Echelon Seaport | 133-135 Seaport Blvd | Seaport

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I'm so ready for the sidewalks around this to open up so the urban feel of the Seaport area can stretch one more block. It's a real shame they set back the upper floors but kept the ground floors pushed right up to the edges on all sides, missed opportunity for some open green space/plazas imo.
 
Slowly but surely the architecture is getting better and better with each new development. This is setting the next benchmark. Parcel N and P will then set the next.. and so on. Hopefully well then get a liberty mutual on the main strip, then a library, fire station, police station, a true park instead of a lawn... then protected bike lanes, and finally conversion of the silver line to light rail and maybe somehow even use track 61... Who knows.

Regardless things are moving in the right direction towards a fairly nice neighborhood once filled out. Theres still soooo much space left in the neighborhood as a whole, like the fort point area, backside and whole area beyond the bcec etc.. that with the right moves it could become a great neighborhood. It could also go the other way, theres enough left that the jury is still out. Its up to them, N and P good, the most recent GE plot render.. very bad.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
I'm so ready for the sidewalks around this to open up so the urban feel of the Seaport area can stretch one more block. It's a real shame they set back the upper floors but kept the ground floors pushed right up to the edges on all sides, missed opportunity for some open green space/plazas imo.
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Have to disagree. Glad they built out a proper urban street wall here. Much prefer open space to come in the form of proper municipally owned parks (like Martin’s Park), as opposed to throwing in some barely usable lawns subject to the rules of a corporate real estate company.

Also this whole development is anchored by an impressive plaza at its center.
 
Here with my semi-annual post about how fantastic this project looks. Although we got some questionable architecture early on, this neighborhood overall is starting to really look good, and it only takes a great project here and there to effect that change.
 
stoweker said:
isn't the area behind the BCEC slated for the convention center expansion (if that ever happens)
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The area directly behind yes, but there's a lot of acreage in the area between Summer and the residential development of Southie. Unifying the two neighborhoods is a project for the next cycle
 
It looks great; have we heard anything about retail? Won't be as great if its a ghost town...
 
stoweker said:
isn't the area behind the BCEC slated for the convention center expansion (if that ever happens)
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Yea that was my point, that is land that is going to be developed.. although it keeps being cancelled and who knows at this point. Regardless theres room there for something.
 
The skybridge is the weirdest thing. Such a huge sofit, likely hiding the hanging structural members.
I guess it's better than boring...
 
Pretty nice. Maybe the Seaport really will become a new Back Bay. It might even outshine the old Back Bay.
 
xec said:
Pretty nice. Maybe the Seaport really will become a new Back Bay. It might even outshine the old Back Bay.
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As good as this development is, this whole area rings to me as temporary compared to the Back Bay (at a longer temporal reference). The Back Bay has a sense of permanence and timelessness that few neighborhoods can/have emulated.
 
xec said:
Pretty nice. Maybe the Seaport really will become a new Back Bay. It might even outshine the old Back Bay.
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I wish.

But I severely doubt it. I completely agree with stefal. Glass and metal panel do not suggest permanence. The style of these is generic and could be anywhere. The strength of the Back Bay is how rooted in the city they are. There is a feeling of place created with the neighborhood context. Even though they share a "style", there is variety without disharmony. The row houses feel Bostonian and their masonry has a weight to it that this lacks. I often feel new urban cores are a weird collection of architectural vanity pieces with each building trying to one up an aspect of a neighbor and be different.

But I'm all for the kinds of spaces popping up. Integrating green space, pedestrian thoroughfares, etc. is just good urban design and makes a city liveable.
 
I don't think it'll be as good as the back bay overall, but I'm hesitant to judge now. Despite the neighborhood filling in visually, most of the big current projects (Echelon, L4, Waterside, Omni) aren't generating activity yet (except for construction workers eating lunch!), so the vibrancy should improve dramatically without any further urban form changes (though those are coming)
 
Bananarama said:
I wish.

But I severely doubt it. I completely agree with stefal. Glass and metal panel do not suggest permanence. The style of these is generic and could be anywhere. The strength of the Back Bay is how rooted in the city they are. There is a feeling of place created with the neighborhood context. Even though they share a "style", there is variety without disharmony. The row houses feel Bostonian and their masonry has a weight to it that this lacks. I often feel new urban cores are a weird collection of architectural vanity pieces with each building trying to one up an aspect of a neighbor and be different.

But I'm all for the kinds of spaces popping up. Integrating green space, pedestrian thoroughfares, etc. is just good urban design and makes a city liveable.
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What is improving is the general decreasing use (still high, though) of glass as an anonymizing fortress. The momentum has changed a bit in the Seaport and that is saving it's "humaneness" . A few years ago, the glass cubes were beginning to take it down a very bad path.
 
Bananarama said:
I wish.

But I severely doubt it. I completely agree with stefal. Glass and metal panel do not suggest permanence. The style of these is generic and could be anywhere. The strength of the Back Bay is how rooted in the city they are. There is a feeling of place created with the neighborhood context. Even though they share a "style", there is variety without disharmony. The row houses feel Bostonian and their masonry has a weight to it that this lacks. I often feel new urban cores are a weird collection of architectural vanity pieces with each building trying to one up an aspect of a neighbor and be different.

But I'm all for the kinds of spaces popping up. Integrating green space, pedestrian thoroughfares, etc. is just good urban design and makes a city liveable.
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I agree with the critique of the generic blue glass boxes and the sense of impermanence. In that sense the Seaport will never be the Back Bay. I was thinking more of the pedestrian urban
experience than the architecture. Strolling along the Harborwalk from the courthouse to Pier 4 (and eventually the upgraded WTC and maybe someday Drydock 4) is — at least for me — on a par with strolling down the Comm Ave. mall or the Esplanade. The number and variety of public activities available (shopping, dining, entertainment, etc.) already compares favorably to Back Bay and will probably increase in the future (just pretend you've never heard of COVID-19). The proposed Summer St. Steps and Harbor Walk might (or might not, but let's be optimistic) turn out to be a pleasant mashup of Newbury St. and Quincy Market. I haven't been in the Seaport for over a year, but last time I was there I saw people strolling about who looked like they enjoyed being there, bad architecture notwithstanding. That sense of enjoyment provided by the built environment is where I think the Seaport could become the next Back Bay (again ignoring the Sword of COVID-19 hanging over our heads)
 
Hard to imagine anything new successfully competing with the Back Bay. Is that really such a bad thing? Architects and developers today seem uninterested in the design and urban touchstones (rules?) of the past. Cost plays a role, for sure. It is what it is, has been for a long time, so be it. However, we might ultimately enjoy a unique district that is a vivid contrast to our beloved historical Boston. Not fair to judge too harshly when the place is still in the making, still much to do. But to my eye, the quality of materials and the design choices are improving. Hopefully, crowds will follow. Fingers crossed.
 
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