Pierce Boston (née The Point )| Boylston St/Brookline Av | Fenway

[tysmith95]

Absolutely should not miss this opportunity with whatever goes up in place of the Gulf gas station and the Star Market in the next development cycle.

Unfortunately I believe that the Star Market site might get more NIMBY opposition than the Pierce Boston site. The Star Market borders row-houses, Pierce Boston borders streets on three sides and a new apartment building on the other.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

The neighborhood needs a supermarket and a gas station. I think if a developer took over air rights over the parking lot, turned it into a parking garage, then I could see something built there.
I fondly remember filling up and getting Dunkies there as I drove out of Boston for the last time.

 

[tysmith95]

The neighborhood needs a supermarket and a gas station. I think if a developer took over air rights over the parking lot, turned it into a parking garage, then I could see something built there.
I fondly remember filling up and getting Dunkies there as I drove out of Boston for the last time.

We already have target. If a Trader Joes or Roche Brothers was put in the bottom of a new development it would be perfect. Shaws and Star Market suck anyway, last time I went there their strawberries became moldy after 6 hours.

 

[FK4]

Unfortunately I believe that the Star Market site might get more NIMBY opposition than the Pierce Boston site. The Star Market borders row-houses, Pierce Boston borders streets on three sides and a new apartment building on the other.

Same rowhouses as all the other developments on the far side of Boylston.

 

[dirtywater]

We already have target. If a Trader Joes or Roche Brothers was put in the bottom of a new development it would be perfect. Shaws and Star Market suck anyway, last time I went there their strawberries became moldy after 6 hours.

Hopefully Wegman's will still be going in at Landmark Center.

 

[cjbski]

Hopefully Wegman's will still be going in at Landmark Center.

Once Wegmans goes in (assuming it still is?) + having Target right there, Star Market will be gone within a year. Guaranteed.

 

[DigitalSciGuy]

The neighbourhood does not need a gas station any more than it needs some remnant of its auto-centric past. Flow on that intersection isn't helped by the gas station and even if we lose this one, there are two more on the western end of this stretch along the Fens.

Supermarket demand is already addressed partially by Target and I believe it's been discussed in the Landmark Center thread that the Wegman's deal might be in jeopardy. That said, there's nothing stopping a developer from including an urban-format of Star Market a la Pru complex in whatever gets developed here.

Heck, I'd love to see BPS work out a deal for a larger, modern school facility here to redevelop the land McKinley sits on (their environmental inspection report looks a little grim). We still seem to be working at the margins of getting civic benefit out of developments, but that may be less to do with political will and more to do with sheer cost of development..

There's enough contiguous area here to build something that steps down in some way to the non-trivial 6-storey buildings on the south side of this block. Just anything that maintains some level of height variance to continue breaking up these landscrapers and that steps up to just below the height of Pierce Boston on the corner.

---

I have a whole virtual desktop on my work computer dedicated to construction webcams - a holdover from when I was working at 33 Arch St and my near floor-to-ceiling curtainwall window peered into 31 Milk St next door and I used the WTC EarthCam as a way to see the sky. Flipping over there to see this every other day is a pleasant surprise in addition to all the construction visible from out my office windows downtown.

 

[Shepard]

Also, gas station could be quite smaller, e.g., this one.

I've been wondering about applying European city-style gas "stations" here for a long time - my conclusion, not based in fact, is that there are probably safety regulations if not just city ordinances that make them impossible.

 

[whighlander]

Also, gas station could be quite smaller, e.g., this one.

AAAAAA -- If you read / see / hear about the almost daily incidents of "mostly" little old ladies who hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and go careening off into something when they were trying to park

Well I think then you will want your gas stations to be open and the pumps at least isolated from nearby buildings


Note: -- Yes, I know about Halon fire suppression systems

 

[datadyne007]

AAAAAA -- If you read / see / hear about the almost daily incidents of "mostly" little old ladies who hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and go careening off into something when they were trying to park

Well I think then you will want your gas stations to be open and the pumps at least isolated from nearby buildings


Note: -- Yes, I know about Halon fire suppression systems

We should not be letting hypothetical extremes dictate design & compromise the urban environment.

But yes, the US & state building codes have all these requirements that end up making gas stations into monstrosities with all the clearance requirements.

 

[whighlander]

We should not be letting hypothetical extremes dictate design & compromise the urban environment.

But yes, the US & state building codes have all these requirements that end up making gas stations into monstrosities with all the clearance requirements.

Datadyne -- You can't be serious -- pumping gas involves highly flamable substance with available ignition sources -- all you need is one errant vehicle and Voila

No explosion but likely you could spread buring gasoline for quite a distance along the sidewalk and the road

 

[FenwayResident]

Pull up thread, pull up!

 

[shmessy]

I can't help but feeling that this is something of a lost opportunity. The site is so dramatic and so prominent, I really would have liked to see the corner emphasized more sharply. A true flat-iron building. The streetwalls would have been more dramatic from Brookline and Boylston, and the view from Longwood and from the refurbished Olmstead park would have been stunning. Instead what we are getting is basically a slab, which could have been built anywhere.

I realize that this had something to do with Trilogy and sight lines, but I'm not sure how they got enough clout to make demands. Still, even with that restriction, something could have been done. Make the building's "footprint" (3rd floor and up) a rhombus to the full height, tapering the Trilogy facing side to a point. Or include a series of setbacks on the east face. Something. I would just liked to have seen a much bolder presence along the two main streets.

I still think this could be gorgeous building and am looking forward to watching it rise, but I don't think they made very good use of the unique site.

+1.

This site was tailor made for a dramatic rounded triangular statement building. Hell, it even was called "The Point" at the start. The 90 degree angles seem awkward in the renders. I hope it works out better in real life.

 

[shmessy]

I've been wondering about applying European city-style gas "stations" here for a long time - my conclusion, not based in fact, is that there are probably safety regulations if not just city ordinances that make them impossible.

Capitalism says "no".

There is no money in the gasoline at gas stations. It's all in the convenience store. The gas is the come-on.

 

[citylover94]

It looks to me like the storefront behind the examples given were convenience stores that were connected to the pumps. I'm pretty sure those aren't just random pumps disconnected entirely from any nearby storefront.

 

[FK4]

Datadyne -- You can't be serious -- pumping gas involves highly flamable substance with available ignition sources -- all you need is one errant vehicle and Voila

No explosion but likely you could spread buring gasoline for quite a distance along the sidewalk and the road

Sorry, I have to agree.. Having gas tanks right up against storefronts like is crazy. And I've been around my fare share of dense, European cities (including living in one), and I never saw a gas station that consisted of pumps on a sidewalk against a store like these pics... So I don't know what the poster upthread was talking about with "European style" gas stations. Despite the above pic having French in it, that type of gas station is certainly not the norm I've seen.

There's plenty to rail at in American overregulation. This is not one of those areas.

 

[stick n move]

Screen grabs from thepierce.com and luxury boston.

30th floor view. Looks like they cant see inside the park.



View from one of the units.



Close up of the base.

 

[stick n move]

The side shot has been posted before but just throwing it back up because it hasn't been seen in a long time. Not as dramatic as the front but it still has setbacks and the notches make it interesting.

 

[citylover94]

Work has started on the fourth floor:

 

[tmac9wr]

That high-up shot looking back into the city is really cool. Seeing just how built-up this neighborhood has become in the last few years is amazing. It went from wasteland (relatively speaking) to hotspot in a decade.