Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The pdf goes into detail on each individual scheme. It seems like scheme 11 is the one they're leaning towards.

one_congress_parcel_schemes.jpg


scheme_11_overview.jpg


scheme_11_canal.jpg


scheme_11_congress.jpg


scheme_11_new_chardon.jpg


scheme_11_greenway_existing.jpg


scheme_11_greenway.jpg
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Not bad, but definitely 'generic office park' on 3 sides and 'Bostonian' on the side facing what's left of the old garage.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Generic Office Park Aesthetic? Check!

Blank Walls Of Colored Glass Facing Pedestrians? Check!
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I like the garage better. A least its big and powerful - like a city. The proposals are frail, short and uninspired - nothing new there. I'd rather see it left alone until a new era dawns for architecture and urban planning in Boston.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

wow leave the garage. hugely dissappointing. I don't get where they're making money... I guess the offices facing the Greenway are class A...
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

This is just the little front parcel. The idea, as they state in their materials is that the tall buildings would step back from the greenway. THis is just the "front' of the garage area - not a replacement for the whole garage.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

hugely disappointing is an understatement.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

scheme 4 is somewhat preferable, but not by much.. Seems like the whole thing is a scheme alright...
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I like how the PDF claims that scheme 11 has all Pros and no Cons. What about its repugnant appearance?
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

None of this excites me. Keep trying...
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

None of this excites me. Keep trying...

Can we let someone besides Krieger, Elkus/Manfredi or CBT try? This town needs an Irwin Miller, so we could throw some money at OfficeDA or Utile and see what they come up with.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I'm holding out hope that these renderings are just placeholders used to better visualize the massing of the site. If you look at Krieger's website, none of his projects are as horribly bland and uninspiring as this one...so I think/hope/pray that the real design is yet to come.

Also, all articles mention Krieger's firm only as the master planners. Does that mean we could be seeing different architects working on the individual buildings?
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Why are they keeping part of the existing garage? I was hoping the whole damned thing would get wiped out.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

As bad as the "designs" are, none of this accomplishes anything. None of the renderings, albeit placeholders, reconnects any of the neighborhoods the way I had hoped. Why remove any of the garage at all? It serves a purpose.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I've been given strict orders by a former colleague of mine to speak no ill of this project - but truthfully, I can't find anything to complain about, this is a real slam dunk for the city.

Still think it's a slam dunk?
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Why are they keeping part of the existing garage? I was hoping the whole damned thing would get wiped out.

I was wondering if they were too. Part of me thinks the piece of the garage in the renderings is a placeholder to show where the rendering for that parcel is in relation to where the garage is/was; while I'm also worried that they'd actually consider saving some of it.

In any case, the renderings are uninspired. I would hope for more, but unfortunately, it's just the kind of crap that NIMBYs and neighborhood groups could get behind. I do like that they're developing each parcel individually. Perhaps, crappy architecture aside, the completed project can look like separate mini-projects. I don't like the mass-developed seaport-style projects that are blocks of bland architecture. Then again, different bland architecture is still bland architecture.

I'm going to wait to see the rest of the project before reserving complete judgement. There's nowhere to go but up???? (fingers crossed)
 

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