Why would hotel patrons not want to borrow a bike to sightsee...?
Seems like a great perk
Hotel | 7-9 Hamilton Place | Downtown
- Thread starter Equilibria
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Seems like a great perk
Perhaps you're thinking it's a hotel in Waltham?
This is in a dead-end alley at the end of Tremont Street in Boston next to a concert theatre. The clientele will be using taxis, Ubers, Lyfts, limos, etc. They'll pick up and drop off at the corner of Tremont and stroll 300 feet or so to their hotel.
The bike storage is for the staff or younger patrons.
Context is everything. This project is freaking brilliant. AND it keeps and renovates a beautiful pedestal. This is a gifted grand slam compared to the Black Sox Scandal Whoops building in Kenmore Square. THIS is great and optimizing urban placemaking.
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Agreed on all of the above; also, regarding bikes, note there is the Bluebikes kiosk right there at the corner.
Anyway: construction logistics and abutter engagement/cooperation/coordination will be paramount. How do you back a truck that has been delivering steel rebar back out onto Tremont St.?
(Answer: with extreme difficulty, even if everything is superbly coordinated.)
Also: Orpheum is already solidly booked again, through Memorial Day. Even a 2/3rds sellout there is still 2,000 patrons or so. Luckily for the developer, the Orpheum is closed at least for July/August due to no AC... but the rest of the year--again, abutter coordination.
BeyondRevenue
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Set up one of your cranes on Winter Street. No car traffic, no problem.
Which makes me think that this could get the 101 Arch treatment.
Winter Street is filled with contractor/delivery trucks + vans all-morning, during the hours when they are legally permitted to park there. On many mornings, I have witnessed them essentially serving as a solid wall, from the Chase Bank at Corner Mall up to Tremont St.
Also, pandemic or otherwise, it experiences some of the highest pedestrian volumes in New England.
I'm hard-pressed to think of a way to more deliberately increase the difficulty of construction logistics, than extending the scope to include Winter St.
The BPDA's weekly e-alert pointed out there's an 8.1 public meeting giving an update on this project:
http://www.bostonplans.org/news-calendar/calendar/2022/08/01/7-9-hamilton-place-public-meeting
One interesting thing here is that, as an as-of-right project (i.e., not seeking a substantial zoning variance), in theory this project is relatively unimpacted, if at all, by the new BPDA leadership and any zoning overhaul they might be seeking?
http://www.bostonplans.org/news-calendar/calendar/2022/08/01/7-9-hamilton-place-public-meeting
One interesting thing here is that, as an as-of-right project (i.e., not seeking a substantial zoning variance), in theory this project is relatively unimpacted, if at all, by the new BPDA leadership and any zoning overhaul they might be seeking?
SuffolkHeights11
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2022-08-08_Presentation_7-9 Hamilton Place.pdf | Powered by Box
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BPDA presentation from 8/8. Even as-of-right, this still triggers BPDA review due to its size but more importantly it is not impacted by neighbors, neighborhood associations, and the ZBA. This project is a poster-child for as-of-right zoning: proposed in February of 2022 and on track to be approved by September 2022. BPDA asked for reasonable mitigation including sidewalk repairs, construction sequencing, etc. and got it. Developer has a clear, predictable timeline and abutters had an opportunity to weigh in but not derail the project entirely. This could be the process on every street in the city if Boston wants it.
IF this and 11 Bromfield Street get approved at the same time . . . and IF they start construction at the same time, it would be interesting (and effortlessly easy to check) if they apply similar cutting-edge construction techniques, given how extremely constrained both development sites are.
dshoost88
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Housing generation limited to a single neighborhood is not a silver bullet solution to the region’s housing/cost of living woes.
If you’d said “Wish ‘every neighborhood in Boston and abutting communities—especially employment centers’—would add 10 of these with no parking requirements, but residential, and annually,” then you might be onto something. #AbolishALLParkingMinimums
2022-08-08_Presentation_7-9 Hamilton Place.pdf | Powered by Box
This project is a poster-child for as-of-right zoning: proposed in February of 2022 and on track to be approved by September 2022. BPDA asked for reasonable mitigation including sidewalk repairs, construction sequencing, etc. and got it. Developer has a clear, predictable timeline and abutters had an opportunity to weigh in but not derail the project entirely. This could be the process on every street in the city if Boston wants it.
Approved by the BPDA Board. So it ended up being just shy of 300 days, from when it was proposed, to obtaining approval. Again, as you say, it could be this way all the time, if there was the political courage/vision/imagination to see it through.
it might, depending on how this resolves. Also, there were simultaneous realities at play with this one: yes, it was subject to a ridiculous(ly antiquated) zoning regime, from the late 1980s... at the same time, it still represents a massive densification/enlargement on the parcel's current puny building--the height is going to go up by 100 or so feet and they're adding 30,000+ SF. All justified, of course, by the anticipated ROI, given it's in the heart of downtown. So this is perhaps an exceptional case?
stick n move
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Definitely an attractive massing here, great to see them keeping the original building as well.
dirtywater
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Per square foot, this may be my favorite new downtown Boston development this year.
Justbuildit
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Any word if this is going to be an independent hotel or operated under one of the major brands? It’s such a great location, and with the roof deck there will be some excellent Common views.
I might have missed it above somewhere, but according to the architects it will be built with Mass Timber Construction as well. Tallest timber framed building in Boston at 13 stories? What else is even close?
www.rodearchitects.com
I might have missed it above somewhere, but according to the architects it will be built with Mass Timber Construction as well. Tallest timber framed building in Boston at 13 stories? What else is even close?
7 Hamilton Hotel
www.rodearchitects.com
They just happen to be side-by-side and simultaneous but you can see from looking at their respective BPDA pages that they're totally unrelated. That said, consider in two years what Hamilton Place should be like:
1.) northern gateway: Suffolk U. Law School--all of the positive activity and urban vitality associated with it.
2.) cul-de-sac: The Orpheum. Yes, it's bizarre that they have to shut down each summer due to lack of ability to retrofit for A/C, but, at least they still appear to do 25 or so shows a year.
3.) southern gateway: the completed Holocaust museum. Should be similar to the law school in terms of its crowds and the hours they're activating the area, if it's a success. (And, realistically, if it's the premier--only?--multi-level Holocaust museum in New England, shouldn't it be?)
4.) southern wall: this hotel.
All in all, should be a lot of positive activity and large crowds to help dispel the negative activity...
stick n move
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Any word if this is going to be an independent hotel or operated under one of the major brands? It’s such a great location, and with the roof deck there will be some excellent Common views.
I might have missed it above somewhere, but according to the architects it will be built with Mass Timber Construction as well. Tallest timber framed building in Boston at 13 stories? What else is even close?
7 Hamilton Hotel
Thats really cool I had not realized this was mass timber. I’m optimistic that mass timber will do for the 10-15 story residential tower what type 5 did to the 3-6 story residential building. You could really start to see some solid density across US downtowns with dozens of 10 story towers at market rate prices in the same way 5 over 1s have filled up cities across the country.