Canvas - Mixed Use Tower (old Felt location) | 533 Washington St | Downtown Crossing

You said someone could make that model in ten hours. I thought you were offering? :O)
 
I will certainly send you a fee proposal for a 10 hour model :) ... but as I said .. you could build that very easily at home ... everyone has access to the geometric information (BRA model) ... and the tools (Home Depot/Michaels).

cca
 
I'm not an expert on construction, but I honestly don't see how they can build this. All they'll be able to get for a work zone is the sidewalk and part of Washington St. That can't be enough space.
 
sm89 said:
I'm not an expert on construction, but I honestly don't see how they can build this. All they'll be able to get for a work zone is the sidewalk and part of Washington St. That can't be enough space.
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I am also no expert, but how does the available space differ from, say, the space used for the Paramount and Modern theater projects?
 
I was just looking back at older street views. I had no idea that they completely deconstructed the Modern theatre to rebuild it with the added floors!

Canvas just seems much larger though.
 
sm89 said:
I'm not an expert on construction, but I honestly don't see how they can build this. All they'll be able to get for a work zone is the sidewalk and part of Washington St. That can't be enough space.
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It may be useful to juxtapose this with the construction management of nearby projects:

Millennium Tower: crane and supporting staging marshalled beneath the rising tower, all crammed into the footprint of the plaza at corner of Washington & Franklin. MBTA portal on plaza temporarily closed. Washington St. recently shut-down during daylight from Washington to Franklin/Bromfield intersection. Lane on Franklin shut-down from Hawley to Washington to allow expanded footprint of support apparatus/crane.

Godfrey Hotel: lane on Washington St. shut-down from Temple Pl. to West. Ridiculously easy in the sense the building under development runs that entire length, plus no vertical expansion, "only" a gut-rehab/preservation, so all their apparatus/bucket lifts/scaffolding fills the closed lane on Washington St.

171 Tremont St.: will almost certainly ask for a closed lane on Tremont St., which everyone will love because that street is obscenely over-wide so it's like an experimental "road diet," eh? Major benefit for developer with building surrounded on all sides by a patio that detaches it from surrounding buildings, so construction apparatus can fill in that patio quite nicely.

Canvas: none of the advantages of the projects mentioned above. Embedded between 2 theaters with student dormitories grafted onto the top plus another theater that can have 2,500 people a show.

All the above projects have very daunting but ultimately manageable issues with safely deploying their construction apparatus... Canvas, not sure!
 
DBM said:
It may be useful to juxtapose this with the construction management of nearby projects:

Millennium Tower: crane and supporting staging marshalled beneath the rising tower, all crammed into the footprint of the plaza at corner of Washington & Franklin. MBTA portal on plaza temporarily closed. Washington St. recently shut-down during daylight from Washington to Franklin/Bromfield intersection. Lane on Franklin shut-down from Hawley to Washington to allow expanded footprint of support apparatus/crane.

Godfrey Hotel: lane on Washington St. shut-down from Temple Pl. to West. Ridiculously easy in the sense the building under development runs that entire length, plus no vertical expansion, "only" a gut-rehab/preservation, so all their apparatus/bucket lifts/scaffolding fills the closed lane on Washington St.

171 Tremont St.: will almost certainly ask for a closed lane on Tremont St., which everyone will love because that street is obscenely over-wide so it's like an experimental "road diet," eh? Major benefit for developer with building surrounded on all sides by a patio that detaches it from surrounding buildings, so construction apparatus can fill in that patio quite nicely.

Canvas: none of the advantages of the projects mentioned above. Embedded between 2 theaters with student dormitories grafted onto the top plus another theater that can have 2,500 people a show.

All the above projects have very daunting but ultimately manageable issues with safely deploying their construction apparatus... Canvas, not sure!
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They construct "slivers" without blinking an eye in Manhattan. I think we can pull one off.
 
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I'd venture that a majority of highrise construction in Hong Kong these days happens in lots about this size, but for buildings twice as tall. Tokyo to a lesser extent as well.
 
I don't doubt it can be pulled off using modern equipment. I'm saying, politically, it will be very hard to get buy-in from the abutters, from a variety of perspectives.

You wanna put staging equipment in that shared alley with the Modern Theatre? Nice try--it's continuously used as load-in/load-out for the student dormitories above and the theater shows below.

You wanna put staging equipment on Washington St. or the sidewalk? Nice try--you'll obstruct the Opera House's marquee and where will they put their long lines for blockbusters and at intermissions?

You wanna put staging equipment on West St., or on the backside, in Mason Place alley? Nice try--Opera House loading dock, Tremont On Common loading dock, loading dock for the other 2 Suffolk Univ. dorms on West St. (Yes, there are THREE Suffolk dorms--Modern, 10 West, 150 Tremont--on West St.)

Finally, you wanna build up? All your residential units will be able to look into the student dorms at Modern, 10 West, 150 Tremont, Paramount Center, etc. And how are you going to negotiate easements for the Modern Theatre alley so your users can have access to it?

Hard hard hard unless you get the BRA/Mayor's Office to steamroll all abutters apprehensions and/or you charm the pants off everyone...
 
I lived in Tokyo for three years and they build on sites this tight all the time, without needing to take even the entire sidewalk. Everything goes in through a hole at ground level carried by trucks that are a lot smaller than we usually use to deliver construction materials here. And then the crane is hoisting everything up through what will eventually be one of the elevator shafts.

All building and construction equipment, including the crane, are broken down into smaller lengths and widths than are standard here so that it all fits around the various tighter turns at ground level (and onto smaller trucks) and also can fit with the vertical interior shaft. Conversely, there are more segments that arrive partially prefabricated off site so that some percentage of the trades' workers are doing their jobs elsewhere.

They make it work with remarkably less impact on abutters' lots or on public ways than do our tightest construction sites. They would look at the Millennium site and wonder why it was sprawled out so much, whereas that site looks tidily compact to us.

Of course, a very great deal of their construction supply industry is oriented towards dealing with these smaller spaces. I don't know if you can find what you need in similarly down-sized components here.
 
I think this looks very good. And with a restaurant on the first floor. Nice!
 
Hutchison said:
PNF here: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/0eb0e7ea-88f2-4e3e-be35-3b5da9ff92fa
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Good stuff. Thanks.

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Looks good, finally some good dense development goes up that really utilizes a small space well and doesn't feel the need to shoehorn parking in where it really isn't needed.

And they are keeping the existing facade!

EDIT: So at second glance, I don't know how the rendered tower matches the floor plans proposed, there isn't the same shape at all between the renders and the floor plate.
 
Mongo said:
EDIT: So at second glance, I don't know how the rendered tower matches the floor plans proposed, there isn't the same shape at all between the renders and the floor plate.
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I think there is. It is deceiving because of the thick gray line which is used to demarcate the parcel. Note the light court in Figure 1-2 that accounts for the notch in the side of the building.
 
This thing looks great...at this point there's so many projects in the pipeline I feel myself getting stressed out that they won't actually happen...
 
I see everything actually happening. Including ALL OUT at 45 Worthington and the Harbor Garage.

Sadly, do you feel the 171 Tremont sucking sound ruining this?

I wish the BRA would stop scaling down 300-400' projects.

This is one of the most exciting proposals ever!

Build it!!
 
Feel bad for the servers and other restaurant workers that have to climb 1-3 floors to get to the kitchen.

Otherwise this is another great project.
 
You had me at "innovation space".

Meanwhile, the "innovation space" at Waterside Place remains empty. :O/
 
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