115 Federal St. (Winthrop Square)

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You guys know what is the perfect design for the skyscraper? This: :shock:

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^ OMFG, I just saw that on SSP and thought the same exact thing, LOL.
 
....

I like that building too... though I have always wanted this bad boy in Boston

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Vanshnooker: The first one is from Dubai, i'm not sure about the second although it reminds me (from that rendering) of Seattle's Washington Mutual Tower with a flatter top. I do like it, and i think it could work in Boston... not the Dubai one though.
 
The second is a great looking tower. I also feel it would be a good fit in the Boston skyline.
 
I like 115, it was just a let down. I'm sure it will get modified even if it is only slightly
 
I'm getting extremely repetitive, but even a "slight" modification, like, say, an unimportant crown to cover the machinery on top can make a HUGE difference.

I'm sure there'll be a good modification
 
I think the machinery on top is going to be covered by flowers, but your point is quite accurate. A very small change can take it from "well, I guess that's alright" to "I can't wait til that's built."
 
A request for the the photoshop guys. Can you take the original rendering for 115 and change the glass to a kind of translucent black like in this rendering?

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Belkin?s dream towers
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Tuesday, December 19, 2006


Hub business magnate Steven Belkin estimates the cost of building Boston?s tallest skyscraper could hit $1.2 billion, making his ?iconic? tower proposal the most expensive in city history.

The head of Trans National?s affinity credit card and travel empire offered a candid assessment of the challenges - led by sky-high construction costs - facing his quest to build a 1,000-foot tower in Boston?s Financial District.

But Belkin, 59, also predicts the eye-catching, roughly 75-story tower will overcome such obstacles and remake the city?s skyline.

The building?s dazzling design - which will include a park on its roof - will be a big draw for the city?s top companies to rent space in, he contends.

Belkin is looking to win City Hall approval to build his tower on a city-owned garage near Winthrop Square. In February, Mayor Thomas M. Menino called upon developers to submit proposals for a new, city-centerpiece tower.

Belkin, who owns a mid-rise next door to the city garage and has spent years drawing up tower plans, was the only respondent.

?I don?t think it will be more than $1.2 billion,? Belkin said. ?It is an exciting project, but it is a challenging project.?

The tower proposal is just the latest in a long and colorful career that has seen Belkin reap a fortune and build more than 25 different companies.

Belkin, who also owns a stake in two Atlanta pro sports teams, said, in an interview at his firm?s headquarters near Fenway Park [map], that he is entering a new stage in his career.

?I still love the challenge of business, but I want to do it in a way that gives back to the community,? Belkin said.

The tower will be lifted up 75 feet above the ground on columns, creating a large park and civic space below. It will be an expansive, three-acre spread that includes restaurants and cafes and a glass-enclosed all-weather section.
The tower?s top will feature a park named after Natick?s historic, 17th-century Lookout Farm, which Belkin owns.

?You will be up in the clouds - really it should be just a very magical moment,? Belkin said. ?We are going to change the way people see tall buildings.?

All that public space, which sacrifices four to five floors of potential rent-paying tenants, could amount to 15 percent of the project?s cost, potentially more than $150 million.

Average rents in the tower, if it opens as proposed in 2011, will be in the $70- to $75-a-square-foot range - well above the $50 to $60 a square foot charged now at the city?s top towers.

?There will be demand from tenants to be in an iconic building,? Belkin said.

David Begelfer, head of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, says Belkin has a solid chance of seeing his tower become a reality.

?He is going to be in the market during this period of tightening occupancy and rising rents,? Begelfer said.



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The Globe said:
1,000-foot tower or public park?

By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | December 22, 2006

Our Mayor for Life, Tom Menino, has created a big buzz in town with his Big Ideas to build Boston's tallest tower and sell City Hall. That kind of public dialogue is not a bad thing, of course, although MFL's proposal to move City Hall to Oshkosh is about the worst decision to come along since Dan Duquette decided Roger Clemens was all washed up. City Hall, like Clemens (156-67 in the regular season since leaving Boston), still has a lot of life in it.

When MFL surprised the town in February with his plan to build "Tommy's Tower" on the site of a city-owned garage in Winthrop Square, city officials were predicting developers would be beating down their doors to compete. "We expect proposals from around the world," Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said at the time. "Dozens."

