Copley Place Expansion and Tower | Back Bay

[Lurker]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Oh boy, this thread is going to get split off in 3....2.....1.....

Quotas breed resentment on both sides. Selecting a group of people and giving them special treatment over others in the name of diversity, or some other feel good terminology, isn't fair to anyone. If an neighborhood is expensive to live in, work harder or smarter to make more money to live in it. I was a poor ethnic minority when I moved to Boston, I wasn't sticking my hand out to get some discounted rooftop abode in Beacon Hill, just because I was 'disadvantaged'.

I used to rent to some section 8s and their were the most self absorbed bunch of idiots I ever met outside of the USSR. The sense of entitlement and complete disregard for everyone and everything they didn't personally own, because "they were owed it" was sickening. Their litter of animals, they called children, were a constant source of trouble in the neighborhood. Needless to say, I terminated their lease after a year, and never rented to section 8s again, unless I was compelled under penalty of law.

Cities can be expensive places, if someone can't afford it, just like people have done for eons, they should move!

 

[pelhamhall]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

I look at it this way - the South End used to be a cheap place to live, lots of tenements, run-down housing stock and a huge concentration of housing projects.

For various reasons, the South End became more and more desirable as a cheaper alternative to the Back Bay. But, you can't build anything at all in the South End, ever. The activist "crazy" factor here is high.

So instead of new housing entering the market, the luxury buyers just snapped up the filthy brownstones and dilapidated tenements and fixed them up - driving the poor people away. So instead of a scenario where new, luxury housing, mixed in with the existing housing stock, the new scenario was that renovated luxury housing REPLACED the existing housing stock.

That's a simplistic view, I know the reality is more complicated, but in a nutshell there's a lot of evidence that these anti-progress idiots actually have the effect of lowering the amount of affordable housing stock.

Also, I don't believe anyone has the right to live anywhere. Neighborhoods change, cities change, demographics change... that's how life is. So you used to be able to afford the South End, and now you can't. It's nobody's problem but your own. I left the South End myself so that I could have a lot of space, a yard, and money to squander on things other than my insane mortgage payments.

 

[NIMBYhater]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Hi everyone, longtime reader, first-time poster

As others have mentioned, the models and renderings offer a glance at how nicely this building could fill in the Back Back skyline. Not to mention the structure's phenomenal appearance in and of itself: very modern (for Boston anyway) with its muti-sphere lower-design and slender upper design, with the potato-chip top serving to sweeten the deal all the more. It is simply beautiful. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but given the accounts of the initial meeting, they are getting difficult to contain. If someone doesn't post some bad news quick, my hopes are liable to get so high up they'll cast a shadow the size of Taipei 101!

I also wanted to mention how much I have always respected the level of discussion in this forum. I was always hesitant post before because somehow I almost didn't feel worthy. That's how much I admire the dialog that often takes place here. I only hope that I too can contribute to it.

 

[Bos_Mia]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Hi everyone, longtime reader, first-time poster

I also wanted to mention how much I have always respected the level of discussion in this forum. I was always hesitant post before because somehow I almost didn't feel worthy. That's how much I admire the dialog that often takes place here. I only hope that I too can contribute to it.

Hi NIMBYhater....i immediately related to your post....beautifully said....I too am reticient to post...intimidated by the discourse....but i'm coming to realize that everyone here, no matter what their level of expertise, has one thing in common...we all love this city...and every red brick in it......and i think the senior members here will welcome some new perspectives....at least i hope so.....
I am resident on Dartmouth St...just a few blocks from this development...i like this design and enthusiastically support this development.....

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Welcome! I for one think we need a more balanced outlook and the more people who contribute, the closer I think we can get to having a clearer picture of both sides of the debate.

That said, just don't be a dick like Ned Flaherty.

 

[Chris]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Latest Courant has a front page article by Gabriel Leiner with the headline:

Copley Tower Would Cast Shadow on Park

Little sensationalist?

 

[kz1000ps]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

So that's what...about 60% of the article dedicated towards just the shadows issue?

 

[kz1000ps]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

What the site looks like today.. from th ePru:

at the far right you can see paint stripes

for the fire doors the architects said can't be moved

which means this pedestrian-hostile setup will probably remain

The plaza.

