. You're confusing it with 350 Washington, the H&M/Marshalls/TJ Maxx building.

1 Milk is pretty much vacant now on its Washington St. face, the retail vacated recently. Sir Speedy's on its Milk St. face.

 

[Justin7]

Re: 28-story tower planned for Downtown Crossing

a pic from flickr and another from kz:

.

 

[Toonie29]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

I too hope that they retain the façade of the Payless building.

Looking at Justin7's second pic, if they kept the facade of the Payless building, I think it might be interesting to see the new tower cantilever over the existing roofline, maybe 2 stories above with only the slightest setback-- just enough to get a peak of 45 Province and provide some depth to the view). Turn the existing rooftop of the Payless building into a nice restaurant/bar with outdoor dining, with the cantilevered tower rising up above it.

It would let the Payless building stand on its own a little bit (vs. looking like it got glued on the outside of the new glass curtain wall); the cantilever would draw you eye up from the street level; from the rooftop venue, you'd get a great views down into the new plaza outside of MT.

 

[DigitalSciGuy]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

DTX is turning into Boston's 57th St.

I'll agree with that when we have super-slim 10m wide buildings with extreme cantilevers over adjacent buildings and a bunch of rich people crying out about how Downtown Crossing is a 'low rise neighbourhood'. Though, I'd really love for Washington St to become Boston's 57th Street if the next few towers had a greater share of market rate (is that the level below luxury?) apartments.

Looking at Justin7's second pic, if they kept the facade of the Payless building, I think it might be interesting to see the new tower cantilever over the existing roofline, maybe 2 stories above with only the slightest setback-- just enough to get a peak of 45 Province and provide some depth to the view). Turn the existing rooftop of the Payless building into a nice restaurant/bar with outdoor dining, with the cantilevered tower rising up above it.

It would let the Payless building stand on its own a little bit (vs. looking like it got glued on the outside of the new glass curtain wall); the cantilever would draw you eye up from the street level; from the rooftop venue, you'd get a great views down into the new plaza outside of MT.

Yeah, I'm visualising that in my head and it looks a lot like what MT was going to be with the pre-2008 design. My only stipulation is that this building shouldn't have underground parking - there's enough parking in the neighbourhood for them to do a shared parking scheme with MT and 33 Arch for those who need it. It's proximate enough to ALL the rapid transit lines and a multitude of high-end Zipcars to follow in the footsteps of Lovejoy Wharf's condos. I'm not convinced the public will even come close to using MT's share of the 200-225 spaces in their mammoth garage that they set aside for public parking.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

My only stipulation is that this building shouldn't have underground parking - there's enough parking in the neighbourhood for them to do a shared parking scheme with MT and 33 Arch for those who need it. It's proximate enough to ALL the rapid transit lines and a multitude of high-end Zipcars to follow in the footsteps of Lovejoy Wharf's condos. I'm not convinced the public will even come close to using MT's share of the 200-225 spaces in their mammoth garage that they set aside for public parking.

I'd love to ban parking for all buildings in this corridor, but it would probably kill a lot of these projects. The target market wants a place to park their Lambo and chauffeured Bentley. Then again, maybe the high share of absentee owners makes it realistic.

 

[DZH22]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

My only stipulation is that this building shouldn't have underground parking - there's enough parking in the neighbourhood for them to do a shared parking scheme with MT and 33 Arch for those who need it. It's proximate enough to ALL the rapid transit lines and a multitude of high-end Zipcars to follow in the footsteps of Lovejoy Wharf's condos.

You really think the Richie Riches who can afford to live in an ultra lux building want to ride PUBLIC transit side by side with the peons?

If I were a betting man, I'd bet you will be disappointed by the (more than 0) amount of parking in the proposal.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

This is awesome news for DTX. I wold like to see something tall, glass and thin, like 50 West Street here in NYC:

 

[DZH22]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

^^^I think we are seeing enough blue glass lately that this would be a good spot for Boston's version of NYC's black glass Metropolitan Tower.

 

[tmac9wr]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

As always, the Globe comments are lovely.

That was truly amazing. I haven't read anything so satisfying in a long time.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

^^^I think we are seeing enough blue glass lately that this would be a good spot for Boston's version of NYC's black glass Metropolitan Tower.

I is actually not that dull at all. I like the curves at the edges.

 

[bayvillagebrahmin]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

I is actually not that dull at all. I like the curves at the edges.

I'll take this shape with darker, blackish/greyish glass. Boston needs a tower like this. Also wouldn't mind a similar roof to the Goldman building across the way in Jersey City.

 

[JumboBuc]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

There are five parcels on this block:

A) "Boston Casualty" (3,654 sq.ft): Current home of Sam LaGrassa's, GEM, and a few others. Not part of this project. Good, as it's absolutely worth keeping.

B) "City Sports" (8,545 sq.ft.): Single story, pre-war but architecturally insignificant. I have no problem with this going.

C) "The Children's Place/ AT&T" (10,177 sq.ft.): Strip-mall style retail building. Architecturally worthless. The sooner this parcel is redeveloped, the better.

D) "Discount Jewelry Exchange" (1,835 sq.ft.): Run-down four-story pre-war building. It's old, but not architecturally signficant enough to worry about protecting.

E) "Payless" (3,156 sq.ft.): Six-story, pre-war. Current home of Payless Shoes and Bromfield Pen Shop, whose owner indicated to the Globe that his lease will not be renewed after 2016. This isn't the city's most beautiful building, but it gives the intersection Bostonian character and I'd like to see it stay.

Excluding Boston Casualty, which is not part of the plans, the only building I'd be sad to see replaced here is the corner Payless building, and that's only 13% of the area's total square footage.

I'd like to see a massing that looks something like this, preferably with glass on the tower and high-quality masonry on the mid-rise portions:

 

[commuter guy]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

^ This site plan would make for very interesting scale, with so much of a better outcome than what will likely happen, which will be consolidating all the parcels except for maybe the sam lagrassas building.

 

[bayvillagebrahmin]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

Just walked by this area. I am so glad that "Boston Casualty" is not part of this project. That parcel should 100% stay, its beautiful and important. The rest is terrible, really, the entire street until it hits Washington is horrid.

It's pretty interesting how close this would be to Millennium. You'll have two of our biggest new towers staring each other down.

 

[BostonDrew]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

I wonder how long it'll take residents of 45 Province Street to start complaining

 

[Money]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

I wonder how long it'll take residents of 45 Province Street to start complaining

I've been wondering about this from a broader perspective. All of the towers in the current development cycle are exclusively residential, with some retail in the podium. These are folks with, I assume, big money. The question is, are we inadvertently raising (the already high) hurdles to future high density development? The force is strong with the NIMBYs.

I realize that this may only be tangentially related to this specific thread, so I apologize if I've ruffled feathers. Seemed like a good time to pose the question. If there is a better place to post this, let me know.

 

[itchy]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

^^ I like your thinking, JumboBuc.

Very much hoping the LaGrassa's building (isn't it landmarked?!) as well as the great Payless building are preserved. The rest of it I won't mourn if those two are kept.

 

[statler]

Re: One Bromfield (28-story DTX tower) | 1 Bromfield Street | Downtown

The rest is terrible, really, the entire street until it hits Washington is horrid.

It's a complete street wall comprised of human scaled buildings filled with retail. We haven't been able to build anything with that quality of urban streetscape in the past fifty plus years. Terrible would not be the word I would use.