As it turned out the city got exactly one proposal -- that coming from Boston businessman Steve Belkin, whose ownership of an adjacent building gave him a considerable edge over potential competitors. There was, however, a previous serious -- though undisclosed -- alternative proposal for that old city garage: the idea of building a complement to Boston's fabulous Post Office Square park.

The concept came not from a bunch of tree huggers with good intentions and no money, but from Equity Office Properties, the nation's largest publicly held office building owner and manager. According to a plan sitting here on my desk, Equity Office was considering tearing down the garage, putting the parking underground, and building a new park for downtown Boston modeled on developer Norman Leventhal's masterpiece in Post Office Square.

Like Leventhal before them, the Equity Office executives were motivated at least as much by self-interest as altruism. Fifteen years ago Leventhal was not anxious to see an old garage replaced by a hulking tower that would diminish his adjacent properties, including what was then Le Meridien, the hotel. Equity Office owns three significant buildings surrounding the Winthrop Square garage, and it saw a park as the best way to protect those interests against a similar threat.

The plan developed last year for Equity Office by Chan Krieger & Associates, the Cambridge architecture and planning firm, called for putting the current 875 parking spaces underground in a five- or six-level garage and building a 1.1-acre park that would "break through the Financial District's largest super block and provide a new east-west pedestrian pathway between the area of Downtown Crossing and Federal Street," according to the plan. The plan also included a modest cafe and retail component.

An executive who worked on the plan said Equity Office's financing concept was also similar to the one behind Post Office Square: Equity Office wanted to control the property through a very long-term lease, build the garage and the park, and then eventually give it back to the city. The executive estimated the project would cost about $40 million.

Equity Office, which was then headed in Boston by Maryann Gilligan Suydam, presented the proposal in the spring of 2005 to BRA director Mark Maloney, who gave it a cool reception, according to the executive who worked on the deal. Equity Office never asked again.

"This proposal was not financially feasible," Equity Office said in a statement yesterday. "We did not pursue it any further, and no formal submission was ever made." Said the BRA in a statement: "The BRA issued an RFP for the Winthrop Square Garage. Equity Office Properties did not submit a response. We are currently reviewing the proposal that we did receive."

Whether Boston needs another park in the area is open to question. Post Office Square is nearby, and we're spending a fortune on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway not far away. On the other hand, it is also an open question whether the densest part of the city is the right place for a 1,000-foot tower. Or whether we should be directing future demand for office space downtown or to the city's new frontier, the Seaport District.

So let the debate begin on the merits of a 1,000-foot tower or selling City Hall. But if we are to debate, we all need access to the same set of facts. These are, after all, public assets we are talking about.

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.
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Why follow that plan and construct only a park when the 1000ft tower includes a park on the ground floor and at the top of the tower?
 
I'm more sympathetic to parks than most people on this forum, but Winthrop Square does not need to be (solely) a park, for the reasons already given above.
 
christmas present

Hey guys. I made a model of 115-Federal in Google Sketchup. All the important dimensions are accurate, according to the plans down at the BRA. Here are some renderings of the tower from various points in the city. I made it red for no particular reason - just so it would stick out. I think making the whole spire a different color from the rest of the building makes it look a little cooler.

Mass Ave and Bolyston:
boylston-mass.jpg


Boylston and Dartmouth (Copley Square):
boylston-dartmouth.jpg


Bolyston and Arlington:
bolyston-arlington.jpg


Beacon and Arlington:
beacon-arlington.jpg


Hancock Observatory (if it ever re-opens):
hancock-observatory.jpg


Southeast Expressway:
se-expressway.jpg


Cambridge side of Harvard Bridge:
mass-morrissey.jpg


Columbus Park:
columbus-park.jpg


ICA:
ica.jpg


BU Bridge:
bu-bridge.jpg


Close-up of Downtown:
downtown.jpg


If there are any other vantage points people want, just let me know. Its pretty easy to design buildings with this program, so I think I might also do a SST and a few others.
 
It looks so lonely there. Is there any news of that other 1000ft tower rumor to be planned?
 
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