Liberty Mutual Tower | 157 Berkeley Street | Back Bay

Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Ron Newman said:
The city really should not require developers in this location to provide any parking at all, given its proximity to public transit. Let the market decide how much parking, if any, developers may need to include.
Click to expand...

I don't consider myself a real estate expert by any means but judging by the fact that most major development in the city has parking including the Clarendon, Atlantic Wharf, 45 Province St, and the proposed South Station tower all have large parking components. I would guess that to most of the people buying in some of these high end buildings, parking is a must.

Don't forget that a 917 stall garage was approved for Columbus Center when the proposal was for 343 units and a hotel.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

What is this Benjamin Franklin Smith building that is going to be demolished? I know it's not the handsome triangular building (the Grille 23). What else is on the site?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

^ it seems to be 320 Stuart, next to Flashes. If the proposal integrates the Grille 23 building, it will encompass most of the block. Looking forward to the renderings.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

A couple photos of the site. The Benjamin Franklin Smith printing company building and the Salvation Army building on Columbus Ave will be torn down according to press release but the building on the corner of Stuart Street and Berkeley Street will remain; this is the site of the Grill 23 restaurant and is the "Salada Tea Building" at 330 Stuart Street.

More photos at http://thelifeofacity.com/2010/02/photos-of-the-salvation-army-liberty-mutual-building-project/

IMG00418-20100213-1430.jpg
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

JohnAKeith said:
...the Salvation Army building on Columbus Ave will be torn down
Click to expand...
Bummer.

...but the building on the corner of Stuart Street and Berkeley Street will remain; this is the "Salada Tea Building" at 330 Stuart Street.
Click to expand...
A distinguished building.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

The Salvation Army building is unique and the Benjamin Franklin buildings are quintessentially Boston. It DISGUSTS me that they will be lost while the Mass Pike trench remains uncovered and so many brutalist garages remain standing. This city is being planned ass-backwards.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

^^ Agree with czsz 200%.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Should we start lobbying for a fa?adectomy here? Or by doing so, do we become the hidebound conservative anti-progress NIMBYs that we usually decry?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

This forum has always been pro-preservation, so I wouldn't see much of a contradiction.

It's probably a good question whether our advocacy of facadectomies or designs that build around old buildings would help make projects prohibitively expensive in a climate like this. Considering this forum would be more than willing to tolerate a taller structure to offset the expense of such work, I'd say not necessarily.

But there's no reason the city couldn't help Liberty Mutual execute a land swap or link them up with one of Menino's developer buddies with a plan for a tower in a more auspicious location.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Liberty Mutual wants to expand adjacent to where they already are. I doubt they would be receptive to a plan that relocates them elsewhere in the city.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Isnt there an empty surface lot there?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Ron Newman said:
Should we start lobbying for a fa?adectomy here? Or by doing so, do we become the hidebound conservative anti-progress NIMBYs that we usually decry?
Click to expand...

I don't think this forum exactly has the heft to derail a development. The neighbors, however, might. If you're worried about this development being snuffed out, worry about the "community."

Moreover, I'm 99% certain that Liberty will propose a design (like the building nearby on Stuart St across from the Old Hancock) that is office park-ish, insensitive to the surroundings and just generally crappy, crappy architecture and urban planning. I welcome the prospect of being wrong, in which case I wouldn't want to screw with the architect's vision by pushing facadectomy. But I seriously, seriously doubt there will be any vision or, for that matter, any real architect.

Given those likelihoods, I think pushing a facadectomy would be good for two reasons:

1) It would likely result in a better outcome architecturally. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but the smart money says they propose something cheap, generic and suburban. The Salvation Army building at least (not so sure about this Ben Franklin Smith building, which I don't have a clear image of in my head) is pretty well suited for a facadectomy as a handsome, underbuilt Art Deco base, like NY's very successful Hearst Tower.

2) The NIMBYs are likely to engage in a zero-sum game of "The shadows! The traffic!" That may result in the dumbing-down of an already dumb design, curbing the height and increasing the fatness (case study: 120 Kingston); or it may result in the whole thing getting derailed entirely (case study: Columbus Center). Pushing them toward a compromise solution -- which the facadectomy may be seen as -- is a better alternative.

Given that this building will be around for at least a half-century, it seems like it's in everyone's interests to push the best option. IMO, barring a fantastic, urban design getting unveiled by Liberty (and we all know the chances of that), a facadectomy is the best possible outcome -- it will at least guarantee a decent street-level environment, even if the rest of this mutha is cheap, pre-fab and fat.

In other words, it beats this:

clarendon1.jpg
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I don't think you'll see as much neighborhood opposition as you may first think. Contrary to the opinion of one person on this board, the majority of Bay Village residents supported Columbus Center - and why not, it was going to put a huge park within a stone's throw from most of their homes. Those that are disgruntled now tend to be on Cortes Street, the one now facing the Mass Turnpike.

Those who live on Berkeley Street won't suffer much; their street is one-way toward Copley Square and the additional traffic from this building won't have much of an effect on quality of life.

One thing the neighbors on Isabella Street may ask for is to reverse the direction of their one-way street. As it is now, many people use it as a short-cut from midtown to the Mass Turnpike West. If Isabella Street is reversed, those people would have to continue down Columbus Avenue to Arlington Street to get to the on-ramp to the Pike.

EDIT: Oh, and if there <em>is</em> opposition? Just clad the thing in brick; seems to work for everything else in this f-ing town.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Current headquarters:

4360635166_cccacf5630_b.jpg


330 Stuart Street:

4359898051_f965925620_b.jpg


The rest of this Stuart Street block:

4360640400_a294aa0e8f_b.jpg


Now on the Columbus Ave. side:

4360636956_c906b4ccb4_b.jpg


4360641690_5d280ccd9a_b.jpg


4360643526_5c264e9559_b.jpg


4359904397_d61134c7d2_b.jpg


4359906455_7e873db1a4_b.jpg


4360649890_8743f040d6_b.jpg


4359910577_f4ecfde58c_b.jpg


4359912239_4370853953_b.jpg


4359913623_ff44a5017f_b.jpg


I'd much rather they demolish their dull current buildings and start over. Leave the block in question alone.

4360656274_b589221906_b.jpg
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Stuart Street is so barren, though the architecture's pretty good.

Proof that architecture is not enough.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

That's 10 St. James Avenue, completed around 2001 on the site of the old Greyhound station. And no it's not part of Liberty Mutual.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I agree, KZ, their current building is much bore bland than the ones they plan to knock down. Much more in need of a tower on top too.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Here's a couple images of the Greyhound station from the DEIS for 10 St. James:

img2190h.jpg


img2191k.jpg
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

What company occupies 10 St. James? (And why isn't the building named after its occupant?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top