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

Not trying to open a can of worms but how come the second pic has a height listed of 484 feet?
Click to expand...

Last occupied floor. Mech screen and top of tower is 544.
 
odurandina said:
when the 2nd tower was cancelled and main tower reduced, it forced a change in the way the decking was to be done.
Click to expand...

This pretty much confirms what we previously deduced: the tower portion that was dropped was the part that was built on decking over the pike (which is wicked expensive) while the tower portion that was kept is mostly on terra firma. So by cutting back the tower on the Pru side they were likely able to save big time on decking costs.

I almost wonder if this was the plan all along:
1) Propose an project with one tower built on a prohibitively expensive deck over the Mass Pike and another tower built on terra firma
2) Cut the decked tower--which was never gonna happen anyway--but frame it as an "act of good will towards the neighborhood"
3) Use that good will to help you get approval for the terra firma tower, which was really all that you wanted all along

------

This project will BY FAR have the greatest street level improvement of anything in this cycle, and probably longer back than that. MT might come close, but still can't compete. This site has been a pit with a highway at the bottom for half a century, and its located right in the middle of what is otherwise one of Boston's premier streetscapes.
 
It is a little SoCal, but if you want bricks and stuff, walk across the street. Personally, I really like it. Not award-winning by any means, but it is far more interesting than the glass boxes going up in my neighborhood. Also, getting even this height on the edge of the Back Bay is fantastic.

jass said:
Hate the podium, looks like LA
Click to expand...
 
Parcel 12 is back!

BBJ: Samuels proposes $350M mixed-use air-rights project over Mass. Pike

Catherine Carlock said:
Five years after getting approval from state transportation officials to develop on air-rights above the Massachusetts Turnpike, Boston-based real-estate development firm Samuels & Associates notified city planning officials that it intends to develop a $350 million project at the end of Boylston and Newbury streets.

The site, called Parcel 12, is located on Massachusetts Avenue across from the MBTA Hynes Convention Center Green Line station. It's there that Samuels is proposing a 237-foot office tower and a second 150-foot structure that could feature either residential space or hotel, as well as 70,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

[...]
Click to expand...

AgHbwH2.jpg


Looks like the tower portions would come on the terra firma along Boylston and Newbury, with an air rights arcade connecting them and forming a street wall over the Pike along Mass Ave.
 
We have GOT to get these parcels into separate threads. There are, what? Three separate projects?
 
FK4 said:
We have GOT to get these parcels into separate threads. There are, what? Three separate projects?
Click to expand...

Agreed. Once there's a specific proposal for a parcel that seems to be moving forward, it should have its own thread.
 
This is my favorite part of the article...how hard is it to align with something that will never happen!


"Samuels could aim to align its project with Fenway Center — another air-rights proposal, phase one of which is now under way about three-quarters of a mile from the Parcel 12 site — so the Pike lane shutdowns could happen around the same time, said Samuels Principal Peter Sougarides.

“We’d love to try to align the timing of that. Right now, it’s too early to tell,” Sougarides said. “That’s a goal of ours and the project.”
 
I liked how Menino treated the area off the Public Garden.

This is more in keeping with that proper precedent set.

Approve this and build.
 
odurandina said:
I liked how Menino treated the area off the Public Garden.
Click to expand...

Huh? Menino was behind a plan that would have demolished a row of handsome, historic, and reusable buildings and replaced them with an artless Cesar Pelli turd.

A few of us made a proper stink about it at several BRA meetings and the economic downturn did the rest.

#rondrukerisanasswipe

reverend_paco said:
The Viola is back.

There's a lot of good stuff in this PDF.
Click to expand...

I'm happy to see the height of the main body of the building drawn out to the corner, but the tower seems an afterthought, and a distraction from the sexy Aaltoesque swoosh.

I'd much rather seen them reduce the overall height of the Boylston Street facade and add 6-10 floors to the tower -- give it purpose and presence aside from an additional return for the developer. This has the makings of placemaking design, and it achieves that noble goal with subtlety; her's hoping they don't drop the ball on the goal line...
 
Had to have that swoosh for shipping/receiving/sanitation cuz the back is a nothing alley... right?
 
Last edited:
Beton Brut said:
...

I'd much rather seen them reduce the overall height of the Boylston Street facade and add 6-10 floors to the tower ...
Click to expand...

They had several options, and the 4th seems to be closer to what you're talking about:
0pGoI50h.png
 
The project across Mass Ave from this one is supposed to add a Green Line head house on the west side of Mass Ave, right? I don't recall the name/number of that parcel. Am I remembering this correctly?

It is a small thing, but I think reopening the head house on Boylston as well as one across Mass Ave add something to the urban fabric. There is a certain je ne sais quoi to having lots of subway entrances and knowing which way to exit a station to get where you are going.
 
which option is THE ONE??

do the nimby's get to pick?

there's a nauseating thought.

btw, that's a nice urban canyon setting up there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top