Atlantic Wharf (née Russia Wharf) | Atlantic Ave | Waterfront

[palindrome]

wow that chinese building is horrid. It looks like and evil transformer!

 

[tocoto]

From this angle it has a futuristic feel sort of a modern building blooming into the air from good old roots below. IMO it's far better than anything in the seaport save the ML building, and a lot better than 500 Atlantic which is too squat and devoid of detail for me.

The problem is that the renderings don't often show what the final product will actually look like at the level of detail needed to evaluate the design, so we always end up waiting until the structure is bult and then wondering about what could have been.

 

[ablarc]

^ Nice, but should be taller.

 

[Joe_Schmoe]

Looks a lot like 33 Arch to me. We can now have a new contest in Boston, who squats on older buildings more horribly and with less respect, Russia Wharf or Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary? The Custom House tower showed how to do it the right way, this is all wrong.

 

[Corey]

I really like the looks of this building, despite the fact that it has the same tones of blue glass as 33 arch.

 

[statler]

To Russia, with plans - Wharf tower could be in sight
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Monday, October 16, 2006 - Updated: 07:59 AM EST

Will Chicago real estate titan Sam Zell pull the trigger on the first new office tower of the current economic boom?
Local real estate executives are abuzz with that question, with Zell?s Equity Office Properties Trust taking key steps to prepare the way for construction of its long-planned Russia Wharf tower.
Equity is seeking City Hall?s permission to bring a large ?tower crane? to its proposed office and residential high-rise site at Russia Wharf, which sits alongside the Fort Point Channel at the water?s edge of the Financial District.
The real estate firm plans to build a 31-story tower complex that will include some renovated portions of Russia Wharf. That 19th century office and retail building stands at the bustling corner of Congress and Atlantic, not far from Rowes Wharf.
Yet while there has been much talk of new towers in Boston, developers have also been skittish about taking the plunge amid a Bay State economy where growth has been sluggish.
But some real estate executives and observers are seeing a green light in Equity?s recent actions.
?I just think Sam Zell?s operations out of Chicago have probably decided that the time is now and it probably is,? said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association.
There are also other concrete signs that Equity may be becoming more bullish about the Boston office market.
The company, which has been steadily emptying Russia Wharf?s offices of tenants, is also seeking city permission to erect a large scaffolding for its new project.
And history also suggests that Zell and Equity, one of the nation?s largest office tower owners, could be thinking boldly while others waver.
One of the nation?s more colorful top executives, the billionaire Zell has a love of motorcycles and a reputation for both provocative declarations and bold action. He even has his own bike club, ?Zell?s Angels.?
Back in the mid-1990s, as Boston was digging out of a deep recession and real estate crash, Zell, then a brash newcomer from Chicago, was the first out of the gate with a major new office project.
Others are not so sure about Zell?s intentions.
Equity has yet to line up an anchor tenant to lease its new high-rise, a condition many executives consider vital for a new office tower to move forward.
For its part, Equity acknowledged its recent moves in a statement to the Herald, and suggested a big tower launch could be on the way in a matter of months.
?We are doing site preparation work to keep the project on track, so we can obtain the option of breaking ground early next year,? the company said in a statement.

Link

 

[ablarc]

Looks a lot like 33 Arch to me. We can now have a new contest in Boston, who squats on older buildings more horribly and with less respect, Russia Wharf or Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary? The Custom House tower showed how to do it the right way, this is all wrong.

Seen in the light of the Custom House, you're right; this is an abomination. Peabody and Stearns could do it seamlessly and right because they weren't saddled with modernist ideology that says a building has to express its modernity by looking different. ON THE OTHER HAND: the Custom House was much better raw material to relate to. A seamless extension of the wharf buildings might produce something as overbearing as the present solution. There's probably a middle way: less overwhelmingly muscular but not altogether tepid.

One way or another it ought to be taller.

 

[Ron Newman]

What do you all think of Kennedy's and Exchange Place? These are the other two examples that come to my mind of new buildings grafted onto older ones.

 

[justin]

Meh... At least it's Foster CBT is aping now. That counts as an improvement.

justin

 

[BostonSkyGuy]

What do you all think of Kennedy's and Exchange Place? These are the other two examples that come to my mind of new buildings grafted onto older ones.

Exchange place is my favorite building in the city. It's not the tallest, or one of the most recognizable (for those outside the city) but I just really like the contrast it offers to the buildings around it.

I'm all for more glass in this city of red brick but this design doesn't really knock my socks off. It's not like it's absolutely horrible, and it's not something that gets me excited either. I think for having to graft/build onto something that's older and already established it's not that bad.

Looking at the rendering posted by Briv with this project and the ICA, the glass facades really look good and give a "change up" to the area and buildings around it. The design could be more modern, to me it looks like something from the 70's or 80's trying to be modernized. It could be worse though, much worse.

 

[Coyote137]

Will Chicago real estate titan Sam Zell pull the trigger on the first new office tower of the current economic boom?

Yet while there has been much talk of new towers in Boston, developers have also been skittish about taking the plunge amid a Bay State economy where growth has been sluggish.

So which is it, retard? Are we SOARING through a boom period, or not?

 

[xec]

Looks like Russia Wharf is finally getting under way.

 

[KentXie]

This is amazing. It seems like The Clarendon and Kensington will be going up to and now Russia Wharf is about to start as well. I wonder how many towers will start construction next year.

