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

"So essentially we are retaining a hole in the urban fabric that will never be filled, on top of eliminating 2/3 of the originally proposed units? I still love the look of the tower, but maybe the city should go ahead and reject this proposal. Then they can try again after the election, bringing back the larger scale project with more units and public benefits."

Agreed. This is what can give yimbyism a bad name. A huge new project burdening the skyline without any new increase in units. I just don't get why its so big with so few units.
 
DZH22 said:
So essentially we are retaining a hole in the urban fabric that will never be filled, on top of eliminating 2/3 of the originally proposed units? I still love the look of the tower, but maybe the city should go ahead and reject this proposal. Then they can try again after the election, bringing back the larger scale project with more units and public benefits.
Click to expand...

Umm.... there is no - none - reduction to the decking. The podium fully covers the hole.



 
Yea no reduction in the decking or podium whatsoever. The hole will still be covered by the podium with no smaller tower above the podium. The holes are being covered, the only change is the 2nd tower on the podium is gone and the condo tower is shorter and looks much better. I was wondering how reducing the project scope would still be feasible but if you look top down on google maps the 2nd tower would have been built completely over the pike/tracks whereas the condo tower has a piece of land that will either house all of the tower or the bulk of it meaning this could actually be cheaper even with 1 less tower.
 
stick n move said:
Yea no reduction in the decking or podium whatsoever. The hole will still be covered by the podium with no smaller tower above the podium. The holes are being covered, the only change is the 2nd tower on the podium is gone and the condo tower is shorter and looks much better.
Click to expand...

The only problem is I was hoping that shorter tower will hide at least some of Sheraton...
 
Thanks Stick. That explains it.

Smartiro; so true! implode or re-clad that Vegas dirt hole.
 
Another thing to note. This is around the height of 111 huntington but a lot thinner. One looks like a pig and short the other is elegant and masks its true height. This tower is smartly proportioned and looks taller than it really is due to the height width ratio. It really punches higher than its class.
 
Here: this shows the change.




kiHLh4zh.jpg



While were at it:










trcaBTVh.jpg








5ULJFPrh.jpg






Site:

RCYBYKw.jpg
 
It appears condo tower will be built entirely on land with enough room for Cambria street to pass next to it.


O4ltlVFh.png




I hadn't noticed before but in this render you can actually see the hole in the podium where the street will pass under the podium. Its even more noticeable in the older render I shared above.





This will make the site work as you don't have the shorter tower being built entirely over the pike and train tracks with very complicated foundation work taking place between an active highway and commuter rail tracks. So essentially now you just build the condo tower on land and throw the podium up over the hole and its complete. This should save a ton of money and headache while still getting the condo tower and podium built and covering the hole.


For the tower to the right of this that is greyed out (parcel 14) it looks like the tower can be built on land as well. Cambria street is covering the train tracks and it is an air rights parcel as well and the podium looks like it will have a notch where the street goes.



These images actually show where the road goes and then how the podium connects to the tower at the 2nd floor.

B6GpkqT.png

cqoqMYz.png

b1HBSgl.png
 
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Guys, I agree this is a bit of a letdown. But as long as it means the podium that covers the hole is getting built, the project is a HUGE win for the area.
 
cjbski said:
Guys, I agree this is a bit of a letdown. But as long as it means the podium that covers the hole is getting built, the project is a HUGE win for the area.
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That and we dodged a bullet on design. I'll take slightly shorter if it means no precast.
 
cjbski said:
Guys, I agree this is a bit of a letdown. But as long as it means the podium that covers the hole is getting built, the project is a HUGE win for the area.
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This 100%.

What should be an incredibly dense, urban area - the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston - feels windswept and unimportant. Most pedestrians are only passing through to get to a better place. However, once the highway is blocked from view and the empty street frontage has been filled up, this will be a way more appealing area to be in.
 
I love that the loading dock is not on the main street frontage. I wish all developments found a way to do this. They are using Cambria effectively as an alleyway...alleys used to be used all the time for this purpose but it seems we've gotten away from it.

Why disrupt the street wall / retail / pedestrian experience with a loading dock unless you absolutely have to? Kudos to them on this (of course the context was set for it...but still!)
 
Apologies in advance for derailing, but Berklee's "tower" hasn't had a proper news update since maybe 2007. Any chance this is going to happen, realistically?
 
When we have a streetwall of the Viola + this parcel + the Samuels building, life is going to be amazing here. It will feel super urban.
 
stick n move said:
RCYBYKw.jpg
Click to expand...

I wonder if a future possibility exists to plot a tower on top of the Hynes convention center. It could be coupled with a renovation, including another floor or more of additional convention space. That back raised section by the Sheraton looks like it would be a good spot for it.

Also, this pic solves one of life's great mysteries for me! Mainly, I was always wondering what the hell that round thing was that I kept seeing from the river. It's in the front left on top of the convention center! Always been baffled since I could never find it up close.

Regarding the current proposal, can somebody spell out exactly what we are getting besides the 108 condo units? It looks like a lot of retail or other uses could fit inside that podium. I think one mistake we have been making is to focus exclusively on the housing component of this project, without accounting for other benefits.
 
^ in all practicality, tower on top of Hynes is unlikely and, if it happened, would have to be in the southwest corner of the building...over and over again, we see developers opting for terra firma rather than pike air rights towers...it's highly unlikely the Hynes' original foundation could handle a tall tower being built atop them, but if foundations were to be rebuilt adjacent to the pike rather than over/around it, some sort of tower may be possible
 
SO - Is there open-air (horizontal) ventilation of the pike & tracks over the east end of Cambria st.?

That's how i read the plans below - 'Lower Level' would mean 'Pike level', and First Floor mean boylston st level...

I.e. once this is built, if I'm standing on Cambria right below where it starts to pass under dalton, and I look north, do I see trains going by, and the highway beyond that (presumably with some kind of fence or grate in between?) ... this would be under the dalton st. parking ingress, which is a ramp that appears to go upwards from dalton st. to the garage...

If so, that greatly simplifies the mechanical ventilation requirements for the air rights as well...

stick n move said:
It appears condo tower will be built entirely on land with enough room for Cambria street to pass next to it.


O4ltlVFh.png




I hadn't noticed before but in this render you can actually see the hole in the podium where the street will pass under the podium. Its even more noticeable in the older render I shared above.





This will make the site work as you don't have the shorter tower being built entirely over the pike and train tracks with very complicated foundation work taking place between an active highway and commuter rail tracks. So essentially now you just build the condo tower on land and throw the podium up over the hole and its complete. This should save a ton of money and headache while still getting the condo tower and podium built and covering the hole.


For the tower to the right of this that is greyed out (parcel 14) it looks like the tower can be built on land as well. Cambria street is covering the train tracks and it is an air rights parcel as well and the podium looks like it will have a notch where the street goes.



These images actually show where the road goes and then how the podium connects to the tower at the 2nd floor.

B6GpkqT.png

cqoqMYz.png

b1HBSgl.png
Click to expand...
 
This thread needs to be broken up - I cant keep track of which parcels are which but these are two adjacent but very different and both major projects. Can an admin pick one or the other to rename this thread and then we can make a second thread for the other project?
 
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