Pinnacle at Central Wharf (Harbor Garage) | 70 East India Row | Waterfront | Downtown

Status
Not open for further replies.
George_Apley said:
Move the aquarium bashing somewhere else please.
Click to expand...

It's okay for the NE Aquarium Executives to bash the Harbor Garage project by trying to give it no merit.
But we shouldn't bash the Aquarium?

1618937499176.png
 
Am I missing the point here:
We should not speak about anything about the Aquarium but they can make baseless claims about a real project without any real data-:
Aquarium slams Boston Harbor Garage skyscraper over environmental concerns Aquarium slams Boston Harbor Garage skyscraper over environmental concerns

www.bostonherald.com

Aquarium slams Boston Harbor Garage skyscraper over environmental concerns

The New England Aquarium aimed to throw cold water on the proposal for the 600-foot skyscraper in place of the Boston Harbor Garage during the first public meeting on the long-discussed project, sa…
www.bostonherald.com www.bostonherald.com

Should we just continue to post pictures concerning the garage and not have important dialogue on which groups have creditability and which groups don't?
 
I think blasting the Aquarium for their opposition and their motivations is a legit discussion. Maybe a discussion about the odors that penguins generate in a closed space belong somewhere else.

Also johnny I'm a bit surprised you haven't advocated for turning the NEAQ into affordable housing yet! ;)
 
Rifleman!!!!

The Herald article is from 2014, before the Municipal Harbor Plan was prepared. Said plan was intended to sort out issues legitimately raised by the Aquarium and others as to height, massing. and lot occupancy. Back in 2014, Chiofaro did not have the zoning to get the height he sought. Development of the site was governed by Chapter 91, and there was no way of achieving anything near what he was seeking without a Municipal Harbor Plan.

In the course of finalizing the MHP, the city, Chiofaro, and the Aquarium reached an agreement in which Chiofaro (or more precisely Prudential) agreed to pay $10 million to help develop the Blueway Plan, that would run on the north side of the Pinnacle between Atlantic Ave. and the Aquarium. IIRC, the IMAX theater goes away under the Blueway Plan.

All the above happened since that Boston Herald article was published. The Municipal Harbor Plan is now done, and the current litigation is about whether the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs had the legal authority to approve the MHP. The Aquarium is not a party to the lawsuit.
 
State takes steps to remedy its procedural error. Boston Municipal Harbor Plan will begin process to be approved by the appropriate official.

A month after a Suffolk County judge tossed out waterfront development plans across the state — including a much-debated one in downtown Boston — the Baker administration is trying for a quick fix to a complex problem.

State environmental officials on Friday began the process of reapproving 17 municipal harbor plans that govern building along waterfronts from Gloucester to New Bedford, hoping that will be faster than appealing the ruling by Judge Brian Davis that the state has been improperly approving the plans for decades.
Click to expand...

It appears the first step is to re-write the regulations. With a public comment period, this should take a few months.
That means a new round of public review for the plans by state environmental agencies, but not rewriting them entirely at the local level first. That could mean the difference between months of delay, and perhaps years. State officials on Friday started the process of launching public comment, which could begin later in May.
Click to expand...
www.bostonglobe.com

Governor hopes to revive waterfront development plans tossed out by judge - The Boston Globe

A month after a Suffolk County judge tossed out waterfront development plans across the state — including a much-debated one in downtown Boston — the Baker administration is seeking a quick fix to a complex problem.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com


Once the revised regulations take effect, the proper state official probably will open up the erroneously approved plans for public comment, receive and review any comments, and approve the plans anew. I assume projects already built in accordance with an erroneously approved plan are grandfathered.

So, maybe a year.
 
Well that's good news and a step in the right direction. Too bad this, like almost everything else here, will move at half the pace of every other city's construction.
 
gac108 said:
Well that's good news and a step in the right direction. Too bad this, like almost everything else here, will move at half the pace of every other city's construction.
Click to expand...