 

[tocoto]

Wasn't Equity Office recently bought out by Blackrock, a company that usually dismantles an organization and sells the parts. It seems surprising that Blackrock would continue the development of Russia Wharf but instead would find a buyer for the development rights.

 

[BosDevelop]

do you mean Blackstone?

Blackstone usually buys a business, holds onto for a few years and then sells it at a profit (see the old Ritz that it sold for a several million dollar profit). If Blackstone believes that the Russia Wharf project is good for Equity's bottom line, they will continue/start building it....

 

[xec]

Russia Wharf this morning. Regardless of who the current owner is the project seems to be going ahead.

A couple of blocks down Congress Street from Russia Wharf, on the other side of the Channel, a similar renovation is under way. Two buildings are being converted to residential. The plans include a third building next to the one with the Berkeley Investments sign, thought it will not be a highrise.

 

[castevens]

I love how the city (read: tall buildings) are pushing up to the edge of the water. It looks really cool IMHO.

 

[castevens]

and glad to see it finally get underway.

I always imagined the Fort Point Channel as being somewhat like the Chicago River with large buildings on either side. With these projects and the potential of development in South Boston, I might just see that in my lifetime.

 

[stellarfun]

Russia Wharf this morning. Regardless of who the current owner is the project seems to be going ahead.

A couple of blocks down Congress Street from Russia Wharf, on the other side of the Channel, a similar renovation is under way. Two buildings are being converted to residential. The plans include a third building next to the one with the Berkeley Investments sign, thought it will not be a highrise.

The Russia Wharf demolition contractor is Brandenburg, which mostly works in the Midwest and Middle Atlantic. A question for which I do not have the answer is whether Equity/Blackstone intend constructing underground parking. That would make for an interesting demolition project.

The New York Times yesterday had a long profile piece on the grand plans for the Boston Wharf complex, calling it a new Soho. With respect to Berkeley, it said this:

Berkeley Investments, a real estate development, investment and asset management company in Boston purchased about 13 buildings, mostly containing commercial space, in the Fort Point Channel district two years ago. Coincidentally, it has adopted tactics used by Goldman Properties in the B3 district of Philadelphia to develop the retail mix in their buildings, said Tim Love, principal of Utile Inc. Architecture and Planning of Boston, a firm hired to do that planning.

?Our planning work was based in many ways on the strategy used by Goldman in Philadelphia,? Mr. Love said. ?The economic equation is, I?m going to subsidize this destination restaurant entrepreneur to get them here, because then I can generate more income from the condominiums and the co-ops. Because if a developer is only analyzing the revenue generation of the retail alone, it doesn?t make any economic sense.

...?Berkeley, which is upgrading an office building at 12 Farnsworth Street, and redeveloping 346-354 Congress Street into luxury condominiums called FP3, has been adding popular Boston restaurateurs to the mix, said Young K. Park, president and principal of Berkeley. He has signed a branch of the Flour Bakery and Cafe from the South End, along with three spinoff restaurants created by the owner of No. 9 Park in Beacon Hill.

?The South End has been a little bit of a model for what we?re doing in terms of putting in restaurants and boutiques,? Mr. Park said.

Tony Goldman who owns 16 buildings in the Boston Wharf complex had this to say in the same article:

Mr. Goldman said he intended to rebrand the quarter as the Boston Wharf District, and construction of the first phase of his project, which begins in March, entails creating 87 condominiums at 316-322 Summer Street. A second phase, scheduled for construction next year, will add 150 to 200 more. The price of the apartments will be about $400,000 to over $1 million, with an average price of about $500,000. Within five years, Goldman Properties also plans to create about 90,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, said Albert Price, a managing director of the company.

The type of retail establishments chosen will be critical to redeveloping the neighborhood, Mr. Goldman said. He is forgoing national name-brand retailers, which often pay higher rents, in favor of boutique retailers, like a florist, a hair salon, a vintage car showroom, lighting stores and art galleries, among others. He said boutique retailers can be worth the expense when they attract a buyer willing to pay more to live there.

....Mr. Goldman also plans to dig up pavement in alleys to reveal original cobblestone and rail ties, and will add architectural flourishes to facades like awnings to create the feel of the meatpacking district in New York.

As for the restaurant, from today's Boston Globe:

Restaurateur-entrepreneur Barbara Lynch plans to open a "three concept" restaurant in two renovated Boston Wharf Co. warehouses late next year, making her one of the first celebrity chefs to stake out space on the emerging South Boston Waterfront.

Lynch, executive chef and owner of No. 9 Park, yesterday signed a 10-year lease for 14,700 square feet of space on two floors of adjoining historic buildings being redeveloped for condominium and retail use by Berkeley Investments Inc. of Boston.

She joins dozens of other restaurateurs with new restaurants or plans to open restaurants on the South Boston Waterfront. South End restaurateur Joanne Chang expects to open a Flour bakery and cafe in about a month in a Berkeley-owned building on Farnsworth Street.

...Lynch said her new business will include a fine-dining restaurant, a casual-dining room, and a "retail" area that she declined to describe other than to say it would have foods and liquor.

"We're not discussing the concepts, but it will have the Cadillac of kitchens," she said. The kitchen will take up much of the space in the two buildings half a floor below the street, with culinary operations visible to pedestrians.

 

[Waldorf]

A night shot of the Fort Point Channel side of Russia Wharf...from tonight.