Copley Place Expansion and Tower | Back Bay

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Oops, I take back my words - odurandina was talking about rousing support on the Globe comment thread NOT at the Neighborhood Association meeting. Sorry, I read too quickly and I read wrong.

I just arrived at the meeting.
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
^ I absolutely 100% agree, but I don't think this would be an appropriate meeting for to go toe-to-toe with the residents here. Since this is the Neighborhood Association putting on the meeting to let their members hear directly from the BRA, it's not appropriate for me as a non-resident to counter their arguments...or at least I can't in good conscience do that here. I'll raise those concerns in comments directly to BRA and in public forum where the meeting facilitators aren't the NIMBYs themselves. From a city politics perspective, I'm wary about them feeling like the YIMBYs are encroaching on their turf...but maybe someone less politically involved than I can be that lightning rod...

ADDENDUM: I misread Oduradina's post and while this reply should resonate, it's not in the spirit of his/her original suggestion.
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i agree 100%. Their neighborhood isn't the place to question or belittle their talking points, as i do in the Globe. Many of their concerns are legitimate, and they deserve the limited time available to raise them. The proper place is Room 900 *(Although the next meeting on 1 Bromfield is at Suffolk Law on Thursday afternoon).... i have to be in Baltimore that morning. i'll have to catch an early flight back to make the meeting.
 
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stick n move said:
Wow, I respect that a lot and agree completely. Most of the time u hear people on here with the exact opposite approach where they wanna barge in and tell people whats best for them even though they do not live in the area affected. Let these people voice their concerns-as they are the ones affected, and in the right time and place others can give their input. Good to read something like that.
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Well you know, not all of us are a part of that industry and feel like we are as entitled to an opinion as they are (the NIMBYs). Although, not being a boston resident I show up at meetings for my *own* city. That would be weird for me to show up at theirs. Like, I work in Defense. My interest in this forum is just that- an interest.
 
odurandina said:
i agree 100%. Their neighborhood isn't the place to question or belittle their talking points, as i do in the Globe. Many of their concerns are legitimate, and they deserve the limited time available to raise them. The proper place is Room 900 *(Although the next meeting on 1 Bromfield is at Suffolk Law on Thursday afternoon).... i have to be in Baltimore that morning. i'll have to catch an early flight back to make the meeting.
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I'll make a bit of a jaded comment here about SBNA, and related neighborhood associations in this context. (I can do this as a former, vocal member of SBNA.)

While this neighborhood forum is certainly an important venue for the local residents and property owners to hear from the BRA and developers, and vice versa, I can also tell you what they are really doing.

SBNA is very astute at positioning for significant chunks of neighborhood mitigation funds from developers. It got brick sidewalks and acorn lights installed that way over the past 2 decades. This is partially about real concerns, and it is partially about funding neighborhood upgrades through legal developer extortion.
 
Sorry, for the complete derailment; I'm fairly certain that we're all in agreement that it's inappropriate to just show up at neighborhood association meetings and deliver unsolicited advice (though I wouldn't be surprised if this was a YIMBY tactic in the now hot and contentious SF market).

As the flyer suggested, the meeting covered a number of topics and was mainly to update the member residents on projects where they have representation and/or direct updates from the developer. I'll throw updates in other threads later today when I'm not bleary-eyed if there's anything interesting from my notes.

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Overall, there wasn't any loud opposition to this tower (or the adjacent Back Bay Station proposals). It was noted that the proposed Boston Properties office building on the other side of Dartmouth St from Copley Tower is going to be roughly the same height, hence 'gateway'?... Heads nodded, lightbulbs went off, no particularly negative murmur.

As we all know, below-grade is in progress and as Datadyne has noted on the previous page, the work going on right now is to make that entrance accessible so they can close the entrance on the other side of Neiman Marcus on Stuart Street to do the real prep. I don't remember seeing a timeline disclosed here, but the following windows were announced during the meeting:

- Dartmouth St entrance and pedestrian tunnel under Dartmouth reopens Nov 2016
- Foundation works for tower beings fall 2016
- upper floor facade renovations for existing retail and office area complete in Spring 2017
- Work on Stuart and Dartmouth plaza starts spring 2017
- 4 year construction period for estimated completion in 2020

There was a brief tirade about sewage concerns over the addition of 542 new housing units on the site... calling on BWSC and MWRA to be transparent and assure the neighbourhood that they have the ability to process the new demand, referring to some overflow incident 5 years ago (?). I wanted to allay their concerns, but it was the very last thing on the docket and the meeting had a hard stop (because of all the EPA/MEPA-funded sewer-grey water separations, on-site or local water treatment, reduction in storm surge, etc. MWRA is actually concerned about flow rate to Deer Island treatment facility in the coming decades - last I heard on an MAPC-organised tour I took of the facility 3 years ago...further, of course the developer is going to provide certs/approvals with MWRA and BWSC to comply with waste water treatment laws...)

