Boston's Waterfront

The restaurateur for the end of Long Wharf was selected by the BRA Board in December:

Press Releases
City Selects Restaurateur for Long Wharf Pavilion Site

Eat Drink Laugh Restaurant Group Plans Casual Seafood Establishment
The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board today selected Eat Drink Laugh Restaurant Group (EDL) to redevelop the Long Wharf pavilion site into a thriving dining and entertainment locale. EDL?s winning proposal includes the creation of Doc?s, a unique, casual 88-seat restaurant that will feature a mostly-seafood menu. Doc?s will be a completely new concept for Boston, not just a restaurant, but a full indoor/outdoor experience, anchoring Long Wharf as a ?must visit? destination for locals and visitors. EDL?s previous restaurants include The Paramount on Charles Street, 21st Amendment on Bowdoin Street, The Blarney Stone in Dorchester, Peking Tom?s on Kingston Street and West on Centre in West Roxbury.

?We chose Eat Drink Laugh because of their unique restaurant concept,? Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. ?This restaurant will enliven Long Wharf with increased daytime activity and nighttime entertainment. It will provide another way in which residents and visitors can enjoy Boston?s harbor.?

Doc?s will incorporate leading-edge, ?green,? engineering and strategies in its architectural design that will echo the character of Boston?s historic waterfront. In addition to the 88-seat interior capacity, Doc?s will feature an exterior capacity of 176 ? this includes a seasonal standing deck for 88 patrons, a promenade patio for 12 patrons and a compass patio for 76 patrons.

Doc?s will provide a warm and vibrant meeting point for locals, city visitors, business-people and others who are taking to the harbor or simply enjoying the waterfront. By night, Doc?s will transform to an evening destination for people seeking quality food, beer or wine, and socializing ? with Boston Harbor as a backdrop. Doc?s will be built, first and foremost, for its local patrons. EDL believes that if you build a loyal following in the neighborhood, visitors and tourists are sure to follow. The food at Doc?s will reflect the combination that has made all of EDL?s restaurants so popular: delicious food that isn?t fussy; meals that are moderately-priced, yet made with the highest quality ingredients possible.

EDL was founded in 1993 by principal owner Michael Conlon, a life-long Bostonian and second-generation restaurateur. EDL is distinct in that it is not a restaurant chain, but rather a series of unique establishments created specifically to suit the neighborhoods that they are in.

The BRA advertised a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Long Wharf site in August. The RFP called for a development team to rehabilitate the Long Wharf Pavilion building, which was constructed to serve as a MBTA vent building and Blue Line tunnel emergency egress, into a waterfront restaurant. The BRA sought a team that could create a unique restaurant concept which would further enliven Long Wharf and bring the activity of the city back to the harbor. The location represents one of the last opportunities to operate a restaurant directly on the waterfront with amazing panoramic views of the harbor.

Following this designation, EDL will comply with the City?s Article 80 development review process and complete Small Project Review before proceeding with their project.


Contact: Jessica Shumaker 617.918.4446

Release Date: December 21, 2006
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statler said:
Patrick, the downtown waterfront is sectioned off in to differents areas, all connected by what is called the HarborWalk. The HaborWalk supposedly runs from Dorchester all the way thru Charlestown into E.Boston. I'm only concerned about the downtown area.
Downtown's waterfront starts more or less less at Christopher Columbus Park. It a nice park as far as parks go I guess, but it sits on very valuable land and is a bit suburban.
From there you head south on to Long Wharf, This used to be a very gritty, industrial area but was redeveloped over the past 40 or so years into a kind of empty sterile tourist area, headed off by the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel. There are few historic brick and granite buildings still remaining on the wharf but most of the wharf is an barren plaza. That can be kind of nice in the summer, but usually sits empty most of the year. There are all sorts of Harbor cruise ships the leave from the wharf and there is a seasonal outdoor bar so there is plenty of activity during the warm weather but for the most part it's just too...open and bland.
Continuing to head south , you get to the Aquarium, which you have probably been to. Too much useless open space (although they are trying to fill it in) and too much ugly brutalist architecture. For such cool place it really is uninviting. After that, there is a concrete parking garage sitting on what is possibly one of the most valuable plots of land in the city. It's nuts. At least there is some ground level retail in garage, but still...
There is an ugly, useless plaza in front of the garage as well.
Then you get to I.M.Pei's Harbor Tower's. Two tall concrete condo developments surrounded by more useless concrete plazas. Very little street presence. An area you hurry through to get to the next place.
Which is Rowes Wharf...ahh. Like a newer Beacon Hill on the water. The buildings hug the coastline leaving just enough space for pedestrians to wander along the water. It houses restaurants, a hotel and, I think, maybe condo (someone will correct me if I'm wrong). Just beautiful urban planning. High quality materials used throughout and alway well maintained. All the rich folk park their yachts out front during the summer. A real fun place to walk around.
From there you get to the Old Northern Av bridge. A rusty old industrial era relic that is the center of a debate as to whether it should be saved or removed. It is spinning bridge as opposed to a draw bridge. It's a neat structure, but it has seen better days. It needs to be completely overhauled, which is not cheap. Last I heard the Coast Guard wanted it removed because it a pain in the ass to open it, which makes it difficult to get boats in and out of Fort Point Channel. Mind you there is a newer, lower, non-opening bridge a hundred yards further down the channel so there is nowhere for boats to go anyway..
The bridge takes you over to the S. Boston waterfront or the Seaport, depending on who you are talking to. You land at the Mokely Courthouse. A building that most people on this forum despise. It is very suburban. Very little interaction with pedestrians and completely turns its back on the city, facing it's glass 'front' towards the water and it bland brick ass towards the city. Right now it is surround by parking lots but someday (maybe before I die!) it will be filled in with all sorts of urban developments! (or a mall :roll: ) After crossing an endless sea of parking lots you get to the new ICA, which is nice. Hopefully future development will mimic that.
After the ICA I get a little fuzzy. (it's out of my lunch hour walk range from my office :?) I know there is the World Trade Center, (which is really just a smaller convention center), some restaurants, I think some industrial and a cruise terminal.
Hopefully this answered your question. If not I've wasted my lunch hour for nothing. :wink: I was going to add more links but damnit , I gotta go eat..
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Thanks, Statler.
 
