Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Congress Street Garage Development

SeamusMcFly said:
Very nice, subdued sexy. No ridiculous clamp ons or gimmicks.

Absolutely need to replace the awful double or triple height corporate lobby atrium.

Doesn't matter how good a girl looks, hammertoe is always a deal breaker.
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If the rest of the building looks that good, I'll take that atrium. Hopefully there'll be some form of retail on the other side of it but even if there isn't, I'll take it. If we can suffer through the abominations on the Seaport like Waterside Place, then we can make it with a gorgeous building whose street interaction isn't optimal.

It's really not that outlandish for a corporate tower to have this sort of street level interaction...even if it has great architecture:

Swiss Re in London
30-st-mary-axe-c220713-n2.jpg
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

tmac9wr said:
If the rest of the building looks that good, I'll take that atrium. Hopefully there'll be some form of retail on the other side of it but even if there isn't, I'll take it. If we can suffer through the abominations on the Seaport like Waterside Place, then we can make it with a gorgeous building whose street interaction isn't optimal.
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Also remember that this is building is not a monolith. That may be its dedicated lobby, but there will be street activation all the rest of the way around the site and on the other side of Congress.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Equilibria said:
Also remember that this is building is not a monolith. That may be its dedicated lobby, but there will be street activation all the rest of the way around the site and on the other side of Congress.
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For sure. This is one of 6 buildings planned for the complex.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Bos77 said:
Good to see this isn't another phoned in Pelli interarion of IFC in Hong Kong.
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My thought exactly! Between San Francisco (TransBay), Jersey City (Goldman Sachs), another NYC proposal (site of the Hotel Pennsylvania), Pelli must be architecture's most efficient - or just lazy - man.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

True, but then I couldn't use hammertoe in context.

The lobby is unnecessary and lazy. I'd love for us to continue away from them.
I get that the rest of this development is "intended" to activate the street, but need to make sure they don't all hang their hat on the future street activation, and it never comes.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

DZH22 said:
When you look at the 2nd to last render you can see that this is taller than the 480' residential building before the crown is even included. Maybe it's similar to Copley Tower being announced as 569'. I applaud the tactic, using roof height instead of pinnacle height to keep the NIMBY's at bay! Hopefully the crown pushes this one close to 600'.
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You look at this unparalleled and truly "iconic" design, and you're mostly fascinated with the height possibly being an extra 30 or 40 feet? Plus, the developer nor architect's main concern is trying to sneakily get more height within development to stick it to BANANAS around the city.

I am hopeful, yet cautiously optimistic about this. Although I would think that recent number of large development sites being proposed and currently built around the city would keep the number of useless complaints down.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

type001 said:
You look at this unparalleled and truly "iconic" design, and you're mostly fascinated with the height possibly being an extra 30 or 40 feet?.
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It actually looks like an extra 70-80' or more. And yes, when you consider how many buildings Boston already has in the low 500' range, those extra feet will keep a future icon from getting buried in the crowd. So of course I'm fascinated by that. I was ultra pissed when they originally cut it from 600'. It looks like they may have figured out a way to get that height back, and with a better design to boot!
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

If built as shown, this would instantly be one of the sexiest skyscrapers in the USA, comparable to some of the best recent "showcase" towers in London. Unbelievable.

Sounds like this is scheduled to start after the residential tower. I have a feeling though that if a tenant is found sooner - and with this design I imagine there would be some interest - this may even go first, especially considering all the other luxury high rise residential coming online.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Shepard said:
Sounds like this is scheduled to start after the residential tower. I have a feeling though that if a tenant is found sooner - and with this design I imagine there would be some interest - this may even go first, especially considering all the other luxury high rise residential coming online.
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Doesn't this one require part of the garage to be demolished, while the residential can be built immediately?
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

The problem with this development is the location. This area will cast a shadow over the North End---The North End community has become the most influential part of the city since the Greenway has evolved.

I could see the North End Crowd shut this down to 400Ft---based on their influence and how that part of the city has become so unique (more unique than Backbay)

Overall I love the design--Very different for Boston
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Wasn't the previous plan already approved during the breakneck last days of Menino everyone get the hell out of Dodge BRA approval fiesta? And wouldn't this be an as of right height in that spot? I'm trying to not be toooooooo optimistic, but we're actually going to get this, right?
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

As the saying goes, hope springs eternal.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

As I understand (and the article touched on this as well...)

The BRA approved what was essentially a master plan for the site last year. The individual towers will also have to be approved by the BRA.

In the article, the acting head of the BRA made it fairly clear that the tower has their support. As for community opposition, concessions have already been given. The developer also seems pretty intent on getting the development done in this form, and I doubt he'll cede more.

Still buzzing about this one. Iconic is definitely a good word for this tower, and this is now the project I'm most looking forward to seeing completed.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

DZH22 said:
Doesn't this one require part of the garage to be demolished, while the residential can be built immediately?
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I thought the residential one was supposed to be first...but I also thought the design phases were to have the part of the garage right next to the Greenway destroyed & developed first, and then make its way back toward the JFK building. Using the image below, it looks like this is the building closer to the Greenway, while the placeholder behind it would be the residential tower....am I seeing that correctly?

OneCongressRedevelopment-SkylineImageA.jpg
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Actually, this thing sucks, can we please get this shithead Kairos Shen to turn the entire facade into mixed media terracotta, cement and metal garbage, please?
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Hopefully whoever did the glass for The Kensington isn't available for this project
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Pardon my ignorance, but in the ever-popular "twilight" rendering, the glass "wrapper" which extends several stories past the occupied floor appears to have lit windows on it. Is this just an over-the-top rendering, or do some buildings that utilize this type of facade feature ever illuminate that portion to make it appear like occupied floors?
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

aaaaaa said:
Would make for a nice building for BoA's relocated corporate headquarters, just saying.
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If it makes both the BOA move and this building happen, great, but Winthrop Square makes much more sense for them. That building needs them if it's going to happen, this one doesn't.
 
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