Downtown developer bucks trend; still plans condos in new tower
By adamg - Tue, 09/01/2009 - 10:23pm.
New buidling on EssexDeveloper Ori Ron told the Boston Civic Design Commission tonight he still plans to build a tower combining condos with retail space at the Dainty Dot parcel at Kingston and Essex streets, where Chinatown meets the Leather District and the Greenway.
Ron also told commission members and nearby residents he would not leave them with another Filene's-type hole: He said he would not tear down the existing Dainty Dot building until he has financing in place to at least build the external frame of the tower.
Ron showed the commission revised plans for the 180-unit building - which already has city approval - that would lower its height from 291 to 261 feet, decrease the number of parking spaces in a garage built into the building's lower floors and do away completely with the skeletal remains of the Dainty Dot building that now sits on the parcel. As a sop to preservationists, Ron had originally proposed saving the facade of that building and reapplying it as a front on one side of the new tower, but it turned out nobody liked that idea.
Ron and his architect also showed how they had basically made the building more boring to satisfy Boston Redevelopment Authority planners who did not want it becoming an "iconic" structure that would take attention away from the Greenway or other nearby buildings - including museums and similar structures that might one day be built along the Greenway.
Commission member Andrea Leers said the new proposal is a marked improvement but that the building is still probably 100 feet too tall. City zoning for that area calls for buildings no more than 100 feet tall, but the BRA last year granted permission for the much taller building.
Member Lynn Wolff declared the new building "not at all better," adding, "Once again we've created a building that is greatly compromised by the process."
Member Michael Davis: "It's still far too much building for a small site." However, Davis acknoweldged Ron was in an impossible position because of so many competing demands: Housing advocates want affordable housing for Chinatown - Ron is building 47 affordable units nearby - preservationists want to keep the Dainty Dot building and Chinatown business owners want something, anything, built on the parcel now.
Member Kirk Sykes said he likes the project, because the Greenway will remain a barren expanse of grass without people living nearby to actually use it after the tourists leave.
