Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The process we have put in place to prevent mistakes like the Government Center garage is the same one that may well stop us from getting rid of it.
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Well stated.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

A West End resident doesn't want buildings at all; just green space.
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Someone get that man a a cyanide pill please.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

type001 said:
Someone get that man a a cyanide pill please.
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Yea seriously...reading what "concerned citizens" thought about the project made me want to pull my hair out.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Tom Keane's article said it all, in under 700 words.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

A few weeks back Keane wrote the article in the Globe Magazine arguing that building tall is environmentally friendly. I hope he keeps it up with regards to these types of issues. It's nice to read something other than the usual uninformed, knee jerk, anti-everything stuff.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Here is a dissenting viewpoint. The Congress St. garage was an elegant design as originally conceived and built. The subsequent office penthouse addition is clumsy and makes today's result unbalanced and overbearing. The later paint job over the bare concrete added to the spoilation of the original.

I wouldn't have demolished one old building to make room for any of our brutalist buildings. That being said, they are here, and their antecedents are not. Congress St. Garage is one piece of a group that defined Boston in the late 60's and early 70's, and the destruction of such buildings someday will be regarded in the same light as the destruction of India Wharf.

There. I've said it. The anticipated sticks and stones will not break my bones!
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

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

I would find the garage barely tolerable if it did not turn Congress Street into a dismal tunnel, cutting the Bulfinch Triangle off from the rest of the city. That was unforgiveable, and we now have a chance to correct it.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Toby has got a point. We curse buildings such as the Congress St. garage and the City Hall, but thirty years from now, when they are all gone, we may miss them more than we think. I don't think that these buildings are given as much credit as they deserve for the role in Boston's architectural history.

Now, I still want to see the Congress St. garage gone and replaced with a vibrant mixed-use environment. However, the more and more I think about it, the more and more I would like to see the City Hall remain. An extensive renovation of the building and surrounding plaza would certainly be needed, but I think that that one structure should be kept. I used to be at the forefront of the people who wanted it torn down, but, when put into a historical context, I actually see some value in it now.

Off topic City Hall rant over.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Let's not overthink this one, kids. The Congress St Garage is an abomination. It's probably the single most disruptive building to its surrounding fabric in all of Boston. And that's saying A LOT.

I think Toby just had too much to drink tonight.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

And the lesson that I hope the city learns from it: Buildings belong next to city streets, not on top of them.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Tim Jackson said:
Toby has got a point. We curse buildings such as the Congress St. garage and the City Hall, but thirty years from now, when they are all gone, we may miss them more than we think. I don't think that these buildings are given as much credit as they deserve for the role in Boston's architectural history.

Now, I still want to see the Congress St. garage gone and replaced with a vibrant mixed-use environment. However, the more and more I think about it, the more and more I would like to see the City Hall remain. An extensive renovation of the building and surrounding plaza would certainly be needed, but I think that that one structure should be kept. I used to be at the forefront of the people who wanted it torn down, but, when put into a historical context, I actually see some value in it now.

Off topic City Hall rant over.
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I think City hall along with the plaza could be retro-fitted into a nice urban space (If the JFK building would open up it's ground floor as was intended, it would make the process easier. Neither building interacts with the pedestrian at all) while preserving the integrity of the architecture (and hopefully, cleaning it up a little). I do think getting rid of all of the brutalist gems is a bad idea and you're right, we would probably miss it.

That being said, the Congress St. Garage is not worth saving. and even if what replaces it is mediocre, cheap looking architecture, as long as it does it's job (interact on the street level with pedestrians and act as a link between two areas), I think everyone will be happy for the most part. It's junk.

That being said,
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I totally agree with everybody's sentiments about the garage...the developer could not have planned that building worse. My suggestions lie solely with City Hall Plaza.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

IMO no garage is worth saving, except for something as classy as the MotorMart in Park Square. When Congress St. Garage was built, I liked it for it's repetition of form and it's filling of a huge gap of real estate in a time when everything around it seemed neglected, remote and unihabited. (I also remember when parking was $4.50 for the day!). I also dislike the added floors and they did to the proportions, etc.

But the greatest argument for ridding ourselves of this building is that its context has completely changed; there is new activity and excitement all round it, except, perhaps at the Kennedy Bldg., which remains a spiteful, aloof, and anti-social neighbor, jealous of its boundaries, even before security became so tight. The best way to influence that structure, as well as any left-over pieces surrounding the garage, it to redevelope the entire parcel.

That said, I did not particularly like any of the propsed schemes. I don't think pedestrian streets, indoor rooms, or other such gimmicks will succeed long-term. What we need is a sub-neighborhood of appropriately-scaled buildings and the restoration of streets to expose them to foot/auto traffic. Simple and clean, like the rest of the Bulfinch Triangle, but monumental enough as a visual bridge to the State St./Cambridge St. districts.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

You make a good point that the context of the area today is different than when the Garage was originally built.

At that time, the garage's mass was intented, I think, to reduce the dominance of the Central Artery on the area, to have a structure taller and more massive next to the Central Artery, to reduce the Artery's scale. With the elevated Artery gone, the Garage now looms too large over the new open space and adjoining Bullfinch Triangle neighborhood.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Too much or not enough?
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Why does the project's website say the next public meeting, regarding the skyscraper back parcels, is going to be held in "Sept. TBD" - we're running out of September. Has the development hit a snag or become stalled over something?
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Banker & Tradesman - October 23, 2008
Neighbors Don?t Want Giant Gov?t Center Garage Project

By Thomas Grillo
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer

Boston?s West and North End residents are hoping redevelopment plans unveiled tonight for the site of the Government Center Garage do not include buildings taller than existing neighborhood towers.

Jane Forrestall, a West End resident and member of the Downtown North Association, a group of businesses, condominium associations and community organizations, said she has not been briefed on the specifics.

?The developer has promised shorter buildings closer to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and we support that, but we have no idea what they?re proposing for parcels closer to Government Center,? she said. ?I can tell you that if they propose something taller than the JFK Building that would upset the community.?

The John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building at City Hall Plaza stands 24 stories tall.

After a series of community meetings seeking neighborhood input, neighborhood residents will get details from the Raymond Property Co. on what?s planned for the 11-story facility adjacent to the Haymarket MBTA station.

Forrestall said the community has voiced support for an elementary school at the site as well as a mix of uses that offer street-level retail.

Robert O?Brien, president of the Downtown North Association, said no matter what is proposed tonight, it?s only a starting point for discussions.

?The community is very respectful of the fact that Raymond has come to the neighborhood for their ideas early on,? O?Brien said.

In the past, Stephen G. Kasnet, Raymond?s chief executive officer, has said the firm is considering replacing the garage?s 2,310 parking spaces with a mix of hotel, office, condominiums, apartments and retail.

Last year, Bulfinch Congress Holdings, a subsidiary of the Boston developer, paid $243 million for the garage. In addition to the parking spaces it includes 275,000 square feet of office space and several retailers.

Posted on Thursday, October 23, 2008 (Archive on Thursday, November 27, 2008)
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Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I hope it's a thousand feet tall at least, but you don't see me pretending to speak for "the community".

I don't know who went to the polls and elected Ms. Forrestall in charge of anything at all. What a rude and arrogant person. She speaks for herself, not the community.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

exciting...we get to see a new deisgn and proposal tommorow!!

Who is the architect? Is it known yet?
 
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