The village idiot

I was a cynic about plans to renovate Columbus Park. Thought it was a stupid idea, too much money, little benefit.

I was wrong!

Nice park.
 
Do they still have that wimpy, knock-kneed statue of Columbus?
 
^^ Depends on whether or not it has been stolen and/or defaced today.
 
ablarc said:
^ Vandalism is a form of art criticism.
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I think in this case, it's social criticism (see Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States)

Perhaps we could replace it with a statues of Sacco & Vanzetti...
 
Those might be good names for the (still-unnamed) pair of Greenway parks now under construction, flanking Hanover Street.
 
Old news but more info..

Bankers & Tradesmen said:
Water, Water Everywhere, but Not Someplace to Think
April 9, 2007
By Thomas Grillo

The Hub got snubbed. After making the list of best cities for health and lifestyle, singles, telecommuting and even having a baby, Boston has been named to the ?Hall of Shame? for those with the world?s worst waterfront development.

?There are no must-see waterfront destinations in Boston,? said Frederick Kent, president of the Project for Public Spaces, a New York-based nonprofit group dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that posted the list on its Web site. ?Boston has so many opportunities to get to the water from Beacon Hill, City Hall and Faneuil Hall, but there?s nothing to do there.?

The seven-city list put Boston fourth behind New York, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hong Kong and just ahead of Tokyo, Seattle and Paris. Boston has never lived up to its potential as a city by the bay, according to the report. Despite a handful of new developments in the city?s Seaport District ? including the InterContinental Boston Hotel, with its waterfront park ? the study found that most new oceanside developments lack quality public spaces.

Boston?s inclusion on the controversial list brought swift reaction from city officials and nonprofit agencies. Vivian Li, executive director of The Boston Harbor Association, an advocacy group whose mission is to promote a clean and accessible harbor, said Boston does not deserve the designation.

?I?m just shocked,? she said. ?Their criticism is unfair. I don?t think they?ve walked some of these areas lately. Eighty percent of our waterfront is accessible and most is Americans with Disabilities [Act]-compliant. There are signs [directing people to waterfront areas] and we are working on getting more amenities: public art, free concerts and events.?

But the report said unlike the Swedish city of Stockholm ? which provides opportunities for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy its waterfront without traffic along the water ? Boston is severely congested. An improved water-taxi system could yield major benefits, the study found. In addition, new construction along the water does little to enhance the public?s access, it said.

?Unfortunately, most new developments on the water strive for an iconic, sculptural look, rather than seizing the potential of their sites to enhance the quality of public spaces,? Kent said. ?As more undeveloped stretches of the waterfront attract attention and investment, Boston must guard against the mistakes made by [Canada?s] Vancouver and other cities, which have allowed the construction of high-rise residential towers to limit public activity along the waterfront.?

Peter Shelley, director of the Conservation Law Foundation?s Massachusetts Advocacy Center, said he was stunned to see Boston had made the list.

?I was surprised because when you compare Boston?s waterfront today to how crappy the harbor was 25 years ago, it?s much better,? he said. ?The public uses the waterfront much more than anyone imagined possible in the 1980s.?

Still, Shelley said other waterfront communities such as Austin, Texas, and Vancouver have activated their waterfronts more successfully.

?Boston pales in comparison,? he noted. ?It does not surprise me that Boston came up short. We?re still ambivalent about this waterfront-activation business.?

