Raffles Boston (40 Trinity Place) | 426 Stuart Street | Back Bay

^ Agreed, I'm all for development, more density, etc., but Boston should not squander it's best long term competitive advantage - it's historic urban fabric. Another reflective glass box doesn't cut it.
 
There isn't really any historic urban fabric where this building is. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be crowding the Hancock too much, and the fact that it is slender and glass will help minimize that. The Hancock is a massive sculpture as much as it is a building and I hope the sky around it is preserved as long as possible.
 
Fair enough, maybe fabric is not the appropriate word for this site, but I do not like the incremental erosion of Boston's pre war building stock for lackluster replacements. It is the continual, albeit slow, march to architectural mediocrity that brings Boston gradually closer and closer to anytown USA.
 
^ I agree I think we need to keep the tear down and replace method at next to zero. As long as there are still open lots, garages, air rights, etc... I dont think there is a need.

In regards to this specific development- there is a hulking shitty garage 6 inches behind this that is already under review to be developed, maybe this could have been incorporated into that instead. They could have moved it between the ramp and dartmouth st. and knocked out a piece of the garage so this tower was at the intersection(almost exactly like govt center).

They also could have built it over the garage (like nashua st) at the corner of dartmouth and just put some glass over the garage to blend in. I think either of these would have been better- not just because it saves the old building, but it hides the ugly garage facing the street. The garage can be kept just develop the pieces that meet the streets. It would have solved two problems at once. Either way I like the renders and it wont be the end of the world when this is built. I just hope moving forward that this is not a trend ex: dainty dot, new hancock tower, this. We need more atlantic wharf, govt center type developments.
 
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Fair enough, maybe fabric is not the appropriate word for this site, but I do not like the incremental erosion of Boston's pre war building stock for lackluster replacements. It is the continual, albeit slow, march to architectural mediocrity that brings Boston gradually closer and closer to anytown USA.

Heartily agree.
 
Yeah, I dislike the Boston is gradually losing some of it's pre-war mid-rise stuff to be replaced with stumpy boxes. I know I'm in the minority, but I wish the South End has been developed into more of a higher-density mixed use style. It takes up so much of Central Boston with 3-5 story rowhomes. Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful and I love them, but I wish it had developed in more of a Greenwich Village/Nob Hill-style vernacular. In tern, I wish South End's current rowhouse streets were more common in the JP, Roxbury, Mission Hill, Brookline, etc.

Basically, I just wish Boston was bigger, so there was more room to re-develop and grow without tearing down the history of the city.
 
I agree completely. I feel like the center of boston has all of the rowhouses and thats it. It would have been nice if like you said it was higher density in the "city" and instead of triple deckers from there on out it it faded into rowhouses and then the farther you got from the city eventually faded into triple deckers.
 
Yeah, I dislike the Boston is gradually losing some of it's pre-war mid-rise stuff to be replaced with stumpy boxes. I know I'm in the minority...

Basically, I just wish Boston was bigger, so there was more room to re-develop and grow without tearing down the history of the city.

JPdivola -- Boston has plenty of fine streets with fine buildings that are not in danger of wholesale obliteration -- that era is over.
The essence of Boston is maintaining an appropriate balance between preservation of older quality design, historically significant structures, and new development for each era.

For example of not doing right is the Paul Revere House. Paul Revere modernized his old house's "Medieval style windows" as befits a modern and prosperous Late 18th C artisan and entrepreneur. He also raised the roof and built another floor of bed rooms to accommodate his growing family. One hundred plus years later ardent and well meaning "Preservationists" removed the 3rd story and reinstalled the old style of windows -- removing from the "historic house" the the most hands-on-by-Revere aspects. It's good that the house, which had deteriorated into a near tenement by the end of the 19th C was saved -- However, it's debatable as to whether the saving in its current form lost the true history and presents a distorted view of Revere the man and his house.

On the other hand -- some argued, during the interminable interregnum and the hole in DTX -- that the Vornado plan for the old Filene's block would have preserved more of the early 20th C retail ethos. Few today however would argue against the outcome of the Millennium Tower coupled with the fully restored Burnham building. A very successful example of the proper balance of old and new.

