Best spots for supertalls

J

JSic

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Thoughts on where are the best spots for possible 800'-1,000' footers?

- Winthrop Square garage
- Hancock garage
- Congress St garage (we wont get that tall but its a good spot for it)

Others?

I remember about 10-12 years ago there was talk about a skyscraper over St Anthony's Shrine on Arch Street. I wonder what ever happened to that...
 
St. Anthony's is now part of one of the Winthrop Square redevelopment plans. Other than that, no news of late. St. Anthony's shrine could be a great spot though!

How about the South Bay tower proposed back in 2005 (?)
 
Dalton St Garage. It's a natural extension of the high spine but gives the CSC tower and Pru some breathing room. Unlike some of the other BB sites like the Back Bay garage and Copley Square, this site is on solid ground, not airrights.
 
Based on this map, the best spot for a thousand footer is Bunker Hill Community College and Kendall Square

BOS_COMPOSITE_Ver1pt0X_jan09.jpg
 
Lechmere, if it had a Ped/bike bridge to connect it to North Station
 
^ direct, exclusive access out the back of North Station, parallel to the CR tracks and via the park were promised as part of the Big Dig, and would better integrate a Lechmere/Northpoint suoertall
 
Arlington said:
^ direct, exclusive access out the back of North Station, parallel to the CR tracks and via the park were promised as part of the Big Dig, and would better integrate a Lechmere/Northpoint suoertall
Click to expand...

That would be more applicable to the existing development closer to the North Point Park. But with Lechmere to the North and the Community College Orange Line stop to the East they have good access to transit already. A pedestrian/bike bridge there seems a bit excessive, especially if it ends up being a big clinb up or required another draw bridge.
 
With Kendall T said to be maxing out, Cambridge/Bunker Hill is going to have to invest in more and better connectivity if they actually want a transit network to support supertalls on the north side of the Charles.

Just the green line and a circuitous walk to NS seems a bit skimpy. I would withdraw Lechmere from consideration if that's all it had--and frankly concerns about having only the Kendall Red may be enough to kill a supertall @ the Volpe site.

The downtown Boston sites have a bigger, more redundant multimodal network on which a supertall can claim to be only a marginal burden. If you can claim either North or South station as walkable plus any one (or more) subway line, I'd say you are supertall-ready.

If all you've got is one subway and some buses, it is harder to claim that you won't be such a burden as to have to proffer some serious transit uogrades as a part of a supertall project.
 
Speaking of which, I was watching an old AP newsreel about the glass falling out of the Hancock and the reporter said there were also fears at the time that the tower was sinking into the Back Bay. Never heard that before.
 
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