?Passive Aggressiveness?
The Intercontinental opened last fall on Atlantic Avenue with a small waterfront park and a dozen park benches. A recent visit on a sunny morning by a Banker & Tradesman reporter found the space empty and no signs directing pedestrians to the location.

Shelley noted that the empty green space in front of the InterContinental is symptomatic of the problem. ?The waterfront development community, by and large, still sees public access very begrudgingly,? he said. ?It?s something they had to do to get permitted, not something they think enhances their business. As a result, you get unidentified spaces that might meet the letter of the Chapter 91 requirement but not much else.? (Chapter 91, a state law, requires a developer to create parks and open space in return for being allowed to build a private development on waterfront parcels.)

For example, Shelley said, at Independence Wharf ? next to the InterContinental ? the landlord installed its public space on the top floor, but the public would never know it. There?s a small, hard-to-find sign directing pedestrians to the building, he noted.

?There?s a passive aggressiveness about public-space activation that?s holding Boston back from being recognized as a major waterfront destination,? Shelley said. ?There is sailing, recreational fishing, swimming, the New England Aquarium and water taxis, but creating public space is viewed as a nuisance by developers and therefore it is at best tolerated and minimized to the extend possible.?

Richard McGuinness, the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s deputy director for waterfront planning, said the description of Boston as one of the world?s worst waterfront cities appears to be written by someone who had a bad experience in the Hub. He disagreed that developers are reluctant to provide the public access.

?In the past, some developers were suspicious of it, thinking that it?s their land,? he said. ?But now they get it. The Rowes Wharf developers in the ?80s were miserable because they had to provide the HarborWalk and public bathrooms, but now they love it.?

McGuinness said the Project for Public Spaces report failed to consider Boston?s HarborWalk, which offers 47 miles of green and open space through the city?s waterfront neighborhoods from the downtown area to the Neponset River, through East Boston, Charlestown, the North End, South Boston and Dorchester.

While some waterfront locations have limited public access to protect public safety and marine industry operations, McGuinness said, there are connections to a network of trails including the Emerald Necklace, the Charles River Esplanade and the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

In the future, he noted, Boston will offer new access to Boston Harbor on foot or bicycle. The trail will extend from the MBTA?s Ruggles station and wind its way through lower Roxbury, the South End and Chinatown to reach the HarborWalk at the Fort Point Channel.

McGuinness acknowledged that the InterContinental, Russia Wharf and 470 Atlantic Ave. have not installed HarborWalk signs. But he said the park just opened late last year and will become popular.

?I worked on the InterContinental for the last 10 years and lots of people are surprised it?s there. This project is not on people?s radar yet,? he said. ?But Boston Harbor?s renaissance is based on the mayor?s directive to make the waterfront accessible to everyone in the city. I like to say that you don?t have to drive to the Cape ? you can do most things that you can do on the Cape in Boston Harbor.?

But Kent said a HarborWalk is not enough.

?We?re talking about places to go,? he said. ?You can have a HarborWalk as many cities do, but there have to be major destinations. If you look at [Finland?s] Helsinki, there are waterfront locations with weekly events. In [Australia?s] Sydney there are 120 places to go in the harbor on multiple levels. In Stockholm you can take a boat to almost anywhere. It?s not just a bunch of buildings with little parks. We require a higher standard than just a suburban lawn along the water. That?s what Boston?s doing.?

It?s not the first time Boston has made a worst list. The city holds a perennial spot on Bicycling Magazine?s list of the nation?s worst cities for cycling. Last year, for the third time, Boston ranked one of the worst places in the country to ride a bike.
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A good article. The distinction of Worst Waterfront Development is certainly deserved by Boston.

Vivian Lee said:
?I?m just shocked,? she said. ?Their criticism is unfair. I don?t think they?ve walked some of these areas lately. Eighty percent of our waterfront is accessible and most is Americans with Disabilities [Act]-compliant.
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Ah yes. ADA compliancy is the true mark of a world-class waterfront. And didnt they even bother to notice how much parking space we had? Ample, my friends. I dare you to name me a city with more.

Dont take it personally Vivian, but the waterfront you've personally appointed yourself steward of....sucks.
 
^ Briv, I heartily agree.

Brassy dame with zero vision.
 
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The Globe said:
What's hot and not on waterfront

By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | August 3, 2007

You don't have to be an urban planner to understand what is working on Boston's waterfront and what is not. All you have to do is walk the waterfront with me on a perfect summer day.

We talk endlessly about the greenway, but what of the blueway? That narrow strip of great promise between the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor is where the billions we spent on the Big Dig meet the billions we spent cleaning up the harbor. And while it remains a work in progress, "needs improvement" would be a generous grade for what's happening at the water's edge at this point.

