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

[George_Apley]

+1, praying for a 1,000 footer. It's the best location for it, at least in my mind.

Isn't the whole reason Winthop Square's "Transnational Place" was nixed because of the FAA's height restrictions. 1000' tower there is never happening.

 

[kmp1284]

Something substantial is probably even less viable without the 133 Fed parcel, which was undoubtedly a large part of why Belkin was the only one to respond to the RFP.

 

[whighlander]

Isn't the whole reason Winthop Square's "Transnational Place" was nixed because of the FAA's height restrictions. 1000' tower there is never happening.

Busses -- There was some FAA concern about something like loss of engine [2 engine plane] on takeoff from 9-27 forcing a quick go-round to land and you might be at about 1000 feet

I don't think it was a prohibition --it would have just forced some additional MEPA-like studies to prove that it was not in the direct flight path under those conditions

All that would have forced a major delay and that just ran into the Buz Saw of the financial collapse killing the financing

I think it could have been built then and definitely could be built now

There might be a better location for the 1000' or 300m tower -- i would locate it on the site of the old Spaulding Hospital and the adjacent Mass Gen Parking lot

You're further outside the flight path

Have all the North Station Commuter lines

Have direct access to the Green and Orange lines

Sitting on I-93

 

[JohnCostello]

"There might be a better location for the 1000' or 300m tower -- i would locate it on the site of the old Spaulding Hospital and the adjacent Mass Gen Parking lot

You're further outside the flight path

Have all the North Station Commuter lines

Have direct access to the Green and Orange lines

Sitting on I-93[/COLOR]"


And you and your tower would go bankrupt in about 11 seconds.

One thing about the Boston business community is clustering. East Cambridge has lab, Fenway is hospital / health care, downtown is money moving / management, Back Bay is insurance.

If we were in Qatar or Dubai, yes a 1,000 Foot tower for the emir to say "Look at my tower by the river and say isn't it great. I used Pakistani slaves so it was cheap" is one thing. North Station has no business cluster save for worn shoe law firms, non-profits, and Bruins ticket resellers, and the ugliest piece of crap government building ever constructed. Yes, EF is across the way, but they also went there and built small for the footprint they take up.

Any new development on the Spaulding would be for Mass General back office, either using the existing building, which is solid, or a new building of equal size.

 

[whighlander]

"There might be a better location for the 1000' or 300m tower -- i would locate it on the site of the old Spaulding Hospital and the adjacent Mass Gen Parking lot

You're further outside the flight path

Have all the North Station Commuter lines

Have direct access to the Green and Orange lines

Sitting on I-93[/COLOR]"


And you and your tower would go bankrupt in about 11 seconds.

One thing about the Boston business community is clustering. East Cambridge has lab, Fenway is hospital / health care, downtown is money moving / management, Back Bay is insurance.

If we were in Qatar or Dubai, yes a 1,000 Foot tower for the emir to say "Look at my tower by the river and say isn't it great. I used Pakistani slaves so it was cheap" is one thing. North Station has no business cluster save for worn shoe law firms, non-profits, and Bruins ticket resellers, and the ugliest piece of crap government building ever constructed. Yes, EF is across the way, but they also went there and built small for the footprint they take up.

Any new development on the Spaulding would be for Mass General back office, either using the existing building, which is solid, or a new building of equal size.

John -- What about the fact that Converse has settled itself down next to the Garden

I think that you are mired in a time warp ... Downtown is becoming the home to people and also some of the newest of the start-ups ... that used to be Jordans, Filenes, Fox, Whites, Kennedy's, Jewelers Building ..... Not anymore

I do agree with your characterization of the Tip -- I used to say that it resembled the Bloated Oaf of a Congressman

 

[JohnCostello]

Converse is not a 1,000 foot tower. There's a huge difference in terms of building an in theory 2,100,000 square foot Class A office tower over some subsidiary of Nike taking 187,000 square feet of tax incentivized Good Class B office space with little parking.

