Copley Place Expansion and Tower | Back Bay

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Whatever they build, I hope it respects the inviting 80's style of the rest of Copley Place.

justin
 
justin said:
Whatever they build, I hope it respects the inviting 80's style of the rest of Copley Place.

justin
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Yes, hopefully the BBAC will see to this. Or does this fall outside of their tin-pot dictatordom?
 
There is some courtyard and retail space on the west side of the building maybe it would take up that part of the courtyard??

However that area appears to be owned by the MBTA.
 
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DarkFenX said:
Though no details have been announced, published reports as well as information from sources familiar with the project indicated the owner of Copley Place mall is considering building a residential tower near Dartmouth Street and across from the MBTA's Back Bay commuter-rail station. The Neiman Marcus store at Copley Place is also planning to expand but no details were disclosed about how much larger the store wants to grow in square feet.
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Now this is what confused me. The empty space "across from Back Bay station" is untouchable parkland -- the very beginning of the Southwest Corridor Park. That's also the side where Needless-Markup is.
 
briv said:
hopefully the BBAC will see to this. Or does this fall outside of their tin-pot dictatordom?
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the Back Bay architectural district ends at Boylston Street. It includes the north side of that street, but not the south side.
 
The article says the building would go on the corner of Dartmouth and Stewart. In the map above, that looks like a small space, but it's actually quite large and, especially if the tower rides up and over a portion of NM, then there's plenty of room. The loss of that plaza would generally be a good thing, I think.

And I don't think that area is owned by the MBTA. On the map, where it reads "Massachusetts Turnpike", that's to designate that the Pike runs underneath that area. The mall probably controls that area through a ground lease from the Pike.
 
location?

I would guess that the location is the small plaza behind Copley Place, but not on the Corridor Park section. It's across from the T station and the other plaza is above the turnpike. It would be too expensive to build above the turnpike. Neither the Pru towers nor Columbus Square are above the pike. Residential building can have very small floor plates.
 
^^Actually the pike does go under the whole Prudential complex.
 
only the low rise buildings

DarkFenX said:
^^Actually the pike does go under the whole Prudential complex.
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My point was that the pike only goes under low buildings. None of the towers are above the pike. I would guess it would be too expensive and a high rise need too many piles in the soil.
 
Sure looks to me like the Prudential Tower is directly over the Pike.
 
PaulC is right. I had my hands on a copy of the Pru Complex's 1988 master plan for a while, and there was a diagram showing foundation types. While the northeast corner of the Prudential tower comes right up to it, no part of it actually rises over the turnpike or railroad tracks. Same thing for the southwest corner of the western-most residential tower ... Emporis shows conflicting pictures of which tower is which so I can't figure out what it's name is.

Cost is of course the reason, just like why Boylston Square would have been constructed on the triangular parking lot adjacent to the turnpike and not directly over it (hence it's wedge shape).
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

The Herald said:
That would include shops, plus what would likely be a condo tower in the 20- to 30-story range, sources said.
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The Boston Courant ran an article on this with the headline "Back Bay May Get 50-Story Tower". I think the Courant has its facts wrong, because they go on to say that it "would be the fourth tallest building in the Back Bay", but the third tallest, 111 Huntington, is only 36 stories.

Also of note from the article:

Peter M. Sherin, chairman of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, said the group has not heard anything about the proposal. He said any structure of that size would draw scrutiny from the neighborhood.

"We would be concerned about plans for any building of that height," he said. "It would cast shadows that fall on historic properties, creaste darkness and wind in the area, be out of scale with the surroundings and overload already congested roads."
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Big surprise there. That's such a canned response, I wonder if they do it completely on reflex. And so I add my canned response: This is a block from the Hancock Tower and across the street from Back Bay Station. The area also has a housing shortage. This is exactly where density should go. Perhaps I'll write a letter to the editor or something, although there doesn't seem to be a letters section in the Courant.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

quadratdackel said:
The Herald said:
That would include shops, plus what would likely be a condo tower in the 20- to 30-story range, sources said.
Link
Click to expand...
The Boston Courant ran an article on this with the headline "Back Bay May Get 50-Story Tower". I think the Courant has its facts wrong, because they go on to say that it "would be the fourth tallest building in the Back Bay", but the third tallest, 111 Huntington, is only 36 stories.
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Remember that this project is supposed to be residential. So the floor to height scale will be less than that of an office tower. The dead Boylston Street tower was going to be 50 stories high but only 550ft tall while 111 is 36 stories high but it is 553ft. I won't be surprised if this is going to end up similar to the Boylston Street Tower.
 
I'm not sure this is really in NABB's area -- seems to me more like South End.
 
Has there been any update on this? I was in brooks brothers today and my salesman was talking about this as if imminent. According to him, it sounded as if things were pretty thorough, 11k square foot expansion on neiman marcus, 50 floors, condos, other retail facilities, some hotel rooms.
 
I hope he's right about the 50 floors. :mrgreen:
 
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