Note that there are a whole lot of non-descript, if 50 to 100 year old, stuff, that is just as good a site for development as the open lots and parking garages, all of which at one time had been just more of the same old non-descript buildings. So, Yes, lets develop the open lots and old garages, but if the development and prosperity of Boston consumes a few dozen everyday old buildings every decade -- then so be it.

Some might mourn the loss of such as the Travelers, the Dainty Dot, or the University Club. However, as long as Boston continues to respects and understands the importance to the present and future, of the past including its architecture -- as long as we save the outstanding and the very good such as the Chadwick Leadworks, the Cunard, the old Federal Reserve, Ames, etc. -- Boston will remain Boston and I will not fear for the soul of the city.
 
Its is not a question of whether it is ok to miss the buildings you identify. The better question is whether the replacements are an improvement. In this case, my opinion is that trading an old London style club building for a glass box that looks like the centerpiece of Worcester or New Haven is a bad trade.

Show me something better and I'll change my mind. (As if that mattered much!)
 
Its is not a question of whether it is ok to miss the buildings you identify. The better question is whether the replacements are an improvement. In this case, my opinion is that trading an old London style club building for a glass box that looks like the centerpiece of Worcester or New Haven is a bad trade.

Show me something better and I'll change my mind. (As if that mattered much!)

+1
 
http://www.bldup.com/projects/40-trinity-place


Mar 22, 2016

A Notice of Project Change (NPC) was submitted recently for the approved development at 40 Trinity Place in Copley Square. Developer Trinity Stuart LLC now proposes a 31-story tower with 154 hotel rooms and 146 residential units. The number of proposed hotel rooms has been reduced by 73, while the number of proposed residential units has been increased by 31. Previously proposed on-site affordable housing units have been eliminated; instead, 39 affordable housing units would be built off site. A total of 17 on-site affordable units were previously proposed.



A two-story parking garage previously proposed for floors 4 and 5 has been eliminated; under the previous proposal, 40 Trinity Place would have risen 33 stories. The building's height has been reduced by seven feet to 393 feet tall under the current proposal. Trinity Stuart LLC has entered long-term agreements with area parking garages to supply parking to building residents and hotel visitors.



An approximately 11,300 square foot expansion for the existing Boston Common Hotel's University Club on the proposed building's third floor has been retained under the current proposal. Amenities previously proposed for the building's 18th and 19th floors will now be located on the 15th and 16th floors. Minor changes have been made to the proposed building's ground floor.

An exterior rendering of the latest proposal is posted above. Renderings of the proposed 15th and 16th floor amenities are posted below along with a second exterior rendering.
 
Thanks...

Guess i'll slide me over to the group that no longer gives a rats ass if this ever gets built

to go along with those who never did.

apparently, we just don't have enough 336-400' buildings.

too many go from ok to sort of lousy by the time the cranes arrive.

and the next atrocity? Back Bay Station.
 
There used to be a day when a 350'+ building would get a ton of buzz on here, those days are gone for now

Maybe after this development cycle ends 350' will be a big deal again
 
well sure,

because that's about as tall as you'll be able to go in 5 years w/ the scraps that are left.

i suppose there will be a few where they'll try for as high as 33 Arch, say on a parcel like 1076-1080 Boylston, Midtown Hotel, or Colonnade..... But in the end, the nimby's will ruin it, and they'll put up the next 299' no impact nothing tower.

i suppose we need a 'where if ever will we go tall after this' thread.
 
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I was waiting for the Bldup update to get posted. It's nothing new. By "recently" they mean December 28, 2015 which is when the NPC was filed. We actually talked about it back then. See all of Page 9, especially Post 161.
 
It'll still go above 400ft in the end. No great loss. Whatever.
 
Is the garage where the eastern bank is going anywhere? It's ugly

I that part of the back bay garage redevelopment?
 
Do we know if the lighter colored crown portion at the top is not part of the 393'?

I believe it's 393 to the bottom of the penthouse floor. Looks like there is an additional 20 feet or so with the crown.
 
According to what I have seen the roof of this will reach 400 feet and it appears likely the crown could reach another 20 to 30 feet above that. The zoning height is based on what is said in the NPC (at least I think thats where I saw it). In the building design section it said the developer was looking for the highest occupied floor to reach 400 feet based on a study done by the city that suggested that height for the site and it was mentioned because the building needed a zoning variance to reach that height.
 

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