Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

shmessy said:
I'm an amateur at this - but I wonder if this surface wasteland moment would be an opportune time to mess around below to make the NSRL better positioned for future possibility?
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None of the NSRL routing alternatives pass directly underneath this site, so there's nothing to provision for.
 
I know the odds of this are between slim and none, but what I would LIKE to see happen is to revise the 2nd residential to be as tall and dense as possible (potentially taller and with more units than The Sudbury), and turn the rest of the site into a park.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
None of the NSRL routing alternatives pass directly underneath this site, so there's nothing to provision for.
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With the Big Dig, didn’t some of the surface portals begin not directly over the tunnels? I thought perhaps some of the surface entries around Fort Point were not straight down but angled downward. I could be wrong.
 
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You'd be forgiven for thinking that photo was taken in 2003. A little bit of the Big Dig back in the heart of the city.

Looks like a decent amount of sidewalk and road repair needs to be done before they open that back up. I'd like to see the brick sidewalks return but I have low expectations for that happening.
 
Justbuildit said:
A crime, an absolute crime. What a shame for these people to have their homes and livelihoods taken from them. Planned destruction of American cities...
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Crime, how so? Were they not compensated and given time to find new residence? Eminent domain, though disruptive and unsettlingly, is a reality. It happened in Wisconsin a few years back with the promise of big business and new jobs. False promise though, thank you DJT.
 
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I mean, it wasn't literally against the law to enact eminent domain to redevelop the West End. Of course I'm talking about an urbanist crime like the elevated expressway, or the other tools that were used to destroy or isolate dense urban neighborhoods across the US.

In the purest sense of basic freedom and liberties, having a government decide that all private property in an entire neighborhood is no longer able to be yours is a tough pill to swallow. It's one thing if you're in the path of a volcano or a collapsing hillside, but when it's due to dubious reasons of "hygiene" and "modernization" it creeps towards totalitarianism. I'm not a knee-jerk antigovernment type by any means, but we could have had a dense, vibrant, continuous neighborhood from the North End counterclockwise to the edge of Beacon Hill (not to mention the loss of Scollay Square around the same time). Instead we have a hostile wasteland with some of the worst streets and harshest urbansim in the city. Gutting the city of residents due to midcentury urban renewal is, in my opinion, directly responsible for the collapse of Boston's livability that we're still suffering through now. Forcing people to leave their homes is bad, and has consequences that last generations. Look what they did!

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Anyways, I hope we get some new housing instead of a horrifically ugly lab building on this spot at some point.
 
citydweller said:
Crime, how so? Were they not compensated and given time to find new residence? Eminent domain, though disruptive and unsettlingly, is a reality. It happened in Wisconsin a few years back with the promise of big business and new jobs. False promise though, thank you DJT.
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Also, no, most residents lived in tenements and rented - they were not compensated other than a promise they would get preferential new housing in the new West End developments which for the most part didn't happen at all.
 
citydweller said:
Crime, how so? Were they not compensated and given time to find new residence? Eminent domain, though disruptive and unsettlingly, is a reality. It happened in Wisconsin a few years back with the promise of big business and new jobs. False promise though, thank you DJT.
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The families each got about $50, and that was it. A snowjob by any metric.
 
shmessy said:
I'm showing someone around Boston in mid-September (staying at the Marriott Custom House Tower) and would really hope this street to be "back online" by then - - -but am not holding my breath.
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Mid September ‘25?
 
As of 9/7 curbing work in progress. Forklift was removing orange Jersey barriers.
 

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Beelines last image shows a red brick building in the background, and which appears to be largely vacant. Google maps indicates the building is One Chardon St. Are there any plans for this building?

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZaXEtR9n3hEFtWbz6

^^^ Google streetview is from 2020, but little seems to have changed.
 
stellarfun said:
Beelines last image shows a red brick building in the background, and which appears to be largely vacant. Google maps indicates the building is One Chardon St. Are there any plans for this building?

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZaXEtR9n3hEFtWbz6

^^^ Google streetview is from 2020, but little seems to have changed.
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I thought that was Ski Monster's space, but looks like they're a building in. Not sure.

I'll tell you what, though: I long for the NOI of that flatiron parking lot across from it that proposes a new tallest. Even with a generous setback along Merrimac Street, the Cuppa Coffee parcel could fit a One Dalton Street tower with room to spare. It would be pretty legendary if Boston could see something like Miami's Aston Marin Residences rise here (sans parking pedestal). There's no question the demand exists.
 
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