Oxford Office Bldg. | 125 Lincoln St | Leather District

FAA is about 690~700',
shadow limit ~650~675',
24 stories of offices gets you about 360~380'.
They may have been guided on a range of height.
Adding 15~20 stories of residences on top would have been better.
Oh, and it's another site that failed to get close to the FAA height--or even surpass 390'.
Amazing.
 
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I thought that old garage was demolished years ago. Good riddance.
 
Demolition of that hideous repulsive eyesore is a huge win alone.
 
DZH22 said:
Why so small? Isn't this one of those sites that could go 600'+? The garage has a hefty enough footprint that 24 stories is going to be another fat stump.
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Are they attempting dig a deep hole, or is it a repeat of the Motor Mart type strategy.
 
odurandina said:
Are they attempting dig a deep hole, or is it a repeat of the Motor Mart type strategy.
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There is nothing about this garage worth saving (other than Hei La Moon restaurant).

This is a total demolish and build new.
 
Interesting site, I wonder what the history is ?what did this replace ,was it built as part of the Central Artery from land taken when that was built? glad to see it go, never liked this building even after they renovated it a few years back
 
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The United States hotel was once on that site -- it was torn down in the 30's; not sure what replaced it:
United%2Bstates%2Bhotel%2Bphoto.jpg


The street grid is very different today; whatever replaced the hotel must have been urban renewaled:

united%2Bstates%2Bhotel%2B1895.jpg
 
Here is an interesting picture of the garage when brand new:

construction-on-both-sides-of-central-artery-tunnel-which-symbolized-picture-id697704294


In this picture the photographer seems to be standing on the 125 Lincoln site -- you can see whatever was next door to the new garage being torn down:

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Here is the garage under construction:
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There are other images of the freight house next door being torn down for the artery, but I haven't found any of what exactly was on the garage site before work started.
 
Damn. If you left Boston in 1947, and you returned today.......

better still, if you returned in ~2024.
 
I like the old skyline more.

I think it's tough to justify building 700 ft office towers these days. You need real high end tenants for the upper floors. Tech companies have been shying away from that kind of lavish expense which is Boston's bread and butter now. That leaves you with the few big finance companies and health care. State Street has already signed on elsewhere and now their tower is up for use. Health care can't afford the rents. Biomed would rather be in Cambridge for the most part.

They could have gone taller with housing but they may been looking around and seeing what's going up ad thinking the market is saturated or that the foreign investment market is on the brink of drying up.

Still a 350-400 foot tower would be great here compared to the current land use. Something architecturally bold would be nice too... but this is Boston.
 
If they actually decided to go tall here, would they be too close
to the Big Dig tunnels to install the piles?
 
Equilibria said:
This site is in a weird spot for FAA height limits. The whole thing is in the 750'-775' zone, but the boundaries of that zone are literally the boundaries of the site. Across Beach Street the height limit drops to 325'-350'.

24 stories of office is around 425', so they may be thinking that this is the highest the FAA won't object to.

As importantly, though, this site has a potentially enormous street-level experience impact on the Greenway frontage.
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It definitely depends because 380 Stuart st (Hancock 2) is exactly 26 stories and was going to be 388’. Of course it all depends on crown/lobby/ceiling height, but as a general ballpark Id expect it to be in there. This lot is about the same length as 380 Stuart but skinnier so hopefully the proportions are better.
150803stuart-street-viewhalf_750xx1650-2195-0-475.jpg
 
odurandina said:
If they actually decided to go tall here, would they be too close
to the Big Dig tunnels to install the piles?
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No. The tunnel is shallow (see historical photos above) and it isn't that different from the other adjacent building foundations. And it's actually the dewey square tunnel, which is about 60 years old.
 
Hei La Moon is way too busy at all hours of the day to disappear completely.

This will be an enormous improvement to the streetscape.
 
curcuas said:
Hei La Moon is way too busy at all hours of the day to disappear completely.
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I hope you are right. They will be challenged to find the amount of space they have under the garage. That kind of floor plate is rare in Chinatown.
 
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