Ink Block (Boston Herald) | 300 Harrison Avenue | South End

Re: South End Construction

Shepard said:
The article makes it sound like something to really look forward to.

On a side note:



So, we don't build actual city blocks anymore... the best we can hope for is a simulacra of a city block? I don't want to split hairs but something about this sentence really troubled me...
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Shep -- the key is the phrase in the article -- "soon file a detailed plan with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, kicking off a permitting process that is likely to take several months."

This is still just a first draft V2.0


"Features of the 'Ink Block'

The property’s new owner, National Development, yesterday outlined a plan to replace the Herald’s squat brick building with four new structures containing 475 apartments, a grocery store, and a mix of smaller shops and restaurants.....National Development’s plan is a vast departure from an earlier proposal for a smaller project that neighbors panned as uninspired and too suburban....The new version calls for buildings from five to nine stories, with each designed to have its own modern flair, featuring facades clad in glass, brick, and metal.....The revamped plan would also move 400 parking spaces to the interior of the site, where they would be hidden by the buildings....

“This project has to make a bold statement to get development in this area started,’’ Ted Tye, a managing partner at National Development, said in a presentation to the Globe. “We are the first piece of development in an emerging part of the South End, so people wanted us to be aggressive.’’
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

I'm glad there were a couple renderings. I only saw the first one, at first, with the white building facing Herald Street. It looks to me like those will be residential, no? I don't think those will be an easy sell, because of the rush hour traffic jams outside (although you do get views in the distance of the Financial District). But maybe they are offices?

The other part, the buildings on Harrison & on Traveler, is much better. It alone will bring enough density to be the (re)beginning of a new neighborhood. Furthest in the front, right, is the bread bakery on Harrison. Nice that you could wake up in your apartment to that smell (although they don't have any retail that I know of).

Haven't heard anything from the people behind the two hotels down there.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

John I think they are meant to be residential. I wonder too about living in the area. Traffic will be terrible in the morning and evening hours, and there's no mass transit nearby (Wash St LRV where art thou?)
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

BussesAin'tTrains said:
John I think they are meant to be residential. I wonder too about living in the area. Traffic will be terrible in the morning and evening hours, and there's no mass transit nearby (Wash St LRV where art thou?)
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I am amused at the way most here are concerned about the traffic (on Herals Street in particular)and how it will deter residents. But seriously, cars are not the only way to get around a city. The Ink Block is easy walking distance to the Financial District. And public transit is not that far away -- Silver Line -- one block (I know, busses don't count); Orange Line Tufts Medical Center -- four blocks. That is way closer to public transit than most of the South End, and lots of people live there!
 
Re: South End Construction

mass88 said:
By the way, who moved into Teradyne's old place?
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Stopped by, the Teradyne building yesterday, and talked with the guard. The tenants are mostly state agencies. (Bureau of Managed Care, Board of Appeal on Motor Vehicle Liability, & the Department of Consumer Affairs) He would not give me a complete list, but I found the attached.
http://nerej.com/33244
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

Jeff, your point is a valid one, but I also mean that residents won't want to have to look at that during the evening hours, and they'll also have to sit in traffic waiting to get home if they take the #9 and SL buses.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

Nobody's mentioned it, but Broadway is a legit 2 block-equivalent away.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

^ Good point, the highway throws me off with regards to accessibility when I look at that area.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

In the original proposal, wasn't there supposed to be an Orange Line Stop/Orange Line extension to there?
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

gravedigger4444 said:
In the original proposal, wasn't there supposed to be an Orange Line Stop/Orange Line extension to there?
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The original Herald development proposal? I can't imagine they would have had an Orange Line extension (or a serious proposal to do so).
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

^Ron Newman

That underpass is in need of some attention. To be sure, CAT/Tunnel left top notch landscaping at the end of the Channel there, but at night it's sketchy. Syringes everywhere.

As for distance to Broadway (not including Broadway Bridge), it's a bit longer than two blocks. It's close to 1/2 mile from the corner of Harrison to the Broadway T Station.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

Just another reason why I loathe the Big Dig for not putting the South Bay Spaghetti Bowl underground. Considering how much was extorted from the state as is, I shudder to imagine the price tag on that. But we could have sold off air rights if we just trenched it from Herald to Albany, and sell off air rights over the Southampton rail yards. Could perhaps have daylighted some more of the Fort Point Channel --which probably would need alot of work in order to allow from a I-93 trench/tunnel) and have a spectacular little canal and promenade. Oh well... dreams...
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

^BosUrbEx

Right on.

The Channel currently extends underneath the Broadway Bridge over to W. First Street. It extended down to Mass Ave somewhere through the mid-20th century, from pictures I've recently seen of highway planning.

This area would have been spectacular if CAT was trenched and decked over.

But I still think the entire CAT/Tunnel project was a terrific accomplishment -- a gift that will keep on giving despite its failings.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

And, Orange Line at Tufts is .4 miles, walking.
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

BostonUrbEx said:
Just another reason why I loathe the Big Dig for not putting the South Bay Spaghetti Bowl underground. Considering how much was extorted from the state as is, I shudder to imagine the price tag on that. But we could have sold off air rights if we just trenched it from Herald to Albany, and sell off air rights over the Southampton rail yards. Could perhaps have daylighted some more of the Fort Point Channel --which probably would need alot of work in order to allow from a I-93 trench/tunnel) and have a spectacular little canal and promenade. Oh well... dreams...
Click to expand...

Urb -- because of soil conditions in that area the construction was in fact already a heroic engineering accomplishment

For instance since everything is fill of uncertain quality -- the entire crossing of Fort Point by what seems like a tunnel is in fact crossing by a submerged causeway -- there are about 110 drilled shaft columns going down to bedrock (some were 160 feet long) under the concrete box containing I-90 and various ramps and above the tunnel tube of the Red Line

tunnel-15.jpg


When you couple the foundation issues with the complexity of essentially packing a clover leaf into one quarter of the typical area -- the under-grounding of I-93 would have been astronomically expensive with digging having to extend back to the ramps for Mass Ave. -- and perhaps beyond

would of looked nice - when they finally finished in 2035

I'll take it the way it turned-out -- now we just need to accommodate the "new bones" with "new flesh" -- much as the Pru and Copley dealt with the Pike extension
 
Re: Ink Block | Boston Herald Property Redevelopment

Summer Solstice?
That's good news. I've been stuck in high summer traffic on my bike, and it has been pretty unbearable. A couple shadows after leaving the tunnel would be welcome.
 
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