Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I don't thing GSA can control what happens on an adjoining piece of private property.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Bos77 said:
Three Words- General Services Administration

These towers will never get off the ground. They send security guards to the garage, if god forbid, you take a picutre of downtown, nevermind build two towers that will SOAR over the JFK Building. They kill every proposal made in redeveloping City Hall Plaza.

This is the pic that caused a 20 min interrogation:
171011024_4xHA4-S-1.jpg
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I've had that happen at other garage's while taking pix's.I caught hell in Union stations garage yesterday!I feel the top floor of a parking garage offer's a great spot to take pix's,they need to mellow out!
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Ron Newman said:
I don't thing GSA can control what happens on an adjoining piece of private property.
Click to expand...

^^ They do it all the time. Remember the hotel proposal?
 
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Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I honestly don't understand what this project has to do with the West End/CRP. I'm just guestimating here, but it looks like at most this project would block out about 10 degrees of view for the CRP residents that have a view to begin with. I really hopes the Mayor carefully balances the increase in property tax revenue this building would create against that 10 degrees of view.

The federales in the JFK should be moved to Fan Pier so they stop screwing with our city.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The hotel proposal wasn't on private property. It was on City Hall Plaza, and the federal government probably has some sort of easement or deed restriction there.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

DarkFenX said:
I'm not going to complain. Most people in other city will see these towers as great looking. Seeing how Boston doesn't have many amazing looking towers, I'm not going to keep a high standard. These are probably the tallest it will get in downtown and probably much taller than NIMBYs will allow. I'm guessing from the picture that the 52 story tower is around 600ft. And if I'm correct, there's a "spire" on it which brings the total structural height to at least 700 ft?
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The 52 story tower is commercial, it is atleast 700' to the roof, they did a great job to make it look like it is about the same size as the other buildings in the F.D.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Can we sue architects and developers for showing renderings with colors they will never be able to produce in real life?

I know I will feel defrauded once this is built
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The security concern on the garage is because the federal government is a tenant in the actual garage itself. That's why you get harrassed there. My friend has a funny story about getting detained there even though he had full permission from the landlord to be there. It has nothing to do with the nearby building, the garage itself is a governement (leased) building.

Back when the New York Times' Boston branch office could afford to pay actual journalists, I remember angry lil' Steve Bailey writing one of his typically venomous columns about this plan and he wrote something about an international architect competition for the towers? So what we are looking at now may just be the master plan presentation and not the actual building design. Not sure though. The idea would be to let the NIMBYs digest the bland Metamucil architecture before spiking them with an WTF architectural plan from a starchitect.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

^ That would be awesome but I wont get my hopes up that Ted Raymond has Rem Koolhaus waiting in the wings

Though on the other hand based on the estimated cost, huge amounts of space they will need to sell and mediocrity of the design....how will they ever get financing for the project?

if they did have a 'wow' building it would probably be much easier
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The design that you see from Chan/Krieger is the result of a massing study only. They have included architectural elements only to make it easier for people to visualize what a development with that type of massing might look like. The design architects have not yet been chosen. Five firms are engaging in a design competition, including Foster + Partners, SOM, Gensler and two others. So don't fall in or out of love with this design. It will bear little if any relationship to the actual design.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

I must be in a sour mood this morning. Everything I read makes me grouchy!

But, this would annoy me, any day of the week.

We have a developer proposing a $2.2 billion project. Thousands of jobs, badly-needed housing, office space, and parking. Hoorah! Let's get it going.

Without missing a beat, people already are asking for more. From the Globe article:

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a North End Democrat, and State Representative Marty Walz have raised the possibility of Raymond's setting aside space within the development for Suffolk University, which is seeking to build more student housing.

"I want to have Suffolk brought into the conversation about this site, because it is within one of the school's targeted expansion areas," said Walz, a Back Bay Democrat.
Click to expand...

I've got a question for you, Ms. Walz: WHO ASKED YOU?

STFU.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

We need a 'Likelyhood-O-Meter'.


