Rose Kennedy Greenway

About 8 months ago I tried to think up what a carousel designed by Rem Koolhaas would look like on this site.

Needless to say, trying to think like Rem Koolhaas is a major bitch.
 
It’s go or no go for garage sites
O’Brien’s plans get early nod from city, while Chiofaro idles
By Jerry Kronenberg
Sunday, June 26, 2011 - Updated 11 hours ago



E-mail Print (6) Comments Text size Share Call it a “Tale of Two Garages.”

Developer Tom O’Brien’s bid to revive stalled plans to build two skyscrapers where the Government Center Garage now stands is winning cautious praise from Boston officials.

But developer Don Chiofaro’s bid to revive stalled plans for two skyscrapers where the Boston Harbor Garage now stands is earning official scorn.

Why?

Market watchers say that while Chiofaro and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino have long publicly feuded, the projects’ varying fates stem mostly from differences between the two plans.

“I really think things are being driven by building aesthetics, not by the politics,” said the Boston Harbor Association’s Vivian Li, who’s long followed development along Boston’s waterfront.

O’Brien unveiled a scaled-down proposal Wednesday to build 2.4 million square feet of office space, stores, condos and hotel rooms at the Government Center Garage site.

That’s some 1 million square feet less than originally envisioned — and O’Brien reduced the proposed buildings’ heights in response to neighbors’ complaints.

Menino, who’d opposed the original proposal, gave the downsized version a tentative thumbs-up.

“I hope (the project) will move forward very quickly,” he said.

By contrast, Chiofaro got a cold shoulder last September when he knocked 300,000 square feet and several stories off of his plans to build two mixed-use skyscrapers at the Harbor Garage site.

A spokesman for abutters called the revised plan “a hollow effort,” while a Boston Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman dismissed Chiofaro’s move as a “PR scheme.”

Chiofaro and the city have long crossed swords over the Harbor Garage project.

Menino told the Herald in 2009 that “the chances of Don Chiofaro building (the Harbor Garage development) are about as likely as an 80-degree day in January.”

Chiofaro’s company, which declined to comment for this story, countered that a city-commissioned study that concluded the BRA should ban skyscrapers near the Greenway “was a setup from the beginning.”

Experts say O’Brien, who headed the BRA from 1997 to 1999, got a better response because he knows how to win city approval for projects.

“(O’Brien) understands the BRA process in a way that I don’t think Chiofaro has been able to get his arms around yet,” a person familiar with BRA operations said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Insiders say the two projects’ slightly different locations are also key.

Both sites are about one block from the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, but the Government Center Garage is a block to the west — while the Boston Harbor Garage is a block to the east.

That’s significant because being to the east of the Greenway means Chiofaro’s project is just steps from Boston Harbor, triggering special state laws regulating oceanside development.

The Government Center Garage is some six blocks from the water, so state rules covering building density, open space and public access to the ocean don’t apply.

“One of the key issues for Chiofaro is that he’s on the water side of the Greenway — and that’s a huge issue,” said the person familiar with BRA operations. “The rules are much more difficult for developments on the water.”

http://news.bostonherald.com/busine...6&format=&page=2&listingType=real#articleFull
 
There was an article about three weeks ago that Chiofaro and BRA head Meade have been talking. That would be a positive sign.
 
spotted last week from afar>
111-2.jpg
 
The GC Garage doesn't abut the Greenway. It abuts the ramp parcel where the YMCA was supposed to be built.
 
^ Looks great in an already successful public space like that Vienna boulevard. My fear is that it would scream "temporary" or "under construction" on the Greenway - just another attempt to program an underused space rather than truly activate it.

On the other hand, since it's better than what's there already, I don't see the harm in trying it.
 
Nice idea, briv -- we could have statuettes of the Mayor and City Council dressed in jockey garb, holding lanterns. Or, perhaps, a few dozen "MeniGnomes" scattered around the Greenway.
 
"Total Recall" was the first thing that came to my mind. The second thing was "WTF?"
 
We couldn't build the house of hammocks because that is adding too much shade to the Greenway.

Love the Total Recall 3 Tit women.
 
There was a temporary hammock on the Greenway last summer, courtesy of the Awesome Foundation.
 
The Rings Fountain is an unqualified success. Whenever it is operating, it draws a large crowd of both 'participants' and 'spectators'.
 
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