General South Bay Development (Formerly Gateway Center)

Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

^There's air rights involved similar to the Columbus center if you read the article
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Good news, though I feel like a larger master plan ala Rockefeller Center would be a better approach (though I guess that failed before).
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

I feel like Boston has failed at pie-in-the-sky master plans before (Gov't center/west end and RKG) and this is 100% the correct way to do things here
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Agree with you, Suffolk 83.

Driving up the SE Expressway into Boston for years, I've long wished that something could be done with this disaster of an area. Honestly, I've always thought it was damn-near physically impossible to build anything here. The mix of tunnels, above-ground highways and overpasses, and random plots of land seemed so difficult to build over as to be permanent.

I don't know how (or if) the city and the developers will get this done, but if they are able to turn it into a neighborhood, I would much rather see a piecemeal approach of relatively small-footprint buildings and defined streets than a superblock approach of a few towers in the park and oversized institutional buildings. The approach that the city appears to be taking -- gradual, with lots sold at different times to different developers -- gives me some hope that we'll see smaller, tighter lots and thus a real neighborhood come about ... if the logistics of developing this mess are at all feasible in the first place.
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

this will provide an interesting modern compare and contrast about the efficiency and quality of the piecemeal vs superblock approach. Fan Pier/Seaport Square vs. Gateway
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Nice, a piecemeal approach to redevelopment. Might take longer, but I bet the end result will be much better (see Back Bay vs. Seaport).
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

datadyne007 said:
I was just about to say, isn't this Gateway Center? The ghost of that incredible project still haunts the Boston Emporis.
Click to expand...

Ugh, imagine how different the skyline would have looked if Gateway Center, South Station Tower, and Winthrop Square had been built?? Boston would have one of the most attractive skylines in the nation.
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

It would be interesting to see what happens if they simply zone it (some reasonable rules about height, density, open space parking etc.), promise to stick to the zoning rules, and see what private developers do under those circumstances.
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Consider our resident legal expert's comments from back in 2008:

tobyjug said:
Speaking with a Trigen official the other day, who let on that the company receives development overtures for the plant. Trigen thinking seems to be that a new plant could be put a few hundred feet south of the current one. During the first two years of new plant operation, the current plant will be held in reserve as a insurance. Once the new is proven, the old one will be released. I gather nothing is imminent.

Trigen is the cork in the Gateway Center bottle. Nothing will be built without Trigen cooperation, and Gateway ground will never be broken until a new plant has run successfully for two years.

When (or if) you see commercial paper on such a deal, only then will you know that Gateway is real!
Click to expand...

Only passing reference in the Globe article to the Trigen plant...
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Does anyone know what the height limitations would be in this area?
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Please have Norman Foster and Jean Nouvel plan and design it, like Central Park in Sydney. While we're at it, let's knock down the U.S. postal service building adjacent to South Station and build an extension to it, in a new building styled like the old. We can add new development on the Fort Point Channel side, with restaurants overlooking the channel like the Spree River in Berlin, and we can rebuild the train shed at South Station. In the end, it could probably be like St Pancras Station in London, redeveloped! We should take cues from that.
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

labatud12 said:
Does anyone know what the height limitations would be in this area?
Click to expand...
The original proposal for Gateway Center called for 67-stories at 800'.

Here is the map of FAA restrictions:
article_image.php
 
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

That map is being referred to as if it is an official FAA map on a few threads now. I don't think so. My guess is that it is a reporter's interpretation based on past FAA statements regarding particular projects, IPOD's and Master Plans.

Can someone clarify the source of that FAA map?

I'm asking because Parcel 25 would be a PERFECT area for soaring towers, and may be well situated even by FAA standards. Also, FAA may be able to accommodate development density by shifting flight patterns, especially for areas that are outside of some critical radius from Logan.
 
Last edited:
Re: Parcel 25 - Southern Gateway

Suffolk 83 said:
I feel like Boston has failed at pie-in-the-sky master plans before (Gov't center/west end and RKG) and this is 100% the correct way to do things here
Click to expand...

I agree. I am excited by the prospect of multiple developers on smaller parcels. This is just what we all say we prefer. My one cause for concern is that construction of a very large air rights zone might be too complicated to take on in a piecemeal fashion. I hope it isn't.
 
Re: South Bay Development (Gateway Center)

Im going to combine the two threads since it is the same basic development.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top