How are you going to market to the next knowledge companies that we have a great office building with active RR tracks and a jail as neighbors with no ancillary retail around? The Penalty Box is not Panera. Sure, the Garden will have retail at some point, but there is also the reason why they build low and slow at these isolated locations; they are for the back office workers. That is what State Street is building on A Street. That is why Partners is going to Assembly Square. Envelope stuffers and the neerdery don't get Post Office Square. You get low rise North Quincy or 10 Cabot Place.

I'll put my company into One Franklin over 33 Lomansey Way or One Spaulding Place or whatever you want to call it and the sea of prison guard illegal parkers around it any and every day.

 

[stellarfun]

Without totally derailing this thread, I am not aware that the FAA had anything to do with why Tommy's Tower wasn't built. The FAA concerns are two: an engine out departure over/near the South Station area, and blinding the approach radar from seeing aircraft and helicopters landing at Logan from the west (Don's tower).

In the latter, the FAA primarily objects to a wall of towers, not a single tower. A solution for Don's Tower's radar coverage woes would be for him to build a second radar, like on a hill in East Boston, that could 'see' to the west. A similar cap on 'talls' was imposed by the FAA on Rosslyn Virginia.

 

[whighlander]

Converse is not a 1,000 foot tower. There's a huge difference in terms of building an in theory 2,100,000 square foot Class A office tower over some subsidiary of Nike taking 187,000 square feet of tax incentivized Good Class B office space with little parking.

How are you going to market to the next knowledge companies that we have a great office building with active RR tracks and a jail as neighbors with no ancillary retail around? The Penalty Box is not Panera. Sure, the Garden will have retail at some point, but there is also the reason why they build low and slow at these isolated locations; they are for the back office workers. That is what State Street is building on A Street. That is why Partners is going to Assembly Square. Envelope stuffers and the neerdery don't get Post Office Square. You get low rise North Quincy or 10 Cabot Place.

I'll put my company into One Franklin over 33 Lomansey Way or One Spaulding Place or whatever you want to call it and the sea of prison guard illegal parkers around it any and every day.

John -- nobody builds Class B office space on pricey land -- The place Converse will use as its HQ is Class A new construction as is the place that Arnold is going to occupy right next to "The Millennium Tower"

Once again your thinking is locked into a different era

The entire core area is a potential host for Knowledge Industry companies -- whether it be Kendall Sq., the Seaport / Innovation District or North Station

Looking at proposals made in the past two or so years there could easily be multi-million sq. ft. of New first class office space + thousands of highish-end residences in the area bracketed by North Station the West End and Government Center -- such is not back-office territory [whatever " Envelope stuffers and the neerdery" -- means anyway]

By the way -- most of the "back-office" functions these days are in direct customer service roles -- computers now can type and mail as well as any person and for a lot less

People with a problem just sometimes want to interact with another person -- e.g. the recent compromise of the cards at Target

 

[davem]

They are referring to these reno jobs as either B+ or A-, I can't remember. Either way, they are sometimes commanding higher rents than brand new class A, since the majority of "hip" firms want something with character instead of a sterile box.

 

[fattony]

Converse is not a 1,000 foot tower. There's a huge difference in terms of building an in theory 2,100,000 square foot Class A office tower over some subsidiary of Nike taking 187,000 square feet of tax incentivized Good Class B office space with little parking.

How are you going to market to the next knowledge companies that we have a great office building with active RR tracks and a jail as neighbors with no ancillary retail around? The Penalty Box is not Panera. Sure, the Garden will have retail at some point, but there is also the reason why they build low and slow at these isolated locations; they are for the back office workers. That is what State Street is building on A Street. That is why Partners is going to Assembly Square. Envelope stuffers and the neerdery don't get Post Office Square. You get low rise North Quincy or 10 Cabot Place.

I'll put my company into One Franklin over 33 Lomansey Way or One Spaulding Place or whatever you want to call it and the sea of prison guard illegal parkers around it any and every day.

I agree that the old Spaulding is not a prime spot for a 1000 footer, but disagree entirely with your reasoning. You think "knowledge companies" need or even want a Panera? You think they avoid a little grit? I have to agree with whighlander that your perceptions sound really outdated. Go to Kendall Square and Fort Point - young knowledge economy workers obviously have a greater appetite for industrial chic over new glass towers.

