Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

Re: Congress Street Garage Development

This must get built. It's more than time for Boston to take off it's little kid knickers and put on the big boy pants.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Brad Plaid said:
This must get built. It's more than time for Boston to take off it's little kid knickers and put on the big boy pants.
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Not these pants please!

gate-to-the-east-china-building-580x435.jpg
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Mike said:
No construction until 2016 ...
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Does the link say that? Why such a long delay?

This is one of the most transformative projects in my opinion, that garage is so ugly.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

"fifteen to twenty-year period", "Enabling Phase, Phase 1...commencement of this phase is anticipated in 2016."
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

That means this wont be done by the next real estate crash. damn
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

timsox6 said:
"fifteen to twenty-year period", "Enabling Phase, Phase 1...commencement of this phase is anticipated in 2016."
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Enabling phase is partial demolition of the garage.

Construction of 543,000 sq ft residential building to start in 2016.
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Interesting that the current Congress St. garage only operates at 45 percent capacity, and it is substantially bigger than Chiofaro's planned and existing Harbor Garage.
 
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Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Lately people on this board seem to be forgetting that 2015 is only less than 2 months away.

As someone who actually works on these kinds of projects (not this one), I can tell you that this kind of situation where demo and enabling is needed is an absolute nightmare to coordinate. You need a significant amount of time (easily half a year) for the civil, structural, electrical and plumbing/fire protection engineers to relocate any utilities that are under the site. This requires seeking out as-built documents of civil utilities from the city (quite often they aren't very accurate either) as well as design documents from when the garage was built and then determining where to move them by producing drawings. The structural engineers must also produce a set of drawings for work related to the demo.

I can speak personally from the plumbing/fire protection side that any utilities that need to be relocated that are in or within 10' of the building must be done by a licensed plumber with certain materials (per MA 248 CMR). This means that both the plumbing engineer and the civil engineer need to coordinate and produce two separate sets of drawings where the plumbing contract ends 10' from the building and the civil contract extends beyond that. It is time consuming. Also, if this project is anything like the ones I've worked on, it's likely going through a nightmarish series of meetings to address the ballooning enabling work scope which is always a disaster filled with surprises.

tl;dr - these projects take time. 2016 is not long at all.
 
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Re: Congress Street Garage Development

timsox6 said:
Partial Demolition is listed separately down in Phase 2A.
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You are correct.

The retained portion of the garage (western part) will have about half the present garage capacity, and the question is do they plan on interim use of the to-be-demolished portion (eastern part of the garage) while they construct the residential tower.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

If the residential tower doesn't require any demolition, why is it being put off for a whole entire year? Then in 2016 they'll say fall 2016, then they'll say spring 2017, and so on and so forth. Wtf? If now is the time to build, why are developers still dragging their feet on most of the major approved projects?
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

DZH22 said:
If the residential tower doesn't require any demolition, why is it being put off for a whole entire year? Then in 2016 they'll say fall 2016, then they'll say spring 2017, and so on and so forth. Wtf? If now is the time to build, why are developers still dragging their feet on most of the major approved projects?
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I'd be surprised if this project is shovel ready right now, but even if it is, there is not a huge penalty to waiting. The site is an active garage + office + retail that probably grosses around $20M-$30M a year with minimal operating costs. Cash cow comes to mind.

Another reason may be to reduce construction costs. We came out of a deep housing recession (forcing marginal shops to close, employees to drop out of unions) and are now in a full on boom. This reduces the pool of available resources to get this done. Doesn't hurt to catch contractors after the tide crests and they are looking for work to entice a little more aggressive bids than can be had now. Dangling the work now also increases interest and allows people to get their ducks in a row to ensure it is successful on launch. How much easier can you plan when approaching partners: I need X amount of work in 2-3 years vs I need X amount of work tomorrow.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

Deetroyt said:
Good lord that tower is sexy from that angle. I really hope we get this, even if we don't deserve it :)
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Picture driving Storrow or walking/biking on the Esplanade eastbound through the Back Bay. You are looking right at this building and it will be the most prominent thing in your field of view standing alone, yet framed by FiDi on one side and NS towers/West End/Zakim on the other.

The future looks good.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

datadyne007 said:
As someone who actually works on these kinds of projects (not this one), I can tell you that this kind of situation where demo and enabling is needed is an absolute nightmare to coordinate.
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Booooo can't we just do it like SimCity? I want to see this whole complex completed by year's end.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

datadyne007 said:
tl;dr - these projects take time. 2016 is not long at all.
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I would say that the 20 Somerset site to substantially longer to demo the MDC building and prep the hole for the foundation than to construct the building from foundation to current state.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

I am actually amazed that any of this could start as early as 2016 given that there are still active offices above and advertised parking deals on the garage's site.
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

About time, boston needs a building like this.
-no way in hell it starts in 2016
-they should take over the BPD station adjacent to this project
-somebody previously mentioned loading dock, parking, etc taking up street level space, this should all be located underground. Hopefully the powers that be finally get it right and mandate an accurate amount of loading dock spaces for a building of this size(including recycling and garbage compactors) so deliveries are parking on street
-as I always say: building should be set back more from the street and 10 stories taller
-any underground garage should have multiple entrances and exits
-today's buildings need at least one if not several outdoor patio/roof decks for tenants to access.
-great location for a companies employees: near north station/gov center, 93, not to far from south station and everything else
-I cannot see this building getting financing for the office portion at least for another couple years
-it sounds like they Need to keep a portion of the garage active during construction, if I was building this I would never agree to that way to costly
 
Re: Congress Street Garage Development

CBT's Government Center Garage Redevelopment has been nominated for the 2015 AIA Institute Honor Awards for Regional & Urban Design.

The redevelopment of the Government Center Garage project is an example of undoing the ills of the 1960′s urban renewal in Boston that critically separated six thriving neighborhoods. The plan unlocks neighborhood connections, reopens urban vistas, and creates engaging public spaces by strategically removing a portion of the garage while preserving the remaining structure through creative phasing to provide for a sustainable and economically feasible redevelopment. The project introduces 3 million square-feet of housing dominant mixed-use program to downtown, creating a dynamic 24-hour neighborhood as a model for sustainable, transit-oriented development. The project also sets up a new position for urban design in Boston by shaping the urban form to respond to acute desire lines of a pre-grid city and promoting slender building typologies.
http://www.archdaily.com/585684/
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ArchDaily had a render that I don't recall seeing:

54b03e66e58ece9827000008_2015-aia-institute-honor-awards-for-regional-urban-design_birdseye_view.jpg
 
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Re: Congress Street Garage Development

The Cesar Pelli tower is no more?
 
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