Horsies

Peoples

Dartmouth St. sidewalk, buckling

And the south side that'll get reworked

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

That plaza is straight out of some suburban mall. I've also found myself trapped by that highway off-ramp while walking around that area and it truly is a no-man's land. It really is no wonder that is where the sky walks are.

 

[jonbern]

How do we shut up those annoying neighborhood commitees?

Ok, this is amazing news! I think Copley needs more towers. But can anyone shut up those annoying neighborhood commitees...???? Those old people want Boston to look like more like Providence on steroids...

We are a CITY!! Cities have tall buildings. Every time I turn around a proposed tower is being reduced to a just another Boston stump building.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Thank you for the photos. It's easy to forget what a major improvement this was over the ramp farm. Will the prison stripe motif be replaced?

 

[Chris]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Will the prison stripe motif be replaced?

Well, As one of the people commented/complained at the meeting, the warm earthy tones of the current prison motif, as you would say, are equally if not more inviting than the proposed glass facade.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Mediocrity marcheth on. Pity the BRA will become more absorbed with shadowy thinking than with the actual point of interaction between the building and human beings.

That's what happens when you play with blocks all day. We can consider ourselves lucky that there isn't a giant A or B precast on to the wall, or murals of Sponge Bob and Squidward.

 

[NIMBYhater]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Welcome! I for one think we need a more balanced outlook and the more people who contribute, the closer I think we can get to having a clearer picture of both sides of the debate.

That said, just don't be a dick like Ned Flaherty.

Well like most of you, I have a firm stance of pro-height and anti-stump/large box, so I doubt I'll add much diversity to the proceedings. As for my presence adding another Ned Flaherty to you midst, you need not worry.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Ned is like coke. He adds life.

 

[statler]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

You forgot to capitalize the "c" in Coke. Unless...

Oh, never mind.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Ned could be an asset. Alas, he's content on being an...

 

[TC]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Ned could be an asset. Alas, he's content on being an...

LOL


Don't you know that Ned doesn't have the time to spend on anything else. It's a full time job to force developers to clean the air of pollutants that are currently not regulated by any government agency.

 

[JimboJones]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

New 47-story Tower in Back Bay Begets Just One Complaint
By Thomas Grillo, Banker & Tradesman

In a neighborhood where fighting tall buildings is legendary, Back Bay residents were unusually silent about the newest proposed sky-scraper to change the city skyline.

At a public hearing last week on the redevelopment of Copley Place, only one resident raised questions about the height of a proposed 47-story residential tower.

?It?s too tall,? Jacquelin Yessian, chairwoman of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, told the development team.

NABB fought the increased height of 4-6 Newbury St., a parking garage that is soon to be transformed into an office building, and is fighting the plan for a tower at 888 Boylston.

Developers told a packed crowd Tuesday night they plan to enhance the transit-oriented project with housing, more shops and a dra-matic glass-enclosed public space.

?When Copley Place was built in the 1980s, it was a pioneering development with retail, hotel and office, and at the time there was a vision for residential,? said Carl Dieterle, executive vice president of development for Simon Property Group, the mall?s owner. ?This pro-ject completes that vision by adding housing.?

The development team offered the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods its first glimpse of the project that would add a 47-story condominium tower with 280 units, a glass-enclosed winter garden, 114,000 square feet of new retail space and a 54,000-square-foot expansion of Neiman Marcus, the mall?s anchor tenant.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority?s public review process commenced at the Boston Public Library. Prior to city approval, the de-veloper is required to hold public hearings and consider comments by residents as they devise a final plan.

Jack Hobbs, president of RF Walsh Project Management, said the first public hearing was the start of the approval process. ?This is your opportunity to understand what this proposal is all about,? he said.

Questions were raised about the possible loss of public space in front of Copley Place, shadows cast by the tower and whether the winter garden design fits the neighborhood.

In one light moment of the two-hour meeting, Kenneth Kruckemeyer of Walk Boston, a non-profit group dedicated to improving walking conditions in the Bay State, said, ?There?s an opportunity for greatness here and an opportunity for disaster.?

 

[Patriots_1228]

Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

why on earth does Jacquelin Yessian care about the height of this tower...its none of her buisness...noone else gives a shit if her little apartment has a shadow on it....

some of these people I just don't understand...