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

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Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

HenryAlan said:
That would work, but what's Chioforo's motivation? At least he can make money on parking right now, but how does he make money on a derelict landmark?
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You completely missed the point. Menino reards his friends and punishes his enemies. The city takes second stage to his ego.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

The fact is, as long as the garage can service its debt, it will stay there. Chiafaro simply has to wait out the Menino administration (3 more years of this mayor for life?).

This won't guarantee his tower will be built, but at least it is a chance to start over with a fresh administration, and perhaps come to some sort of acceptable compromise.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

palindrome said:
The fact is, as long as the garage can service its debt, it will stay there. Chiafaro simply has to wait out the Menino administration (3 more years of this mayor for life?).

This won't guarantee his tower will be built, but at least it is a chance to start over with a fresh administration, and perhaps come to some sort of acceptable compromise.
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But won't that make the BRA look like a bunch of Shitheads not trying to develop a garage that occupies the most valuable space on the Greenway? So basically the BRA really has no real authority it's all up to the MAYOR.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

TheRifleman said:
But won't that make the BRA look like a bunch of Shitheads?.
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When have they ever looked otherwise?

Kairos Sham is a joke and needs to be fired or better yet unappointed from his appointed position.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway, was never named the R. K. Waterway? The idea was to replace a beast of a bridge with life green and beautiful, when did it say it would open up view to the water? Connect downtown to the water yes. As in you can get to one from the other.

I'm not going to write any more on this as it is assinine and only serves to get your Irish up. I'm not taking the bait.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

"That?s why Shen asked us not to measure the success of the Greenway in inches and feet alone."

What does that phrase actually mean?

Another classic phrase in the article

"The complaint from city officials is that Chiofaro wants to build too tall. His plan calls for twin towers reaching up to 625 feet ? so tall, officials say, that they?ll cast long shadows on the Greenway."
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

I've never thought of the Greenway, either in theory or practice, as a place to see the water from. That's what the Harborwalk is for, a block or two further east.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

^^ I'd give you a cigar, Ron, but I don't think you smoke.

Shirley Kressel once remarked to me that the Greenway is little more than a distraction to Boston's waterfront, the urban amenity that makes Boston unique, and that we should try to improve.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

"chief city planner, says iconic or not, he has not intention of letting one developer hijack Boston?s skyscape, even if it opens up a water view"

What does that mean? Hijack? Is it because Chiafaro's building doesn't fit within their vision for Boston's skyline? Or because it would visually compete with Menino's planned skyscraper?

How can anything be designed under such arbitrary rules.
 
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Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Ron Newman said:
I've never thought of the Greenway, either in theory or practice, as a place to see the water from. That's what the Harborwalk is for, a block or two further east.
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Harborwalk = blue line.

IMG_3886-1.jpg


Id give the greenway a better grade.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

I don't know where that photo is from, but the Harborwalk from the Children's Museum all the way to Battery Wharf is quite attractive.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Ron Newman said:
I don't know where that photo is from
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Black Falcon Terminal

There's nothing there and I don't think the view would be particularly nice in this spot even if you plopped the Greenway right at this spot.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Also, this is literally the opposite side of those silos:


4050444183_3841ecd10e_b.jpg


Not too shabby if you ask me... there's just no one ever there though. Shame.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Ron Newman said:
I've never thought of the Greenway, either in theory or practice, as a place to see the water from. That's what the Harborwalk is for, a block or two further east.
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Right on, brother! What's all this nonsense about seeing and smelling the harbor from the greenway? I don't care if you can hear a clam fart in a puddle!

Aesthetic standards and expectations have really sunk, if these recent columns are to be believed.
 
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Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Wi-Fi access is coming and soon there will be new outdoor furniture.
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A Jardin du Luxembourg for the 21st Century!
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

joebos said:
"chief city planner, says iconic or not, he has not intention of letting one developer hijack Boston?s skyscape, even if it opens up a water view"

What does that mean? Hijack? Is it because Chiafaro's building doesn't fit within their vision for Boston's skyline? Or because it would visually compete with Menino's planned skyscraper?

How can anything be designed under such arbitrary rules.
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The only people Hijacking the Greenway is Menino and the BRA. With the BRA putting a restriction of 200ft cap on this project, That means Harbor Towers will be the center piece in that area. That is awful planning if you ask me. a 200ft development Harbor Towers and Rowes Wharf. What a sight.

The taxpayers have already watched 23 Billion dollars of their money squandered onto the Big Dig with the Greenway to show for it, now we have to sitback and let our politicans use the Greenway for their own political gain.

At least the mayor could actually work with the developer and try to make something happen at this sight. How the hell does this F*ckhead actually get elected.
 
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Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Regarding the shadows, even Chiofaro said there are shadows on the Greenway, though he asserts these are mostly gone by 11 AM, In the winter, the shadows would reach all the way to Columbus Park, and I suspect last into the afternoon.

I can't find a copy of Chiofaro's most recent environmental study. which he sent to the city, online. The study presumably has mappings of the shadows, perhaps even of the afternoon shadows cast on the east side.

Perhaps it is a bit too much to expect Chiofaro to put the study on-line sooner rather than later; on his harborgarageproject site, there is only a single partial image of the new concept with its glass pavilion on the north facade. Imagery of the previous concept has largely vanished. The new facade looks as distinctive as Tremont on the Common, with lots of glass and what seem to be recessed balconies.

18_151822_image001.jpg
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

^^The thing that strikes me odd about that picture is that Chiofaro only owns about 1/3 of the property shown in that rendering.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

The Sun was brutal yesterday on the Greenway. A shadow would've been really nice actually.

Why has the media and others adopted this shadow obsession without really questioning it? I'd like to hear someone explain how this is justified. I think, for the most part, it's disingenuous --just thinly veiled NIMBYism.

Also, someone needs to tell Shen and company that the Greenway doesn't front to the harbor, it runs parallel to it a block inland. No level of self-delusion will change that fact.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

Rebranding the Greenway as Harborwalk is cynical and nonsensical but actually not all that surprising. Ever since a shadowy undemocratic process declared this strip of valuable land a "GREENway" - hence untouchable - it's been a median strip in search of a higher identity. The cultural institutions haven't sprouted, and it's likely that nobody will ever want to build over the ramp parcels as we were promised. So why is it there? Why is it untouchable? Why must all Bostonians love it and "give it time"? Because, duh, it's actually ... um ... cough ... a Harborwalk... yes, that must be it, let's see if they buy that one...

We can thank insipid journalism for this just as much as we can thank Shen and the BRA.
 
Re: The Boston Arch (Aquarium parking garage)

I love this wording: "the stockade fence in front of the Harbor Tower."
 
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