Oxford Office Bldg. | 125 Lincoln St | Leather District

Residents who testified split between support and opposition for the project, which underwent three years of discussion before the BPDA finally approved it last year. The project also needed zoning-board approval because, among other reasons, it would be taller and denser on the site than allowed by the lot's zoning....

Opponents said the building was simply too big - nearly twice as tall as allowed under Greenway zoning - , which would mean shadows on both the Greenway and nearby residential units as well as even more congestion on local streets.
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We limit buildings on the Greenway to 6 stories!? The city needs to get serious about zoning reform. To the extent that zoning is a reflection of values this is just embarrassing, painfully embarrassing. Who wrote these zoning requirements? Did we hire the NIMBYs of Weston to draft the zoning code? It's frustrating that we employ an army of planners, and have lots of politicians who pay this lip service, but there's no political or institutional will or drive to move reform efforts forward. Also, nothing should take three years just to get land use approval, especially for a relatively modest project like this one.
 
The Greenway is a pahk, don’t ya know! Can’t have shadows on a pahk, this is Bawstin! Six stories is even too much!
 
Smuttynose said:
Did we hire the NIMBYs of Weston to draft the zoning code?...
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Fixed it for you:

Did we tiny privileged subset of Boston residents whose views might be blocked or whose azaleas might have 3% fewer blossoms hire the NIMBYs of Weston to draft the zoning code?
 
At least it’s going up, but upthread there was a good discussion that this probably could have been several hundred feet taller since it’s on the edge of the FAA zone. It really is a shame we couldn’t add more here. Also love the quote in the Universal Hub story where the resident complains about pollution. There used to be an elevated expressway right through here!! It was also an open multi-story garage for years!!
 
On Chinese banquet halls.

......... Banquet halls in the Bay Area and beyond have been struggling since even before the pandemic, and these closures mean much more than a loss of places to eat. As journalist Melissa Hung and others have documented, banquet halls in many cities are community gathering spaces, particularly for the elderly, who are experiencing an uptick in violence due to anti-Asian hate crimes. A place for celebrations is crucial to keeping Chinatowns glued together: Hung also reports that in San Francisco banquet halls are centers for associations, civic organizations, and outreach to local politicians. Whereas the banquets I attended growing up were small affairs, a San Francisco Chinatown banquet could summon up to a thousand people. Now many of those grand halls are empty.
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https://www.bonappetit.com/story/hong-fu-banquet-hall
 
Justbuildit said:
At least it’s going up....
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At high profile parcels like this, I'd rather see no developments than bad developments. Leave the garage, and maybe we can come back and develop the tall housing tower that belongs here. Build this uninspired fat squat lab and we'll be stuck with it forever.
 
People on this board are really upset about what seems to be an absolute win for the urban environment. Sure, the FAA says that this building can be 600’ tall, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense in the neighborhood. This site is surrounded by 5 and 6 story masonry buildings, and the locals are not wrong to point that out.

Personally, I think that a modest tower might have made sense here if it was limited to the northern half of the site, toward the Radian. Regardless, the elimination of a stinking eyesore of a garage is excellent, and I think the building looks high quality. (We’ll see if they end up cheating out.)
 
I totally agree it’s a net win, and having a brand new space for Hei La Moon or a similar spot will be great for the neighborhood and bring life back to that stretch of Beach. It’s the death by a thousand cuts aspect that just kind of sucks to see. The initial proposal wasn’t a 600 foot tower, but it still got downgraded over and over, which doesn’t help anyone other than a few noisy neighbors. The economics get worse on a psf basis and a couple years have been added to the timeline.

Glad to see it on its way, but it could’ve been better is all.
 
king_vibe said:
Sure, the FAA says that this building can be 600’ tall, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense in the neighborhood. This site is surrounded by 5 and 6 story masonry buildings, and the locals are not wrong to point that out....
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It's also directly adjacent to the upcoming 677' South Station Tower, 590' 1 Financial, 503' 1 Lincoln, and the busiest train station in the state.
 
The site yesterday 2/23
AB4F7829-C492-4BA7-AB90-AE48DB8BCEF5.jpeg
 
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