Of note, apparently the developer or CAC or someone insisted that the enclosed space that will be at the base of the tower shouldn't be called a 'public garden', but rather a 'public square'... mmmhmmm

And finally, my own question a few pages back about the poetry art installation in the now chopped up plaza at the entrance to the Southwest Corridor Path is being moved to other stations along the SWC in favour of art that is 'less interruptive of flow and more welcoming as a gateway to the path.'

Addendum: Oh, speaking of mitigation funds - one update I left out:
- $500k in remediation is being set aside
- 1/2 to Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy and 1/2 to Friends of Copley Square for various neighbourhood beautification projects
 
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$500? Let's hope they don't blow it all in one of the Copley Place shops...
 
RandomWalk said:
$500? Let's hope they don't blow it all in one of the Copley Place shops...
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That gets the Southwest Corridor Park Conservancy and the Friends of Copley Square each a leather wallet at Neiman Marcus...

Jouhou said:
Did we forget a k or some zeroes or something???
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That's what I get for posting this late. Hopefully I don't forget a k or some zeroes or something in this post...
 
From PR Newswire:

Work will begin soon adjacent to Neiman Marcus, both above ground and below ground, to construct the foundation of the 52-story Copley Residential Tower, whose structural frame will begin to rise above Neiman Marcus in 2018. Work will also begin on a two-story high atrium that contains 40,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space and faces Stuart Street. This atrium will provide direct access to Copley Place, Neiman Marcus, and the new retail and restaurant space.
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Wow super long timeframe on this one...where does that put completion? 2021?
 
Announced in 2006. Supposed to start rising by 2018. Embarrassing.
 
DZH22 said:
Announced in 2006. Supposed to start rising by 2018. Embarrassing.
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That's two years of underpinning the tower by building supports in an active Interstate tunnel. That's also about 4 years of the Great Recession, which began just as the project was trying to find financing.

This is one of the two greatest construction booms Boston has ever seen, and you're still finding a way that it can be "embarrassing".
 
Equilibria said:
That's two years of underpinning the tower by building supports in an active Interstate tunnel. That's also about 4 years of the Great Recession, which began just as the project was trying to find financing.

This is one of the two greatest construction booms Boston has ever seen, and you're still finding a way that it can be "embarrassing".
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That leaves 6 years of sitting around with their thumbs up their butts. The overall boom isn't embarrassing. The fact that some of these buildings have taken 12 years to get out of the ground is. Remnants of the damage Menino caused to this city. We have a major housing shortage and costs are out of control because construction was artificially held back due to constant NIMBY ass-kissing.

Even now, on the steps of the greatest boom in Boston's history, the rug could be pulled out any second. That's what happens when everything TAKES SO F***ING LONG TO GET APPROVED!!!!! "A bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush."
 
I agree completely that Bostons process of approving new projects is embarrassing and costs the taxpayers HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS, but this is positive news.


The article says the tower will rise in 2018, but that construction the base will begin as planned in 2016. Working on a complicated site like this likely requires a year to two years of prep work (see 1 Dalton St).

If they actually start work on the tower this Fall as planned, that means this project is happening. And that is amazing and something I was skeptical would ever happen. Huge positive.
 
Podium prep continues:




Inside, the Copley Place mall renovations seem to be wrapping up, but it doesn't seem like a major change - just white wash (like what's going on in the Pru), new drop ceiling, and updated lighting fixtures. I was expecting something dramatic, but it definitely feels more fresh.



Notice the abrupt end in renovations, presumably because this is where they'll begin the cut for the tower above:




Looks like they're getting ready to mount something to the walls of the atrium:



They're tearing up the old red marble and putting in new flooring:





Some tile porn:







Aaaand then the abrupt reminder of what was there before:


 
That mall blows without Rizzoli Books, the news stand, the movie theatre, and the Chinese restaurant upstairs.
 
Working in Rizzoli in the late 1980s was a more valuable experience than any classes I took at Boston Latin.

And I got my ass kicked by Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Jim Jarmousch, and the Coen Brothers in those theatres.
 
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