Walk from Fort Point Channel to Christopher Columbus Park, and what you see is vision and lack of vision. The much-hyped Boston Harborwalk is fine, but we're here less for the harborwalk than what is happening on the harborwalk. Programming works. So does blurring the lines between the public and the private. Barricades and fences definitely do not work. Potential is ours for the taking -- but only if we aim higher.

Highlights and lowlights:

Norman Leventhal's Rowes Wharf is the oasis on the waterfront. "Have you been down there at night?" Leventhal asked me recently. Often, and I'm hardly alone. The red-brick plaza behind the Boston Harbor Hotel, with the boats and the band and the people and the magnificent water view, is the single best space in the city. With the hotel packed and a deluxe double room going for $650 a night, these people are making gobs of money. But telling where the public space ends and the private space begins is hard to know. It is the kind of privatization that might drive Shirley Kressel, the valuable neighborhood gadfly, crazy. But it works, and works well. Tuesday is Motown night on the barge. You can dance to swing music on Wednesday, hear blues on Thursday, and see a classic movie on Friday. Drop a bundle for dinner and drinks or watch for free on the steps. Nice touch: fanny cushions for the freeloaders.

The neighboring Intercontinental Hotel, by contrast, has a long way to go. There's a nice green lawn, but no one is there. What's private is private. The entrance to the outdoor cafe is through the hotel, not from the waterfront. All the outdoor seating is sealed off by large planters. There is no programming at all and nothing happening on the water itself. The hotel's general manager, Tim Kirwan, makes the fair point that the hotel has only been open since November, and he promises improvements next season. This would be good. We're stuck with the hotel's glass facade better suited to a Houston inter state, but there is huge room for improvement on the waterside.

Which way Russia Wharf? This could be the next big project to begin in Boston. The "alien on the park" design that emerged a few months ago was scary. We must do better, up high and down below.

The anti-Leventhal of the waterfront was Les Marino, God rest his soul. It was bad enough that Marino got caught adding a floor to 470 Atlantic Ave., but it is amazing the city also let him get away with a claustrophobic 6 1/2-foot high passageway that passes for the harborwalk behind the building. How bad is this? Griffin's Wharf, as it was once known, was the site of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Those Bostonians would not have taken this lying down. (Speaking of improvements, the civic-minded attorneys at Goulston & Storrs, right next to Rowes Wharf, should help take down the six-foot fence and hedge out back and let the rest of us in.)

How much imagination does it take to see the potential of James Hook & Co., the lobster seller? Combined with the old Northern Avenue Bridge, an icon that was nearly lost, this could be a jewel of the waterfront. Instead, the bridge rusts, most of it closed off by a chain-link fence.

The New England Aquarium is overrated. But the space around it is alive with families, T-shirt and hot dog vendors, ferries to the harbor islands, and more. What happens next at the giant garage next door is critical. Next door, the Boston Marriott Long Wharf was not one of Kevin White's finest moments.

The waterfront has come a long way. We have a long way to go. Beyond downtown, there is all of South Boston. What would Norman Leventhal do?

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.
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He didn't once mention how handicap accessible the waterfront is! I hope Vivian sends him a stern letter!

BTW how did he get away with writing an entire column on the Boston waterfront without a quote from Ms. Li? I always thought that was mandatory.
 
With the exception of his dig at Russia Wharf, I pretty much agree with every thing he wrote.

With that that said, this a pretty typical 'summertime blues' column. He obvious didn't put a lot of time or effort into it. No interviews, no mention of the Harbor Towers (a rather large portion of the waterfront, no?) No real new ideas, just 'this is nice, this sucks, blah blah blah'.

Oh well, hopefully it will get people thinking about the waterfront and maybe, at the very least, it will guilt Goulston & Storrs into taking down that damn fence.
 
Exactly

Ha ha. I was thinking the same thing. He spent a sunny summer afternoon wandering down Atlantic Ave, had a couple of drinks, then went back to Morrissey Blvd and punched out a couple hundred words.

Not bad work if you can get it!
 
What would Norman Leventhal do?
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Better question: what should Norman Leventhal do? Hopefully develop more properties. What's he been doing since Rowes Wharf, resting on his laurels?
 
Wikipedia said:
As chairman of the Trust for City Hall Plaza, Leventhal currently is spearheading the effort to revitalize that center.
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So... not much...

But...
Wikipedia said:
Leventhal is a 1933 graduate of Boston Latin School and a 1938 graduate of MIT.
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The dude's pretty old, it be may safe to say he is mostly retired.
 
The Trust for City Hall Plaza disbanded years ago after they failed to affect change with their scheme.
 
^^
My fault for using Wikipedia..
What you've proposed is a kind of quantum encyclopedia, where genuine data both exists and doesn't exist depending on the precise moment I rely upon your discordant fucking mob for my information.
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