Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.
The plan sounds interesting, I would like to see the renderings. I like the idea, and think it could work to liven up the area around the aquarium. The 7-11 can only do so much
From the Globe today:
Glass towers, ego
By Yvonne Abraham
Globe Columnist / January 11, 2009
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Developer Don Chiofaro is not the most popular guy in City Hall.
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The man who built International Place has a bull-in-the-china shop quality about him. This does not endear him to Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who prefers his developers a tad more deferential.
But the mayor should find a way to work with Chiofaro. Because a project he has proposed could make a huge difference to this city.
The property Chiofaro wants to develop, currently a parking garage in front of the New England Aquarium, faces the new Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Now, there are some spectacularly bright spots on the Greenway, including beautiful, vibrant parks in the North End and Chinatown. But a bunch of other plans that would have brought more people and vitality to this strip of green - including several cultural centers and a huge garden under glass - are either dead or sucking severe wind.
The Greenway will never be successful unless hordes of people flock to it: workers, residents, visitors taking strolls.
It is in danger of becoming a symbol not just of a gutted economy, but also of lousy planning. Honestly, the way things have gone down there, you'd think the park that was a generation in the making had suddenly dropped from the sky.
Last September, Menino, fretting that the new park might be turned into a shadowy urban canyon, announced a special study to come up with guidelines for construction in the area. His consultants have only just gotten to work. Their conclusions are six to nine months away, at least.
Nobody at the city thought to get that kind of thing squared away before now?
Which brings us to Chiofaro.
Rather than wait for the city's development recommendations, he started showing his proposal around town last week. (He has declined to publicly release renderings, calling the design fluid.)
It currently consists of two glass towers, outlined by terra-cotta-colored ribbons that run up the sides of the buildings and meet in the air above them. It combines office space, a luxury hotel, condos, and retail space. At street level is a three-story glassed-in avenue running from the Greenway to the harbor. That would house retail stores, cafes, and possibly a grocery store. Outside the building, two big LCD screens would show images drawing visitors to the aquarium.
It's a bold proposal - and just the kind of architecture we need in a city that too often tends toward the timid.
It's also going to be incredibly controversial.
At about 1.5 million square feet, the thing is big. And it would be one of the tallest developments in the city. Though it would cast shadows on the Greenway for only a couple of hours most mornings, its size alone makes it a tough sell.
And already, Chiofaro has angered City Hall by trying to shorten the interminable, Byzantine process every developer must go through in Boston. Upset neighbors next door at Harbor Towers say Chiofaro, not having been involved in the 20 years of discussions over what should become of the waterfront, is trying to preempt the public process now.
Maybe Chiofaro hasn't done himself any favors with his increasingly vocal persistence. But it's easy to understand his impatience, and his desire to start the conversation. And there is no doubting his commitment to contributing something truly spectacular to the city, and in a spot that desperately needs it.
Chiofaro and his colleagues have given a lot of thought to what their building can give to the Greenway. In addition to making them money, their proposal would bring thousands of workers, residents, and visitors to the neighborhood. It would provide a warm, welcoming corridor between the park and the harbor. It would breathe life into an area that is nowhere near reaching its potential.
Menino should think long and hard before allowing personality differences to come between the city and all of that.
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
abraham@globe.com