Not EVERY other city. For instance, Detroit's 680' (down from over 900' at one point) Hudson Block Tower has been U/C for something like 3 years and still hasn't fully reached ground level. We're lucky we have had so much going on that all our hopes and dreams aren't in 1 skyscraper basket like they would have been before 2015. There are a few obvious cities that are absolutely killing it and Boston is at least closer to those than to the stagnant ones (for instance, Pittsburgh). Once South Station Tower is up, in under 10 years we'll have gone from 2 buildings over 200m to 6, and 5 buildings over 600' to 10. That's quite the top level revelation given that we went 40 years between 200m buildings and almost 30 years between our 5th and 6th 600' buildings!
 
Where the CLF grifters screwed up is getting a ruling that affected all development up and down the coast going back decades instead of something narrow regarding the garage. Now in an effort to head of frivolous lawsuits that you know are coming over already built projects, the entire state has an interest in fixing the issue in the court ruling. Normally pols from New Bedford to Newburyport wouldn't give a care about the fate of the Harbor Towers Garage. Now however they're probably all clamoring for a quick fix.
 
Some may recall that, last year, the Aquarium criticized Chiofaro's ENF for the Pinnacle for failing to address the public realm aspects of the project.

The Aquarium was really chiding the city of Boston for failing to develop and issue the design and use guidelines, covering the public realm. Chicken and egg situation. Chiofaro can't describe how the project addresses the guidelines when the guidelines haven't been issued.

The city had sat on its butt for months, after promising many months ago, to produce the guidelines. Finally, the city has started the process of developing these guidelines. The guidelines won't be issued until fall, and Chiuofaro will then presumably need to amend his ENF to reflect the guidelines. the amendment will be subject to public review and comment.

http://www.bostonplans.org/news-cal...gn-and-use-guidelines-for-downtown-waterfront

The delayed production of the city's guidelines means that while the state is apparently now correcting its approval process for municipal harbor plans, this probably will have little impact on the project timetable.
____________
There is a South Boston waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan that also was apparently approved in error by the Secretary. I believe the St. Regis / Whiskey Priest project is just outside its coverage boundary..

The final [South Boston] plan that was submitted to the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and in December 2000 was the result of many months of public meetings and significant input from area residents, property owners, neighborhood organizations, harbor advocates and an MHP advisory committee appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The Plan is the most expansive and ambitious of the City’s harbor plans including all areas subject to the state’s Waterways Regulations (Chapter 91) extending from West 4th Street at the end of the Fort Point Channel to Pier 4 along the inner harbor. The MHP planning principles developed to guide future waterfront development, enhance the public realm and activate the waterfront
Click to expand...
 
DZH22 said:
Not EVERY other city. For instance, Detroit's 680' (down from over 900' at one point) Hudson Block Tower has been U/C for something like 3 years and still hasn't fully reached ground level. We're lucky we have had so much going on that all our hopes and dreams aren't in 1 skyscraper basket like they would have been before 2015. There are a few obvious cities that are absolutely killing it and Boston is at least closer to those than to the stagnant ones (for instance, Pittsburgh). Once South Station Tower is up, in under 10 years we'll have gone from 2 buildings over 200m to 6, and 5 buildings over 600' to 10. That's quite the top level revelation given that we went 40 years between 200m buildings and almost 30 years between our 5th and 6th 600' buildings!
Click to expand...
Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but I also don't put Boston on the same level as Detroit or Pittsburgh- those 2 cities are in no way close to Boston in terms of growth, popularity, demand for various industries (med, tech, education, finance, etc), or just overall draw. I don't think anyone in the world would consider Boston to be a second-tier city along the levels of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Charlotte, etc. and would instead put it with Chicago, SF, LA, or NY in terms of "perceived" magnitude or impact to the US. I am thrilled with the construction boom we have been experiencing, especially during a time when so many other cities are struggling from the pandemic. My point was simply that Boston is notorious for all the hoops/red tape and lengthy approval processes and push-back from small but vocal groups. I get frustrated when a beautifully designed project with so many street-level and accessibility improvements such as this will bring to an iconic, heavily foot-trafficked spot (especially for what garbage obtrusive parking garage is there) is dragged out for decades for BS reasons. How long has it been teased that this garage was going to be taken down? Early to mid '00s? Also, I just want one iconic supertall over 1000 feet- not here obviously- to stand out on our lengthy plateau of a skyline. Ok rant over.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top