Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Developer pitches new design for Filene’s site

The new design by Millennium Partners of New York calls for a taller and more slender version of the building previously proposed by Vornado Realty Trust and Boston Developer John B. Hynes III. That building failed to move forward due to financial problems, leading Millennium to buy into the project earlier this year and revise its design.

The new plan calls for a dramatic increase in the number of residences, to 500 from a prior plan for 163 units. The design by Handel Architects will preserve the property’s original 1912 building -- conceived by noted architect Daniel Burnham -- and meld it with a striking glass tower that will cost $615 million.

“The project intends to present the simultaneous and harmonious pairing of new and old, and will consist of uses that will ensure a vital 24/7 city-sector,” Millennium Partners said in a statement.

In addition to the residences, which will be a combination of apartments and condominiums, the project will include 230,000 square feet of retail stores -- enough to fill two Home Depots -- as well as 200,000 square feet of offices and 525 parking spaces.

In a statement Monday, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said: “Millennium Partners has always been a real partner of the City of Boston. They continue to do excellent work leading the way in the building of an exciting new day for the area of Downtown Crossing.”
A glass skyscraper at the former Filene’s department store in Boston would rise to 606 feet under a plan released Monday that calls for a dramatic new peak on the city’s downtown skyline with new offices, stores, and 500 homes.
Millennium is teaming up with the project’s existing owner, Vornado Realty Trust, which will be a passive investor. It intends to start building later this year. The new design still needs approvals from the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Millennium has built large projects in major cities across the country, including the four-building Lincoln Square complex in New York, the Millennium Tower in San Francisco, and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Towers down the street from the Filene’s site in Boston.

Anthony Pangaro, who leads the firm’s Boston operations, has deep roots in the city and previously worked for the state’s transportation department, where he helped to develop the Southwest Corridor Park in the Back Bay.

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.

filenes_rendering.jpg
 
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yea its pretty ugly they need to keep the old design and build it up to the new height, but hey Im happy people are finally thinking tall and there is actually a good amount of development happening around the city.
 
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Stick -- here are some details from the story (just updated in the Herald)

Developer plans 606-foot tower at former Filene’s site
By Greg Turner
Monday, June 11, 2012 - Updated 41 minutes ago

Millennium Partners is proposing a gleaming glass tower soaring 606 feet above Downtown Crossing at the site of the former Filene’s department store.

The developer’s $615 million project, detailed today, will include 500 residential units — condominiums and apartments — along with 230,000 square feet of retail and 200,000 square feet of office space....

The new “Millennium Tower” would be much higher than the 39-story building originally proposed by Vornado, and would rise to become Boston’s fourth-tallest building after the Hancock Tower, Prudential Tower and Federal Reserve....

Millennium said it would put the condo and rentals in the tower, and develop “active and varied retail shopping on the lower floors reaching across the entire site” and “innovative office space on the upper floors of the Burnham Building. The complex would have 525 underground parking spaces.

“The project intends to present the simultaneous and harmonious pairing of new and old,” Millennium said in a statement, referring to the design work of Handel Architects.
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from Milennium Partners website (originally in Boston Mag.)

In 1909, just about as far into the last century as we are now into this one, Edward A. Filene, Louis Brandeis, and others organized the Boston-1915 campaign as part of the City Beautiful Movement in Boston. And according to Lawrence W. Kennedy, author of Planning the City on the Hill: Boston Since 1630, many cynics derided the founder of Filene’s and the builder of the Burnham building still on the site, for dreaming of the Filennium. Perhaps his timing was just a century off.
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First look -- the best render of the 3 proposals for the site
First read -- the plan to put the residences in the tower and shops and some offices below is the modern recreation of the old 3 story main street buildings which once dominated the downtowns of our inner suburbs and small cities -- essentially a neighborhood in a building

Just hope that they keep the Washington St. subway entrance that used to permit direct access to the old Filene's Basement as well as up to the street
 
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This is exactly what boston needs and could be the start of something big. Imagine this being built, South Station Tower, Govt Center Garage Towers, Aquarium garage towers, and on top of that if someone brings back the transnational place boston would be right up there with the top skylines in america and with trans national would be perfectly tapered and balanced looking. Throw in north station tower and some smaller ones, plus the seaport and boom boston is welcomed into the 21st century.
 
