Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

I assume the West End NIMBYs will yell loudly about how it’s destroying the character of their neighborhood. Never mind that they their own residences already accomplished that.
 
stick n move said:
Boston Seeks Developers To Build Up To 10 Stories Of Housing Atop West End Library

fit


“From parking lots to libraries, the city is looking to new avenues to bring more affordable housing to the market as Boston's housing crisis remains a top priority.
The Mayor's Office of Housing released a request for proposals this week for the redevelopment of the Boston Public Library's West End Branch. The city envisions a mixed-use development of up to 10 stories with a new library on the first floor and new affordable housing units on top, the Boston Globe first reported.”

https://www.bisnow.com/boston/news/...ousing-redevelopment-of-library-branch-118442
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Coincidentally from a name standpoint, Washington DC demolished its 45-year old West End library and a developer used the site for an apartment building with a new library on the ground floor.

West_End_Library_-_Washington%2C_D.C..JPG

^^^ The 1967 version. This image of the old library, located on the southwest corner of the development site..

Exterior%20Rendering_1.jpg

Rendering. This is the southeast corner. TEN Arquitectos was the design architect.

im-410391

As built. Southwest corner of the site, showing the new library, ground floor.
Vice President Harris owned a condo in this building, 2017-2020.

images

Library entrance

https://coredc.com/projects/west-end-library
^^^Interior image deck.
 
stick n move said:
Boston Seeks Developers To Build Up To 10 Stories Of Housing Atop West End Library
Click to expand...

10 seems awfully low considering it's a stones throw from the new MGH buildings, the taller of which will be approaching 300'. It's also about the same distance on the other street from the Longfellow towers twins. If they want to "solve" the housing crisis why put ridiculously low limits when requesting housing? Should be 30 stories.
 
My bad, I searched for a thread to post news in about the west end and this was the best I found. I read it as bulfinch crossing, congress garage, west end because those are 3 different places and we have multiple threads now for the actual projects. If theres a better place to move it thats fine, if we need to make a west end thread that works too, or if this evolves in to the west end, bulfinch crossing thread that works too.
 
stick n move said:
My bad, I searched for a thread to post news in about the west end and this was the best I found. I read it as bulfinch crossing, congress garage, west end because those are 3 different places and we have multiple threads now for the actual projects. If theres a better place to move it thats fine, if we need to make a west end thread that works too, or if this evolves in to the west end, bulfinch crossing thread that works too.
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Hey stick, thanks for posting this and I can corroborate the sense of dilemma. I too had looked for the appropriate neighborhood-based thread and there really didn't seem to be one. There's "North End / Downtown," and "Bulfinch Triangle," but there's no West End, nor is there a Beacon Hill. My humble suggestion is that we create a "West End / Beacon Hill Infill and Small Projects" thread and move this discussion there. Neither of those two areas have historically had much activity (hence why there was no infill threads for them in the first place), so I think lumping them into one makes sense, especially for development along Cambridge St, which is a main street that straddles the two and has potential for other development.
 
I still think more shutdowns of the green line and orange line are gonna happen in the future. I wish they could just remove the entire northern section of the garage faster, and deal with the southern portion later. That way, we could get these annoying and fustrating weekend shutdowns done and over with as fast as possible. However, it doesn't appear the garage is able to be demolished in that manner. So it seems though there's gonna be a ton of weekend shutdowns months away, into the summer and the fall of 2023.
 
Every single component has to be severed and lifted separately. They are taking zero chances. As a result, we are stuck watching it happen slower than frozen molasses.

I assume, even with crazy lab rents, they can’t justify 24x7 work.
 
Garage has to be down before the they can get a certificate of occupancy for the State Street tower slated to open in the fall.
 
Apparently the Government Center Garage shutdowns of the Orange and Green Lines won't be applied to the Orange Line in May, unlike past shutdowns.

Given the Orange Line is further east of the garage and the Green Line lies underneath the garage directly, is enough of the garage already demolished to no longer require shutdowns of the Orange Line?

I'm assuming not, since to take down the remaining columns on the north side of the Government Center Garage seems to be too close to the Orange Line tunnel.

The Green Line shutdowns seem to be extremely disasterous. The GLX runs 20 minute headways, but they seem to be getting worse with each shutdown, being as long as 30 minutes between trains. Travelling to Kenmore is worse since B, C, and D trains kick everyone off at Park, requiring passengers to take an E train to Gov't Ctr from Park and vice versa, for a shuttle bus. There won't be shuttle buses this time since the Orange Line will be open, at least for May.

1682383832368.png
 
Has a schedule with concrete (pardon the pun) dates for completing the demolition been published?
 
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DZH22 said:
10 seems awfully low considering it's a stones throw from the new MGH buildings, the taller of which will be approaching 300'. It's also about the same distance on the other street from the Longfellow towers twins. If they want to "solve" the housing crisis why put ridiculously low limits when requesting housing? Should be 30 stories.
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10 stories is a construction type cut off. You can go to about 120' with light gauge steel. Above that you need to move into concrete or heavy steel with the price jump. So that height is one that can be more financially manageable than taller. And given that we haven't seen any new resi even that tall recently, it seems like a good thing. I'd love to live over a library.
 
DwnTwnr said:
10 stories is a construction type cut off. You can go to about 120' with light gauge steel. Above that you need to move into concrete or heavy steel with the price jump. So that height is one that can be more financially manageable than taller.
Click to expand...

It's "up to", not "exactly". Up to 30 stories still allows a 10 story building.
 
Hardisx said:
Garage has to be down before the they can get a certificate of occupancy for the State Street tower slated to open in the fall.
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I'm willing to bet that the structure was easier to build than it is to take down!! Too many complications, causing the OL & GL to not be open at certain times. :unsure:
 
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