Dr. Rosen Rosen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2021
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From BBJ article:
August 25, 2022By Greg Ryan
“Leggat McCall Properties partner Bill Gause knows he’s got a complicated project on his hands with the redevelopment of downtown Boston’s Charles F. Hurley state office building. Then again, his firm has done complicated before.
The Baker administration revealed Wednesday that it had selected the Boston-based development firm to oversee a $1 billion remaking of the Hurley and the surrounding plaza. Much of the building’s exterior Brutalist architecture would be retained, but the interior would see big changes, and two towers — one for labs, one for housing — would go atop the Hurley as we know it today.
Leggat McCall has previously tackled massive public-private partnerships: It is redeveloping Cambridge’s Edward J. Sullivan Courthouse, another massive Brutalist building, into commercial and residential space. It’s also behind the wholesale transformation of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill public housing complex, a project that includes demolishing 42 buildings and constructing about 2,700 new units, meant for a mix of income levels.
But in an interview, Gause admitted the Hurley poses a “unique” challenge. He spoke with the Business Journal about what’s likely to stay at the Hurley, what’s going, and what the project will mean for downtown Boston once it’s expected wrap up later this decade.
What attracted you and the firm to this project?
You know, I’ve been in Boston for 30 years. You walk past this building for 30 years, and you say, boy, how do you get into it, and isn't it an underutilized site? Couldn't you do more with this? So when we heard that the state was going to undertake an RFP for the disposition of it, we were thrilled, and frankly immediately started assembling a team to pursue it.
It’s a challenge. It's an interesting challenge, and an exciting challenge. We as a firm enjoy working on complicated projects and recognize that this could be a complicated, yet transformative, project for the city. It’s a little bit of an eyesore that needs improvement, and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the state to do that.
Does the firm have any experience working on a project like this?
This one is an interesting one. We've done a lot of public-private partnership projects, large projects. We've done renovations of different projects. This is a unique project, in all of its various attributes. In many respects, it builds (on) a lot of strengths of our firm, and experiences that we’ve had as a firm.
And frankly, we've assembled a team of experts that is also familiar with a lot of this historic architecture. NBBJ will be the prime architect on the project, (with) Audrey O'Hagan working with them. We also have Beyer Blinder Belle out of New York, which is a historic preservation architecture firm. They have a plethora of signature projects like this that they have worked on. We're obviously going to be relying upon them for their expertise to guide through some of those historic elements and incorporating them into the revised project.
How much of the building’s interior will change?
The interiors will be largely changed. The interiors of these buildings, if you were in them today, are a little bit — they're dated, they're dysfunctional, they don’t meet current standards in terms of office needs and requirements. We will be retaining structural elements of the interior of the building for portions of it. The more plaza-facing elements of the building will have a more substantial renovation. It's really the Staniford and the Cambridge street facades that you will see and appreciate and retain a lot of what's there.
That said, we're also going to be creating permeability — if you walk around Cambridge Street and Staniford Street now, you see what's affectionately referred to as the sweatband across the top of the building. That's literally a solid concrete wall with office space behind it. No one wants to sit in an office like that. So it will be retaining the look of a “large element,” which has been referred to as a sweatband, yet creating permeability, such that you can actually create functional office space.
The lobby and the murals that are there, which are obviously iconic, will be retained.
Would you prefer to just knock the building down and start fresh?
We've looked at this, from the beginning, recognizing that “demolish” really isn't an option. We recognize there's a historic nature to the Hurley and Lindemann buildings. There's no question that it's easier to start from scratch and build a new building than it is to work around existing structure. But we recognize that part of the price of admission, if you will, here is realizing that the building, or the vernacular of the building, has to remain in some way, shape or form. That's what we've signed up for.
Do you have any concern about setting out to build lab space, given the uncertainty in the life sciences real estate market at the moment?
No, is the short answer. Boston is obviously one of the epicenters of life science research and development in the country and in the world. If you look locationally, this is a fantastic location that will do well throughout cycles. Obviously, we fully expect real estate does go in cycles, but we also recognize this won't be delivering for a number of years.
The introduction of housing to the site, a lab building, making the plaza more inviting — how do you view that in light of the site’s history with urban renewal?
What we're looking to do is create permeability, diversity and inclusion for what basically has been a walled-off compound. This is a super-block that has been anything but inviting to the neighborhood and to passersby. Our premise, really, is to turn it inside-out and to create an open, welcoming space for the neighborhood or passersby to meet and congregate. That’s our vision. We hope that we give people a reason to go there and want to be there, as opposed to, "Let's quickly walk past it, this dark, hulking building."
What do you think this project will mean for downtown Boston?
Historically, we've thought of… our central business district as downtown. With all of the activity in the Seaport, we've seen a migration of our central business district vitality to more the Seaport. You're starting to see almost a pulling of the central business district back closer to the center of the city, and this really is in the center of the city. I look at the revitalization at North Station, I look at the Government Center garage, and all of the revitalization that's happening there. If you look at a map of the city of Boston, this is really… between a hub of transit nodes. When this is done, it will be a transformative project that will, again, help solidify downtown Boston as a true melting pot of a group of different neighborhoods.”
