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

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Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

The hypocrisy of the Harbor Towers residents is mind-blowing.

Also, since we're talking about barriers to the waterfront, can we do something about the dumpy, 500'-long perimeter fence surrounding the Harbor Towers lawn and pool? It certainly doesn't offer free access to the harbor. In all honesty, I find this far more deadening to the street and detrimental to the neighborhood than a parking garage that is lined with ground-level retail.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

That review will likely take many months, if not years, to complete, the city says.
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That translates to "we just want to hope this thing dies in the craddle, and don't want to have to debate this."

Why do we need this 50% open space thing on the water. When I think of all the other developments, I don't see 50%. Rowes Wharf, IC, Russia Wharf.

Don should build a giant green middle finger pointed at the harbor towers. What hypocrites. They are in a tower surrounded by a fence!! Do they not see that!?
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

A massive lawsuit against the Harbor Tower's fences for obstructing access to the harborwalk, and harbor in general, would work wonders in adjusting their attitude.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Don Chiofaro would have made millions in the old Scollay Square; luring customers into theaters who were chasing promises that were never fulfilled.

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As it turns out, he and partner Prudential Real Estate greatly overpaid for the garage site, knowing beforehand the encumbrances and limits associated with the site and how these would affect its development potential.

Chiofaro's problem is that he has picked enough legal fights with other developers, including Tishman Speyer, whom he called a 'gang of thieves', and Gale (over One Lincoln) that he has minimal support within the Boston development and political communities for his ambitions.

Having gone into bankruptcy diring his rather recent fight with Tishman Speyer, and had bitter and protracted legal fights with various partners over time, he is probably more pariah than patron to the development community, who would probably be happy with him marginalized. As a developer or major commercial property owner, why would you want to see Chiofaro putting up a building filled with a tenant or two now leasing space in a property you own.

In the bankruptcy case involving Tishman Speyer, Chiofaro put in a bid on One International that he subsequently admitted he couldn't finance.
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If Chiofaro really had the money, he ought to have started buying Harbor Towers when all those condo owners were screaming bankruptcy after they were hit with the assessments for the HVAC repairs.

That aside, I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion that the solid privacy fence needs to come down.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Although I agree with everything Suffolk said, we all knew this was coming as did Chiofaro. It's part of his game.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Rowes Wharf has a lot of public walkway and pier area, not to mention the big archway. Plus it has public ferry landings, water taxi stops, and ticket offices for these. So it might indeed be 50% 'open space'.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

....and as for Atlanta, the commercial office vacancy rate was 20.2 percent in the April-June quarter.

http://www.ajc.com/business/metro-atlanta-office-vacancy-93428.html

Nobody is getting financing to build an office building on spec these days, except maybe in countries whose economies are financed by black gold, and even there financing has gotten tight.

So who is the tenant(s) willing to sign up for say, 500,000 sq ft of office space at the Aquarium Arch? Hines can't find one for SST; Hynes cant find one for Filenes.

And speaking of Atlanta, it is the setting for Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full". And the over-extended, real estate mogul protagonist in that novel, ah, modeled on one Don Chiofaro. (Wolfe and Chiofaro go way back, at least to the years when Wolfe published Bonfire of the Vanities.)
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Are there any other renderings? I feel this project has really cheaped out in the rendering department compared with other buildings.

Also, i would love to see a rendering with this and the Congress street garage towers. A 100% pipe-dream but interesting none the less.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

here is a rendering of Boston with all the proposed building that never got built:

new-york-skyline-picture.jpg
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

You had me for a second.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

But but but think of the shadows!!! The wind tunnels!!! The traffic!!! With this trio of terror, I can't imagine how such a city would survive! Whatever city this is, it must be totally undesirable and unlivable, with an insufferable quality of life. Too bad they didn't have the wise community of neighborhood activists here in Boston to ensure the development of a truly great global metropolis. *wink wink*
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

But we don't want to Manhattanize (read urbanize) our beautiful provincial Boston!
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

palindrome said:
Are there any other renderings? I feel this project has really cheaped out in the rendering department compared with other buildings.

Also, i would love to see a rendering with this and the Congress street garage towers. A 100% pipe-dream but interesting none the less.
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The only renderings that I have seen are the view from the water taxis, and the privileged few who ride such. No views from either north or south on the Greenway, nor from the direction of City Hall or Cambridge St. I'll not speculate on why that is.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Waldorf said:
But we don't want to Manhattanize (read urbanize) our beautiful provincial Boston!
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Nooo, why would we want to become a global cultural and economic capital...one of the best-known and most instantly-reconizable cities on the planet?! I can't imagine...ask Ned.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

castevens said:
here is a rendering of Boston with all the proposed building that never got built:

new-york-skyline-picture.jpg
Click to expand...

You know there are just as many people like us in NYC who look at that image and only see it for what wasn't built as well.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Don't want to go to off topic, but maybe someone could give a quick answer. Whats the deal with the World Trade Center. I believe they already selected the design for the Freedom Tower. Is it in the construction phase?
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

^ Foundations are complete on about two-thirds of the site, and steel erection is up to street level or higher for the Freedom Tower (aka Tower 1) as well as Tower 4 and the memorial (where the big pools, museum and victim names will be).

A few minutes exploring this forum and you'll have all the pictures and updates you could possibly want.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

The freedom tower was actually a few stories above ground when i visited in April. The whole construction site is amazing, its a pretty overwhelming place to be considering all thats happened at that spot, from the worlds tallest building to 9/11 to now and then the future with the freedom tower.

Castevens, nice post haha.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

will it really ever be the world's tallest? aren't there other projects under construction that will be taller?
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

^ nah i meant the twin towers when one of them was the tallest for a brief period.

Unfortuantly, the Durj Dubai is a few hundred feet taller than the freedom tower.
Fortuantly, Dubai is a shithole.
 
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