MassDOT Pike Parcels 12 - 15 | Boylston St. and Mass. Ave | Back Bay

"The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said there are 54,500 square feet of potential development space, and an additional requirement for the developer to enter into a station improvements agreement with the MBTA. The maximum build-out is 320,700 gross square feet"

Will this determine the height of the building? I'm thinking if fixing the station is a requirement, a developer may be allowed to build a little higher on this parcel to recoup the costs.
 
Deetroyt said:
"The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said there are 54,500 square feet of potential development space, and an additional requirement for the developer to enter into a station improvements agreement with the MBTA. The maximum build-out is 320,700 gross square feet"

Will this determine the height of the building? I'm thinking if fixing the station is a requirement, a developer may be allowed to build a little higher on this parcel to recoup the costs.
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yeah wouldn't that limit it to 6 stories? What bullshit, I say let them build as high as they want and pay the MBTA on a sliding scale for more SQFT
 
It's air rights over the Pike, it should be taller for economic reasons alone!
 
The zoning for this parcel is 120' height (basically same as Tower Records) with a FAR of 8.0.

The real issue is the structural considerations related to the placement of foundations and the awkward site layout. The Boylston-side of the parcel and the Mass/Boylston corner are severely skewed and offset to the Pike and rails, but the parcel does not extend to the Pike median or rail/Pike median in many places and already contains bridge foundations in other places. Coupled with the limited area for foundations this severely limits the size and placement of loads within the floor plate.

All of these points can very easily be seen in the feasibility study and presentation produced by Parsons earlier this year. Additional points were also discussed at the March CAC meeting with MassDOT presenting the study.

Further considerations include: keeping clear of the station's pedestrian concourse which further limits column and foundation locations. The study also refers to the objective of limiting changes to the existing bridge structure further limiting options to increase structural capacity.

Finally there is the issue of condos with southern windows in the Tower Records building which would be impacted by anything over 3 stories directly south.

It's not clear to me that the RFP limits the developable area to 320k SF. I believe the press release is mistaken. I believe this figure only represents Option A from the feasibility study which was limited by structural considerations. Even Option A puts a 15 story massing (higher than allowable as of right) in Zone 3 where the foundation is most easily dealt with.

From a structural point of view the feasibility study puts the SW corner (Zone 1) at 3-4 stories, the central area at 6-8 (Zone 2) and the NE section at 20 stories (Zone 3).

This parcel is unlikely to yield great economics to MassDOT with the limited SF, expensive structure and need to pay for the station renovations and lost space due to public areas there is just not a lot left for lease payments.

There is always the possibility to engineer your way out of these challenges. But that can negatively impact the economics. The use for this site is going to be residential, dorm, condos or hotel over retail (with significant public space). So that further limits the programming impact on the economics.

The previous proposal for this parcel (Trinity) had 280k SF and 6 to 11 stories. And this proposal did not cover the entire MassPike. There is not going to be a proposal for 20+ stories on this site particularly at the Mass Ave corner.
 
I dont think height really matters here its kind of off of the back bay grid for tall buildings and honestly as long as the hole gets covered with something that meshes with this area this will be a success.
 
If the developer is funding the station renovation, does that mean that the MBTA changes the name from Hynes to whatever the development is called? That's the precedent they set with New Balance, and it's not like Hynes Convention Center is worthy of the name.
 
I want height wherever we can get it, but I'd say this is one of those times where if we get all the public benefits the RFP requires, I will be very lenient in my criticism of whatever gets built.
 
MBTAddict said:
I want height wherever we can get it, but I'd say this is one of those times where if we get all the public benefits the RFP requires, I will be very lenient in my criticism of whatever gets built.
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Agreed, the Masspike is a huge eyesore there. As long as the new buildings cover up the pike and provide some more retail space, this project will be a huge win no matter how tall it is.

My only concern is how they're going to dampen the noise from the commuter rail for parcels 12 and 15. I've walked over the bridge between Dalton and Mass Ave when the commuter rail goes by and it vibrates the whole bridge pretty hard. I can't imagine what it would be like to live/work in a building directly over it.
 
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Justin7 said:
mhDAk3M.jpg
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Yeah. See how that sidewalk on the cover-over next to the Hynes entrance is set further back from the street than it is now. I bet that's what they're talking about with the bus stop. Punch a station entrance out the side of that small unoccupied storefront to a #1 northbound waiting area to keep the bus boarders from blocking sidewalk traffic. Only they'd probably graft a shelter onto the front of the building on that set-back sidewalk to match the capacity of the revamped southbound shelter.
 
Has there ever been thought put into realligning the highway onramp so the entrance isnt at the intersection (making it extra wide) but just beyond?
 
I don't really see where else it could go given the MBTA vent and the grade along Newbury St.
 
It's going to be something impressive, but I have to admit that I still wish Boylston Square was a thing.
 
I saw an interesting proposal to convert that on-ramp to an off-ramp (onto Newbury St Ext) and then put the on-ramp further down to the west of the Bowker. Newbury St Ext would be reconnected in order to do this.
 
I think a better and easier means of adding a westbound off-ramp would be converting the ramp between Berkeley and Arlington. Considering there's already the WB on-ramp very close nearby at Clarendon/Stanhope, I don't imagine that onramp would be missed too much.

Of course, WB off-ramps set the stage for a lot of other great things, like de-storrowing. Although, it seems to me, the flip side of this - eastbound on-ramps - is a lot trickier because of the tracks.
 
cden4 said:
I saw an interesting proposal to convert that on-ramp to an off-ramp (onto Newbury St Ext) and then put the on-ramp further down to the west of the Bowker. Newbury St Ext would be reconnected in order to do this.
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I need to rework this at some point in the future, but I had come up with one:

12164779943_cc851d6ed9_o.jpg
 
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