[ARCHIVED] Harbor Garage Redevelopment | 70 East India Row | Waterfront | Downtown

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Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

As far as I know, the Harborwalk is open for pedestrian use and wraps around the Aquarium. Am I not understanding something here?

It was a covered walk way like center plaza
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Thomas Menino blasts harbor tower plan
Donald Chiofaro defends ?concept?
By Thomas Grillo
Thursday, February 5, 2009

Hub developer Donald Chiofaro?s harborfront high-rise project appears dead in the water.

?The chances of Don Chiofaro building (it) is about as likely as an 80-degree day in January,? Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. ?It?s too big. His chances are slim to none.?

Menino?s comments came a day after North and West End residents unleashed a torrent of criticism over the Chiofaro Co.?s proposal to replace the seven-story Boston Harbor Garage with a $900 million development featuring two towers with 860,000 square feet of office space, a 200-room hotel, 100 condos and ground-floor retail.

Residents, caught off guard by a rendering of the project first floated in the press, blasted the tower heights, which in a rendering appear to rise up 40 and 60 stories. Neighbors said the project is premature, considering the Boston Redevelopment Authority has yet to complete a zoning study of the adjacent Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

?Don is not exempt from that process,? Menino said. ?Don should take into consideration the development rules in the city of Boston. He has to adhere to the rules. But more importantly, the neighborhood. The residents have spoken against this development many times.?

A new bill in the Legislature could effectively outlaw the proposal by restricting the shadows cast on the Greenway.

Chiofaro declined to be interviewed. But his company issued a statement saying its design is ?still conceptual.?

?We look forward to working with the city of Boston and Mayor Menino on this important project that will create a new gateway to Boston, improve the pedestrian experience along the Greenway and serve as a catalyst for economic development and job creation.?

http://bostonherald.com/business/ge...aro_defends_?concept_/srvc=home&position=also
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Disgraceful.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Mumbles is an assclown. What is the best guess as to when he will no longer be our beloved mayor?
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

What neighborhood is our Mayor referring to?
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

A new bill in the Legislature could effectively outlaw the proposal by restricting the shadows cast on the Greenway.

Great....maybe the Central Artery wasn't so bad. If this bill passes, expect any future project to be less than the garage itself. What a shame.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

If Chiofaro had used Druker as a straw, everything would be right as rain.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

?Don is not exempt from that process,? Menino said.

Translated from Menino speak: Don forgot that he has to contribute to my campaign in order to get anything built.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Tommy, that wasn't a very professional comment.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Chiofaro is all too aware of how the game is played in Boston; there are certain rules, not always written in a rulebook. And Rule #1 is: Never surprise the mayor by announcing a big project in the press without first previewing it with the mayor.

Chiofaro played a lot of linebacker at Harvard but I have to assume all those hits have not now addled his short-term memory. For example, Chiofaro seems to have either overlooked the very public spat between the mayor and BC some months back about campus expansion and buying buildings off-campus, or chose to ignore it.

Conceded there is no love lost between Chiofaro and Menino, but this isn't thawing a frosty relationship.

I have my doubts that this is even a serious design, and was more of a stick in your eye proposal. The perspective in the rendering is the view that you'd get from the air cargo buildings at Logan. Nary a perspective of how the building would appear from say City Hall or the Old State House, or from International Place, or from the Greenway's pergola park in the North End.
 
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Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Menino is completely out of control or just uneducated. The economy is heading for the dumps the city of Boston is looking for Taxpayers money from the Federal Government and this Menino is telling a private developer who wants to invest 900 million in the Aquarium garage that he will never build this project. At least work the the developer to get the project on the right track for the sake of families, JOBS, and Better BOSTON.

All Chiofaro is showing what could be in the future. Wonder why this city is starting to look like Providence.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

I have my doubts that this is even a serious design, and was more of a stick in your eye proposal. The perspective in the rendering is the view that you'd get from the air cargo buildings at Logan. Nary a perspective of how the building would appear from say City Hall or the Old State House, or from International Place, or from the Greenway's pergola park in the North End.


So Chiofaro hires a renowned international design firm to draft up a dummy proposal? Couldn?t he have just hired CBT for that?

And considering he built International Place which shares similar characteristics to this; I doubt this is anything but a legit proposal.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

I wonder how the mayor reconciles his outright opposition to this tower with his shameless cheerleading for the 1000' Trans National Place several blocks away.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

I doubt that Chiofaro is dumb enough to make such a rookie mistake. He's probably jabbing at Menino and opening the door to Menino's rivals in the upcoming election.

I agree that smart developers have learned to add a lot of wiggle room to the height but also think they may have learned to propose buildings during a downturn. I've seen what must be hundreds of proposals proposed during a boom only too be canceled in the downturn since the approval process takes longer than any economic cycle.*
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Conceded there is no love lost between Chiofaro and Menino, but this isn't thawing a frosty relationship...I have my doubts that this is even a serious design, and was more of a stick in your eye proposal... Nary a perspective of how the building would appear from say City Hall

Post 424!
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

I wonder how the mayor reconciles his outright opposition to this tower with his shameless cheerleading for the 1000' Trans National Place several blocks away.

I was thinking the EXACT same thing this morning on my way into work. Just when you think mumbles has acheived a full level of stupidity, he raises the bar just a little further.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

I just don't understand. Given the state of the economy, why are city leaders and residents so opposed to someone coming in, proposing development that will being in jobs, both short term in construction and long term in the offices, restaurants and services that projects like this will provide. It's gotten so old.
Someone mentioned earlier about parks that are boarded by highrises, like Bryant Park in NY. If anyone has visited that park, part of the allure to it is the fact that it is kinda like an oasis in an urban jungle. I was there on an 90 degree last August and thank god for the shadows!! The Greenway needs to be boarded by towers, so long as they interact well at street level, to give that feeling of enclosure. Then, the worst part of the Greenway will not be the shadows, it'll be what it is now. An urban park in the middle of 6 lanes of traffic.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

It seems that this Mayor has other motives for this project. I bet if this was one of the Mayor's friends he would be crying people need jobs and we could use a tower their.

I have had enough with this city. People in Harbor Towers act like they own their part of the GREENWAY. Don't forget who flipped the bill for the BIG DIG (TaxPAYERS) We actually made those Dump of Towers worth something now your trying to supress the area even more. That's the JOKE

Lets cast a bill about SHADOWS over the Greenway? I never even heard of something so absurb in my life.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

It is rather tall. And, dense.
 
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