 

[JohnCostello]

I agree that the old Spaulding is not a prime spot for a 1000 footer, but disagree entirely with your reasoning. You think "knowledge companies" need or even want a Panera? You think they avoid a little grit? I have to agree with whighlander that your perceptions sound really outdated. Go to Kendall Square and Fort Point - young knowledge economy workers obviously have a greater appetite for industrial chic over new glass towers.

One little tangent on Kendall Square; Au Bon Pain, 7-Eleven, Legal Sea Foods are all there, not necessarily independent retail . The other retail, Mead Hall, etc. were purposely brought in by MIT to keep the place less sterile, just like Harvard is subsidizing that little oh so cute grocery store at the corner of Church and Brattle while the rent is $90/SF NNN.

My whole point is that no one is going to build 1,000 feet on Spaulding, that is it. That's all.

As far as outmoded thinking and "grit", I used to manage two buildings on Summer Street, the grit was gone from there years ago. It was gritty when my dad worked in a mattress warehouse on Sleeper Street in the 1960's. When the trees got planted on Summer Street in 1999 and the Revolving Circus moved out of A Street, the area stopped being gritty. It is gilded grit now.

 

[whighlander]

One little tangent on Kendall Square; Au Bon Pain, 7-Eleven, Legal Sea Foods are all there, not necessarily independent retail . The other retail, Mead Hall, etc. were purposely brought in by MIT to keep the place less sterile, just like Harvard is subsidizing that little oh so cute grocery store at the corner of Church and Brattle while the rent is $90/SF NNN.

My whole point is that no one is going to build 1,000 feet on Spaulding, that is it. That's all.

As far as outmoded thinking and "grit", I used to manage two buildings on Summer Street, the grit was gone from there years ago. It was gritty when my dad worked in a mattress warehouse on Sleeper Street in the 1960's. When the trees got planted on Summer Street in 1999 and the Revolving Circus moved out of A Street, the area stopped being gritty. It is gilded grit now.

John -- no offence -- BUT the Outmoded Thinking is still relevant -- in 1999 there was talk of maybe one thousand residents in the Seaport / Fort Point Channel

Today, the Seaport / Innovation District will have several thousand Residences and the goal for the city as a whole is tens of thousands of Residences

Its a new world John -- just like it was a new world when One Financial Center was build next to gloomy, gritty South Station as well as when the Seaport Hotel was built in a sea of parking lots and then a couple of office buildings followed

 

[JudieLHB1]

A little far afield, but re: Spaulding / North Station / TD Garden area, I thought the BRA just approved this plan; maybe in construction in a year to 18 months. Seems like that area is in for a change too.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...development/eiq6eqqbhelfB8piXC2xlO/story.html

 

[stick n move]

So is this office tower under construction? If it is thats awesome because I figured at some point this thing would get axed again so it needs to get built asap because this thing is going to be one of the greatest towers ever built in boston.

 

[datadyne007]

A little far afield, but re: Spaulding / North Station / TD Garden area, I thought the BRA just approved this plan; maybe in construction in a year to 18 months. Seems like that area is in for a change too.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...development/eiq6eqqbhelfB8piXC2xlO/story.html

Please refer to The Boston Garden thread.

So is this office tower under construction? If it is thats awesome because I figured at some point this thing would get axed again so it needs to get built asap because this thing is going to be one of the greatest towers ever built in boston.

What office tower? If you're talking about The Boston Garden, please refer to the thread above (btw the 25-story office tower is phase IV). If you are talking about Millennium Tower, it is not an office tower. It is a residential tower and yes, it is U/C.

 

[markhb]

With all the discussion of the North Station area and reuse or replacement of the existing (former?) Spaulding building, I'll point out why it needs to be removed and replaced with something on a different footprint: the T needs access to Platforms 11 and 12 at North Station, and the current building is completely in the way of getting tracks there.

We now return you to on-topic discussion.

 

[stick n move]

my bad i meant the tower said office by accident

 

[kz1000ps]

Yesterday.

 

[atlantaden]

Yowza!!

 

[datadyne007]

Still anxious to see how they handle the corner conditions where the glass meets the stone facade. Corners are always the most challenging aspect of facade design, especially when you have two different facade languages meeting. They can make or break a design.