New presentation last week; according to the Back Bay Sun: I haven't seen the renderings, but it sounds like most of the changes will be inside, to the lobby.
Developers Want To Add Retail To Hancock Tower
By Dan Salerno
The John Hancock Tower is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Boston high rise architecture. However, the gleaming glass skyscraper has always stood at a remove from the public community, with little reason for those other than its corporate tenants to ever enter.
Now, a developer wants to change that, connecting the tower to the neighborhoods of Back Bay and the South End by building retail and restaurants in the towers lower levels.
Broadway Partners, a national development company, presented their plans for the tower to the public last week as part of the city?s article 80 project review process. According to Alan Rubenstein, a representative from Broadway Partners, the hope is to make better use of an underutilized space.
?We want to enliven the area by brining the public to the tower,? said Rubenstein. ?This [plan] transforms the tower from a foreboding corporate structure to something with a more mixed-use feel.?
The plan in its current, tentative state calls for two restaurants with entrances in the ground floor lobby of the tower, though not inside of the tower?s security. The entrances would lead downward to the first basement level where the restaurants would have their dining rooms. The kitchens/prep areas would be on the second basement level.
The restaurants will be of the upscale, white tablecloth variety, and Rubenstein pointed to nearby Grill 23 and Davio?s as good examples of the type of establishment that might find a home in the Hancock. In all, there will be about 50,000 square feet of restaurant space, with approximately 2500 of that to be at grade. The developers hope the build signage on the outside of the tower to alert pedestrians to the presence of the restaurants, but no specific design for such signage has yet been decided upon.
In addition to the restaurants, Broadway also wants to put a high end retail store on the North End of the lobby level.
The lobby-accessed restaurants plan replaces more ambitious early ideas from the developers, which included enclosing the entire Hancock plaza in a winter garden, or building detached entrances to the lower levels in the plaza. Neither idea was favorably received by the public.
Eliot Laffer, a member of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay and the Boston Groundwater Trust, said that the new designs showed a good willingness by the developers to address the concerns of the public.
?I?m thrilled that you listened [to problems people had],? said Laffer. ?It?s nice to have a developer who listens to public concerns.?
According to a representative from architects Elkus Manfredi, the construction is expected to take approximately 12-14 months, and the developers hope to get started in Spring of 2009. The project will require approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, but not the Zoning Board of Appeal, as restaurant use is already allowed by the site?s zoning (the area to be renovated currently houses the tower?s cafeteria).
