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

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BBJ story in February said MP had announced that the MT UBER Penthouse is under contract -- so anyone searching for a $30M penthouse will now have to look at 1 Dalton or something yet to come

Today, we hear that Jeff GE Immelt will be walking a bit to get to work -- but not from DTX
BBJ, May 5, 2016

REAL ESTATE INC.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt has found a home in Boston. Care to guess where?
May 5, 2016, 3:18pm EDT

Breaking News

Catherine Carlock
Real Estate Editor
Boston Business Journal

Cross Jeff Immelt off the list of potential buyers of the $37 million Millennium Tower penthouse.....

GE Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bornstein told the BBJ last month that the company's executive team was considering a number of neighborhoods — namely the South End, Seaport, Back Bay and Beacon Hill — but offered nothing more specific.....

It appears the cat's out of the bag. Public records indicate Immelt and his wife, Andrea, are under contract to purchase a 3,565-square-foot triplex home at 36 Commonwealth Ave., a four-bedroom property located a stone’s throw from the Boston Public Garden. The condominium was listed for just shy of $8 million, or $2,243 per square foot, almost double its December 2007 sales price of $4.6 million.

Features include a gourmet eat-in kitchen, a private deck, wood-paneled library and three fireplaces.
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citylover94 said:
Out of curiosity I just checked Philly because it just hit me it hadn't shown up in my list I made and I was surprised so I found it now and if we want to find the prime example of a city with a small skyline for it's size Philly is the prime example.

150 m+ buildings

11 (24)

100 m+ buildings

52 (78)

Even after Philly's current proposals are built it will still be behind Boston a little bit in buildings over 150 m; however, it will be ahead in buildings over 100 m. It will also have two supertall skyscrapers so its maximum height will be significantly taller still which is no surprise.
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Philly had a long standing taboo (via law or custom I'm not sure) against building taller than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, didn't they? I've always heard that was the reason they lacked skyscrapers for years.
 
It was a custom I believe it is often referenced as being a Gentleman's agreement not to exceed that height. They definitely were behind although not that far behind Boston. The only buildings over 400 feet built before 1960 were the Custom House and John Hancock. After the Pru Boston did distance the gap, but Philly wasn't that far behind.
 
citylover94 said:
It was a custom I believe it is often referenced as being a Gentleman's agreement not to exceed that height. They definitely were behind although not that far behind Boston. The only buildings over 400 feet built before 1960 were the Custom House and John Hancock. After the Pru Boston did distance the gap, but Philly wasn't that far behind.
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Citylover -- I was told back a few years ago when there was nothing tall or modern in Philly that you couldn't in good conscience exceed the height of Billy Penn's Left Nostril
art-on-city-hall-600.jpg

http://www.phila.gov/virtualch/body_pages/history.html
[my highlights bold ]
The north side is also where the famous tower is located. The tower rises 548 feet above the ground, terminating at the top of the hat on William Penn's statue. Just below the statue is the visitors' observation deck, approximately forty stories above the ground. There are massive twenty-six foot diameter clocks on all four sides of the metal portion of the tower. Below this area of the tower and throughout the remainder of the building are walls of solid brick covered with white marble and granite. The walls supporting the tower are twenty-two feet thick at the bottom. The building is one of the world's tallest and largest all-masonry, load bearing structures without a steel or iron frame.

Gentlemen's Agreement
To reflect Philadelphia's importance, McArthur intended City Hall to be the tallest structure in the world. Unfortunately, City Hall never held that title because the Eiffel Tower and Washington monument were both completed before City Hall and both are taller than the building. Since neither of those structure are true buildings, Philadelphia's City Hall did remain the tallest occupied building until 1909, when New York built the Metropolitan Life Building. It was, however, the tallest building in Philadelphia until 1987, when a long-standing "gentlemen's agreement," discouraging constructing higher than Penn's hat, was broken with the construction of the sixty-one-story Liberty Place.
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Could it be said then that Philly doth froze for nigh 85 years !

