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

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Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

diesel rain? I don't understand.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

diesel also means 'banging' or 'phat'...

that shit be banging...

that's diesel yo....
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Banker & Tradesman - April 20, 2009
Chiofaro?s Dual Tower Project Riles Harbor Tower Neighbors

By Paul McMorrow

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

04/20/09

The filing was met with harsh words from Chiofaro?s Harbor Towers neighbors. But the developer fired back, saying that he can only knock down the garage if he replaces it with something dense enough to replace the garage?s revenue.

?The garage is an economic venture,? he said. ?It has cash flow. The only way to knock it down is to replace it with something with a chance to make money. It?s simple.? He said the project?s height is being driven primarily by the towers? slender footprints, adding, ?To be sure, we?ve got a big building. It isn?t written anywhere that you shouldn?t have tall buildings in cities.?

The filing fleshes out a six-year construction schedule for erecting two towers that would total 1.5 million square feet of office, hotel, residential and retail space. The proposed towers ? a 40-story, 560 foot tall office building and a 59-story, 690 foot hotel and condo tower, to be connected by a 770-foot tall frame ? would go vertical between 2014 and 2017. That construction would be preceded by a phased demolition of the existing garage and construction of the first phase of the towers? underground parking.

Chiofaro eventually plans to replace the existing 1,475 above-ground parking spots with 1,200-1,400 below-grade spots.

The trustees of neighboring Harbor Towers released a statement Thursday in which they described themselves as ?vigorously opposed to Mr. Chiofaro?s plan for redevelopment as presented to the city.?

The Harbor towers statement labeled Chiofaro?s $900 million proposal as ?simply too large and imposing for this unique and valuable block near both the water?s edge and the new Rose Kennedy Greenway, and utterly inconsistent with the surrounding neighborhood.?

The trustees also charged that Chiofaro has not engaged them ?in any meaningful way.?

Chiofaro said that he has been meeting with residents from the surrounding neighborhoods, and said that the BRA review process would provide a forum for dialogue with the project?s critics.
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Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

?simply too large and imposing for this unique and valuable block near both the water?s edge and the new Rose Kennedy Greenway, and utterly inconsistent with the surrounding neighborhood.?

So if this block is unique and valuable, we should build something small and stubby? I thought it would be the other way around. And the utter inconsistency with the surrounding neighborhood. The only two neighborhood here is the Financial District to the east and the North End to the North. Granted that this tower is located closer to the towers than any low-rise neighborhood, I'll say this is fairly consistent.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

The trustees also charged that Chiofaro has not engaged them ?in any meaningful way.?

This, in a nutshell, is why Harbor Towers is against this proposal. The "what's in it for me" mentality is showing itself loud and clear!
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

?It isn?t written anywhere that you shouldn?t have tall buildings in cities.?


Domination. This should be printed and stapled all over Boston.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

It isn?t written anywhere that you shouldn?t have tall buildings in cities
Click to expand...

He forgot to add: "but it is written many places that you should".

utterly inconsistent with the surrounding neighborhood
Click to expand...

According to...residents of Harbor Towers? HA!
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

"?It isn?t written anywhere that you shouldn?t have tall buildings in cities.?

Chiofaro is a legend. I hate the design of this project, but I hope it gets built just as a big F-U.

I don't understand why every time something gets proposed, the building(s) next to it have to make such a big stink. They forget when the building they reside in were being built, it raised the same outcry from other parties. But...now that they have their place, the development must stop!
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Before you know it, skyscrapers will only pop up in the desert where there is nobody to complain over anything. Hmmmmm, I wonder if that is why Dubai is so successful.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

The reason this won't happen is that the BRA is working with the idea (which I agree with) that your should maximize views of the city from the water, and views of the water from the city. Thus they are trying to zone it so that the city seems to rise up out of the water. They do not want a wall of skyscrapers at the waters edge that block view of all the city behind, and they don't want every buildings behind to be blocked from the water. They view Harbor Towers as a great mistake (another view I share). So you get the 6 story wharf buildings, the 10 - 15 story buildings behind those, and taller ones as you move back. For example, Russia Wharf splits the difference in height between the Intercontinental and the Federal Reserve, Rowes has the shorter fingers that jut into the harbor, the taller part on the greenway, and taller International place behind that.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Wow! Enacting such rigid conformation will not produce anything valuable or interesting. It certainly wouldn't be of any interest to me.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

^ I believe a lot of cities are working with that paradigm for waterfronts, including Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto, and San Francisco.

This piece of land, wedged between the Greenway and the harbor, may just be too valuable for that.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

But that's what the arch and the slim left side exist. They don't block the view even with a height of 700 ft. Besides, the back part of the tower, from the rendering, are all low rises that are blocked by the current garage itself. The logic doesn't work on this plot of land.

And another thing. One complex does not create a wall and there will be only this one complex. Columbus Park is next to it and on the other side are mid-rises.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

Here's where Chiofaro loses me. First he says:

"The only way to knock it down is to replace it with something with a chance to make money."

Fair enough. Then we learn:

Chiofaro eventually plans to replace the existing 1,475 above-ground parking spots with 1,200-1,400 below-grade spots.

So, by his own logic, the only way he can offset that loss of 75-275 parking spaces is to build a 40-story and 59-story tower?

Am I missing something here?
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

^ Well, I think the word "replace" is either being misused or misunderstood in the article. First off, he has to have some place for the new residents of these towers to park. Second, I can't imagine he's going to "replace" that many spaces for the public as well as adding spaces for residents of the two towers. Unless he plans to have below grade parking under BOTH towers? I can't see that happening, I can't see him "replacing" the spaces in the Aquarium Parking Garage 1 for 1.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

It seems that this developer bought the most controversial and most valuable parcel on the Greenway.
In my opinion I think the development seems reasonable given the location. It will generate more revenue for the city and also make the Boston Aquarium much more attractive for tourists. It will also give Boston something NEW and different to look at.??.HANCOCK TOWER, PRUDENTIAL are DINOSAURS ??. Harbor Towers residents have to understand that they live in the CITY. Tall Buildings are built in the city.
I?m very surprised that the developer has gotten little or no support from city hall. This is a key area in the city which would bring much added life to that area. City Hall is really showing their true colors on how they run. <COMPLETE CORRUPT ION>
After the entire Filenes situation I would say the city officials would screw up a free lunch never mind trying to make a better city for everyone that actually lives here.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

If Chiofaro has the money, let him build it. It will be sad if the government will approve projects like the Filene's and CC when they don't have the financial resources to build it and reject a project that does.
 
Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage.

KentXie said:
If Chiofaro has the money, let him build it. It will be sad if the government will approve projects like the Filene's and CC when they don't have the financial resources to build it and reject a project that does.
Click to expand...


I agree 100%.......City Hall should be helping this guy and try to make a better city. We are seeing very troubling times in the world. Pretty soon Govt officials will be the developers with all the BAILOUT money we are giving away........
 
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