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

Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Why is it that the submissions for the development include different parcels? What does this mean for the parcels that get left out of the approved project? And why isn't it a prerequisite to develop all the parcels?
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Suffolk 83 said:
Why is it that the submissions for the development include different parcels? What does this mean for the parcels that get left out of the approved project? And why isn't it a prerequisite to develop all the parcels?
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Can't remember if someone at the BRA or someone at the Turnpike told me this, but they realized one developer would probably not be able to swing financing to develop all 4 parcels. I haven't read the RFQ since the day it was released, and can't remember what it says. Not back in my office until Thursday, but maybe someone else has it?

The most interesting part is they can choose not to award anything to anyone. Of course, that's exactly what the Back Bay nuts and our "elected officials" hope for.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Riverworks said:
Trinity's is clearly the best. The scale works really well. The form and massing is well thought out and does a great job continuing the ground level experience with Boylston and Mass Ave. I can really imagine people wanting to be in this space.

Chiofaro's is ambitious for this parcel. I'm afraid that having such a high tower in this area would be a little intimidating (even though Boston needs more height). The streetscape needs to be inviting for it to work well. I also wish something interesting was done with Cambria street instead of defaulting and just assuming it would be used for deliveries and through traffic for the Prudential.

How about something like this?


flatiron.jpg



I can picture this more in Kenmore Sq, but hey one can dream!
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Lol tall? That tower at best is probably the same height as the Hilton Tower (which I believe is around the height of 300ft?) I would like the Chiofaro's design better if the facade didn't suck so much.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

DarkFenX said:
Lol tall? That tower at best is probably the same height as the Hilton Tower (which I believe is around the height of 300ft?) I would like the Chiofaro's design better if the facade didn't suck so much.
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I didn't really expect it, but ... wouldn't it have been great if someone would have come out with a design that was inspiring? A design that wasn't afraid to go tall, wasn't afraid to shoot the sacrosanct Prudential and Hancock towers out of the water?

200 stories. A corkscrew shape. Double towers with a bridge over Boylston. A throwback Art Deco granite palace, Pemberton courthouse style. A pyramid. Something interesting. Anything interesting.

What I see in these proposals? It's adequate.

And it's all just so Boston.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

I bet people would be against anything tall at all just for symbolism. They probably don't want the skyline going any further than the Prudential. They're gonna shoot down the first two that have the 400 footers, no doubt.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

The Chiofaro proposal is 396'.....I'm not opposed to the height, I just want to know how it is reconciled that 396' is ok here, but ~270' was too tall for a tower on the same street frontage that was set further back from Boylston and was adjacent to a much taller building.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

So, is this built yet?
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

It must have been, because the proposals are no longer available on the MASSDOT site.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

According to this weeks(3/11-3/17) Boston Courant these parcels are back in play:

State and city officials will soon begin evaluating an array of
competing housing, office and retail projects....

The Boston Architectural College has been one of the most vocal
proponents so far, having teamed up with housing developer Trinity Financial.....

The college and the developer have floated plans for a $120 million
air-rights project on parcel 13....

Also circling the air-rights sites is another development group led by Steve Weiner, who built the Mandarin Oriental hotel and condo tower....

However, other developers have also submitted plans....

In fact, all the parcels, except for Parcel 13, have more than one proposal.....

The next step is for the BRA, which is fielding nominations for an 11-member citizens advisory committee. Mayor Thomas Menino will make the selections, with the panel potentially in place in about a month....

The committee is likely to focus initially on the proposal for parcel 13.....

The CAC will offer recommendations on which developers to pick, but the final choice will be made by the state transportation officials in consultation with the mayor....
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Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

I'd much rather an 11 member committe not be brough into the equation.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Which developers are in the RUNNING?
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

I'll put my name in if it's still open but chances are slim to none that I'd be picked, being that I whine about everything the mayor does. One check of Google and I'm out.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Rifleman, it's the same as before. Unless something bubbles up in the next few weeks out of the blue to surprise everyone, parcel 13 NE of Mass Ave and Boylston will be introduced as development for Boston Architectural College. Mixed use: retail at street level, institutional above in the boring floors and residential on the sexy upper floors, "potentially" a Boylston St entrance to the T.

The "Cambria-St. Cecilia concrete wasteland" at 14 is reserved for Berklee's expansion. The pit at 15 west of Dalton is for a project after Berklee's Crossroads and is generally accepted to include the St. Cecilia "garden" and Auditorium Garage. The west side of Mass Ave on 12 where Millenium proposed to build is the final project and is deliberately held back to be developed last due to the fuckupery of the Millenium and the unspoken hope that some of the current neighborhood shitheads will die/move to Florida.

11 will remain vacant in perpetuity because the butterface whining artists on Ipswich are whining like a bunch of whining whiners, whining they won't get light from the north (even though the sun never shines from the north?)

My neighborhood really pisses me off sometimes. Especially when I have to work late to meet a project deadline and don't know where my secretary hid the bar key so I can open my beer.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

The next step is for the BRA, which is fielding nominations for an 11-member citizens advisory committee. Mayor Thomas Menino will make the selections, with the panel potentially in place in about a month....
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The committee in charge of making sure it sucks.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

gooseberry said:
The committee in charge of making sure it sucks.
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No lie, I was once denied membership to a CAC by Hizonnah's office because I lived "too close" to the proposed project.
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Trinity seems ready to go ahead with its proposal for air rights over the Mass PIke.

The mixed-use development would include apartments, ground floor retail and dorm space for 192 students from the nearby Boston Architectural College (BAC) on air rights parcel 13.

Trinity has already met with the state's Department of Transportation (MassDOT), which owns the air rights above the Pike, to present its plan for an 11-story structure at the corner of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue with 104 market-rate rental units.

Farther down Boylston Street, the building would step down to six stories with 14,000 square feet of institutional space for the BAC. Plans call for 11,000 square feet of ground floor retail ...
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Source: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news144428.html
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

Can anyone find any renderings?
 
Re: Mandarin developers eye Pike parcels for project

There were renderings oin an earlier page, but the Masspike website they linked to isn't up anymore. Been searching online and can't find. Many agreed that the Trinity proposal was the best of the lot.
 
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