The Left side will have "Yeah, it's going to happen" (Filenes?)
The Middle will be "Maybe, maybe not" (SST?)
The Right will be "Pipedream" (Winthrop Sq?)
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

dirtywater said:
The design that you see from Chan/Krieger is the result of a massing study only. They have included architectural elements only to make it easier for people to visualize what a development with that type of massing might look like. The design architects have not yet been chosen. Five firms are engaging in a design competition, including Foster + Partners, SOM, Gensler and two others. So don't fall in or out of love with this design. It will bear little if any relationship to the actual design.
Click to expand...



That just made my day!!!

It would seem quite crazy to try and finance a $2 billion deal based on those bland designs....
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

The real question here, and the only thing worth debating is this: Is Raymond Properties bluffing about leasing the garage space for another ten years and scrapping this plan altogether if people aren't interested in height and density here?

They are using "well, we'll just leave the garage as-is then, enjoy!" as an ax hanging over the head of these negotiations. They even have FHO putting a leasing banner advertising the office space on the garage... are they bluffing? Would they be happy spending a quarter of a billion dollars for a parking garage and some office space? They may be, they may not be.

Also, I feel like the 52 and 42 story towers are a good way to "compromise" with a 30-story and a 65-story tower. I can't believe they'd want to be within sniffing distance of "boston's tallest" and not pole through the extra few dozen feet they need for the trophy.

This is the dance, the negotiation... it is going to be fun. "Sure, we'd welcome Suffolk University.... but we'll have to add ten floors to the building..."

Let the games begin...
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

12345 said:
Bob O'Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association, said the towers could meet resistance from owners of the nearby Charles River Apartments, whose downtown views could be partially obstructed by the new structures.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/10/24/high_rises_may_replace_government_center_garage/
Click to expand...

Bobby, do me a favor. Tell those CRA clowns that anything that blocks our view of them is a plus!
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

JimboJones said:
I must be in a sour mood this morning. Everything I read makes me grouchy!

But, this would annoy me, any day of the week.

We have a developer proposing a $2.2 billion project. Thousands of jobs, badly-needed housing, office space, and parking. Hoorah! Let's get it going.

Without missing a beat, people already are asking for more. From the Globe article:



I've got a question for you, Ms. Walz: WHO ASKED YOU?

STFU.
Click to expand...


Suffolk leasing space for student housing might be a good thing, as it would help get political support, as well as already having tenants lined up might make finding financing easier.

Regardless, i agree with you. Ms. Walz needs to remain quiet.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

Mike said:
539w.jpg
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I like the massing here, even if they are kind of fat. I just wish we could move past the glass wall. This could be a new landmark in the city and building just another glass box seems like a total waste. From what I can see the street level design and interaction seems to be pretty good but I'll wait to see the final designs.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

pelhamhall said:
The real question here, and the only thing worth debating is this: Is Raymond Properties bluffing about leasing the garage space for another ten years and scrapping this plan altogether if people aren't interested in height and density here?

They are using "well, we'll just leave the garage as-is then, enjoy!" as an ax hanging over the head of these negotiations. They even have FHO putting a leasing banner advertising the office space on the garage... are they bluffing? Would they be happy spending a quarter of a billion dollars for a parking garage and some office space? They may be, they may not be.

Also, I feel like the 52 and 42 story towers are a good way to "compromise" with a 30-story and a 65-story tower. I can't believe they'd want to be within sniffing distance of "boston's tallest" and not pole through the extra few dozen feet they need for the trophy.

This is the dance, the negotiation... it is going to be fun. "Sure, we'd welcome Suffolk University.... but we'll have to add ten floors to the building..."

Let the games begin...
Click to expand...

If it takes putting Suffolk in one of the building to get this done, then so be it. Who knows, maybe putting Suffolk in adds 10-12 floors and bump the height of this thing up.
 
Re: Congress St Garage is being sold.

pelhamhall said:
The security concern on the garage is because the federal government is a tenant in the actual garage itself. .
Click to expand...

Besides the EPA leasing the office floors, the feds also lease one or more parking levels for their own employees. I recall being politely but firmly turned away when I tried to visit one of the upper parking levels to stare at the Big Dig demolition. I didn't even have a camera with me. Maybe they were concerned that I would plant a car bomb or something.
 
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