Note to those concerned with such -- the following is a "deviation" or detour -- aka an aside:

the venerable Bookbinder's, the then purported to be best restaurant, served canned peas with the salmon :rolleyes:
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Bookbinders-Peter-Woodall-Hidden-City-680uw2.jpg


it was kinda their version of Locke Ober's crossed with Anthony's Pier 4 and add a smidge of Jacob Wirth's
575140327-jacob-wirth-co-restaurant-on-stuart-street-gettyimages.jpg



Now like Locke's Bookbinder's is closed, although some new outfit has reopen using just the bar area

But new money talks [i.e. Comcast] and so today even the hat on Sir William's head is just a memory
 
whighlander said:
Citylover -- I was told back a few years ago when there was nothing tall or modern in Philly that you couldn't in good conscience exceed the height of Billy Penn's Left Nostril
art-on-city-hall-600.jpg

http://www.phila.gov/virtualch/body_pages/history.html
[my highlights bold ]


Could it be said then that Philly doth froze for nigh 85 years !

Note to those concerned with such -- the following is a "deviation" or detour -- aka an aside:

the venerable Bookbinder's, the then purported to be best restaurant, served canned peas with the salmon :rolleyes:
5566058514_325d46d01d_b.jpg

Bookbinders-Peter-Woodall-Hidden-City-680uw2.jpg


it was kinda their version of Locke Ober's crossed with Anthony's Pier 4 and add a smidge of Jacob Wirth's
575140327-jacob-wirth-co-restaurant-on-stuart-street-gettyimages.jpg



Now like Locke's Bookbinder's is closed, although some new outfit has reopen using just the bar area

But new money talks [i.e. Comcast] and so today even the hat on Sir William's head is just a memory
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It's funny in Philly but there's a bit of sports lore attached to the height of buildings

From Comcast below:


By J T. Ramsay, Chief Blogger, Comcast Corporation in Corporate News

The Curse of William Penn may not be the most famous curse in sports history, but between 1987 and 2008 it certainly felt like it to Philadelphia’s passionate sports fans.

The superstition goes like this:

For more than a century the City of Philadelphia had imposed a height restriction for new structures — they could not exceed the height of the statue of William Penn atop the famous clock tower at Philadelphia City Hall. But in 1987, the city relaxed its restrictions and skyscrapers began to dot the skyline. Sadly, our professional sports teams, including storied franchises like the Philadelphia Phillies, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Philadelphia Eagles, did not win a single professional sports championship from that time on. Hence, the Curse of William Penn.

Comcast has long been headquartered in Philadelphia — and many of us are very passionate about our local sports teams — including Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen — who made an interesting suggestion in 2007 when we were building our new corporate headquarters, what would be the tallest building in Philadelphia. "Let’s once again restore Billy Penn to his rightful place and the highest location in Philadelphia," said Cohen. And a small statue of William Penn was placed on the highest beam of the Comcast Center.

One year later the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

So did Comcast help break the Curse of William Penn? You be the judge.
 
Can we PLEASE move this unrelated banter somewhere else?
 
whighlander said:
BBJ story in February said MP had announced that the MT UBER Penthouse is under contract -- so anyone searching for a $30M penthouse will now have to look at 1 Dalton or something yet to come

Today, we hear that Jeff GE Immelt will be walking a bit to get to work -- but not from DTX
BBJ, May 5, 2016


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I'm surprised he wasn't tempted to locate in a multi-family in Everett next to Wynn future casino.
 
TheRifleman said:
I'm surprised he wasn't tempted to locate in a multi-family in Everett next to Wynn future casino.
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If I had the money I would have spent it the exact same way...brownstone all day vs. ph in the sky.
 
617 said:
If I had the money I would have spent it the exact same way...brownstone all day vs. ph in the sky.
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I'm with you Brownstone over Skyscraper living.

The Millenium Tower is coming out nicely but I prefer the Brownstone living also.
 
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Looking out my window at the office, it appears that the windows have been washed finally - the whole tower is super reflective now!
 
Galactic said:
Looking out my window at the office, it appears that the windows have been washed finally - the whole tower is super reflective now!
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I was there last nite it still hadn't been washed^ but still looked good 🙂
 
Perfect Tower for Perfect DTX location. (This is looking great in the skyline)
Hopefully the floor plan for the entrance is just a cool.
 
Yea we lucked out for sure. Superior in every way to what was going to be there- the filenes facade would have been nice, but this turned out phenomenal either way. Could not be happier with this. We need to keep taking pics regularly and not let it slip away once its done, cant get enough of these, and its good to find new angles to find the tower from. That picture above basically is everything I love about Boston in one picture. Old and new perfectly intertwined into the greatest urban experience in America.
 
I can say that the ground floor retail and other areas are going to be awesome. Things are shaping up nicely and seeing the progress everyday on my way to work is awesome.
 
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