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Arborway said:
I'm worried the base might be more blank walls of dull slabs of whatever's cheap and overused (see also: the granite slabs of the other Millenium Towers)
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With such a significant retail presence, I don't doubt what you're saying, but I think it makes it less likely.

I'm interested to see who will be on the ground floor. Nordstrom's?
 
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The plinth on that tower looks ever bit as offensive as the now demolished low-rise addition on the Burnham building. Is it really that hard for a design team to understand the value of maintaining a consistent street wall presence before stepping back?
 
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Looks similar to their old Boylston Square proposal.
 
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Hot damn, that is sexy! She really soars. So happy to see some real height here!
 
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stick n move said:
This is exactly what boston needs and could be the start of something big. Imagine this being built, South Station Tower, Govt Center Garage Towers, Aquarium garage towers, and on top of that if someone brings back the transnational place boston would be right up there with the top skylines in america and with trans national would be perfectly tapered and balanced looking. Throw in north station tower and some smaller ones, plus the seaport and boom boston is welcomed into the 21st century.
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Stick -- let's get this One Franklin Millenium or Filenium or whatever going -- starting with refurbishing the Burnham building this fall and then getting framing on the tower underway in 2013 as well as the comparable height tower at Copley not yet underway.

Building things in Boston outside of the universities and other intstitutions tends to go in something like a sawtooth wave cycle -- a long slow building phase, followed by a sharp drop, and then the long slow build-up starts all over -- roughly a decade per cycle.

My guess is that we are getting on in this cycle -- probably about 2+ to 3- years to go before the top -- the typical 8 to 9 year long slow phase is abreviated this time due to the financial colapse in 2008 and then the US recession -- i.e. the reason there is still a hole at Filene's

In 2014 to 2015 or so when the Filene's and Nieman's towers [kinda interesting symetry] are complete, as well as the other sites already encrusted with nesting cranes [such as down on the SPID] -- Then we can take a long look at the global, regional and local economy and start thinking of what to build starting about 2020 to 2030.
 
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Slim, just exactly what this city needs. Two 600fters coming down the pipeline
 
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I'm eagerly looking forward to this. I'm not too worried about blank walls -- a strong retail presence here needs large glass windows.
 
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Lurker said:
The plinth on that tower looks ever bit as offensive as the now demolished low-rise addition on the Burnham building. Is it really that hard for a design team to understand the value of maintaining a consistent street wall presence before stepping back?
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Lurk -- if they can bring back this view

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/15/973813Entrance_to_Filenes_Basement_Boston.jpg[img]

the tower will not really matter at the street level
 
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Older proposal:

filenetower1ug8.jpg


Current:

filenes_rendering.jpg


Although the additional height is desired, I liked the old design better. The height of the low rise matched the old filenes building. The low rise seemed better integrated into the streetscape in the old renderings As others have commented, the new proposal looks like a cold corporate sunbelt highrise stuck on a too short of base.
 
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Love what I'm seeing. Can't judge it much on the merits based on this one render, but I look forward to more!
 
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Whereas I like the new design better. It keeps the old Filene's building visually separate from the new development, instead of surrounding it and stacking above it.
 
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Ron, I do agree with you in part. In the old proposal the stacking of new construction on top of the historic filenes burnham building did not impove the aesthetics of the design.
 
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This designs looks a lot like their San Francisco Four Seasons tower.
2-2.jpg

A little lazy, no? I also agree that it is pretty boring. Hopefully it gets better by the time it's ready to go.

The additional residential (a total of 500 units) is great. I just hope they don't follow the horrible trend of new residential towers in this city where they just plop the tower onto a big ass above ground parking garage.
 
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Good find, Briv, but not so good design--reminds me of a more blue Millenium Place *yawn*

Looking at the site on Google Maps gives me hope, as at first I was worried we could have another slim fattie on our hands à la 33 Arch, but as you can see this new tower couldn't be as wide as 33A even if it wanted to--the site won't allow it.

filenes.jpg


That plus the fact that it will have slim residential floor plates makes me think this one will truly SOAR (or at least look decent from the Common and Memorial Drive).
 
Re: Filene's

zzzzz, a real snoozer.

But I lack the energy to complain about the Hole getting filled. Just build it.
 
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