August 25, 2022By Greg Ryan
“Leggat McCall Properties partner Bill Gause knows he’s got a complicated project on his hands with the redevelopment of downtown Boston’s Charles F. Hurley state office building. Then again, his firm has done complicated before.
The Baker administration revealed Wednesday that it had selected the Boston-based development firm to oversee a $1 billion remaking of the Hurley and the surrounding plaza. Much of the building’s exterior Brutalist architecture would be retained, but the interior would see big changes, and two towers — one for labs, one for housing — would go atop the Hurley as we know it today.
Leggat McCall has previously tackled massive public-private partnerships: It is redeveloping Cambridge’s Edward J. Sullivan Courthouse, another massive Brutalist building, into commercial and residential space. It’s also behind the wholesale transformation of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill public housing complex, a project that includes demolishing 42 buildings and constructing about 2,700 new units, meant for a mix of income levels.
But in an interview, Gause admitted the Hurley poses a “unique” challenge. He spoke with the Business Journal about what’s likely to stay at the Hurley, what’s going, and what the project will mean for downtown Boston once it’s expected wrap up later this decade.
What attracted you and the firm to this project?
You know, I’ve been in Boston for 30 years. You walk past this building for 30 years, and you say, boy, how do you get into it, and isn't it an underutilized site? Couldn't you do more with this? So when we heard that the state was going to undertake an RFP for the disposition of it, we were thrilled, and frankly immediately started assembling a team to pursue it.
It’s a challenge. It's an interesting challenge, and an exciting challenge. We as a firm enjoy working on complicated projects and recognize that this could be a complicated, yet transformative, project for the city. It’s a little bit of an eyesore that needs improvement, and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the state to do that.
Does the firm have any experience working on a project like this?
This one is an interesting one. We've done a lot of public-private partnership projects, large projects. We've done renovations of different projects. This is a unique project, in all of its various attributes. In many respects, it builds (on) a lot of strengths of our firm, and experiences that we’ve had as a firm.
And frankly, we've assembled a team of experts that is also familiar with a lot of this historic architecture. NBBJ will be the prime architect on the project, (with) Audrey O'Hagan working with them. We also have Beyer Blinder Belle out of New York, which is a historic preservation architecture firm. They have a plethora of signature projects like this that they have worked on. We're obviously going to be relying upon them for their expertise to guide through some of those historic elements and incorporating them into the revised project.
How much of the building’s interior will change?
The interiors will be largely changed. The interiors of these buildings, if you were in them today, are a little bit — they're dated, they're dysfunctional, they don’t meet current standards in terms of office needs and requirements. We will be retaining structural elements of the interior of the building for portions of it. The more plaza-facing elements of the building will have a more substantial renovation. It's really the Staniford and the Cambridge street facades that you will see and appreciate and retain a lot of what's there.
That said, we're also going to be creating permeability — if you walk around Cambridge Street and Staniford Street now, you see what's affectionately referred to as the sweatband across the top of the building. That's literally a solid concrete wall with office space behind it. No one wants to sit in an office like that. So it will be retaining the look of a “large element,” which has been referred to as a sweatband, yet creating permeability, such that you can actually create functional office space.
The lobby and the murals that are there, which are obviously iconic, will be retained.
Would you prefer to just knock the building down and start fresh?
We've looked at this, from the beginning, recognizing that “demolish” really isn't an option. We recognize there's a historic nature to the Hurley and Lindemann buildings. There's no question that it's easier to start from scratch and build a new building than it is to work around existing structure. But we recognize that part of the price of admission, if you will, here is realizing that the building, or the vernacular of the building, has to remain in some way, shape or form. That's what we've signed up for.
Do you have any concern about setting out to build lab space, given the uncertainty in the life sciences real estate market at the moment?
No, is the short answer. Boston is obviously one of the epicenters of life science research and development in the country and in the world. If you look locationally, this is a fantastic location that will do well throughout cycles. Obviously, we fully expect real estate does go in cycles, but we also recognize this won't be delivering for a number of years.
The introduction of housing to the site, a lab building, making the plaza more inviting — how do you view that in light of the site’s history with urban renewal?
What we're looking to do is create permeability, diversity and inclusion for what basically has been a walled-off compound. This is a super-block that has been anything but inviting to the neighborhood and to passersby. Our premise, really, is to turn it inside-out and to create an open, welcoming space for the neighborhood or passersby to meet and congregate. That’s our vision. We hope that we give people a reason to go there and want to be there, as opposed to, "Let's quickly walk past it, this dark, hulking building."
What do you think this project will mean for downtown Boston?
Historically, we've thought of… our central business district as downtown. With all of the activity in the Seaport, we've seen a migration of our central business district vitality to more the Seaport. You're starting to see almost a pulling of the central business district back closer to the center of the city, and this really is in the center of the city. I look at the revitalization at North Station, I look at the Government Center garage, and all of the revitalization that's happening there. If you look at a map of the city of Boston, this is really… between a hub of transit nodes. When this is done, it will be a transformative project that will, again, help solidify downtown Boston as a true melting pot of a group of different neighborhoods.”
