Rose Kennedy Greenway

Probably asked and answered, but what is the construction project on an entire square parcel of the RKG near the Customs House?

Another few observations of the RKG after a walk from SS to FH yesterday:

1. Above comments re. buildings facing away from RKG due to history are spot on. Near Aquarium are long streetwalls with nothing of value for pedestrian.

2. Intercontinental and Independence Wharf, both fairly recent projects, are TERRIBLE in their interface with RKG. This is surprising since A) RKG was a known entity and B) public comments prior to approvals for both projects highlighted these problems.

3. The RKG is incredibly well maintained and it is appreciated to stroll along on a December day and see hardy plants instead of dreary trees and shrubs.

4. The artwork is extremely sterile, little challenging and sometimes seems like an opportunity for architects to burnish resumes as opposed to presenting mindblowing work. Architects seem to be investing heavily in structural experiments that left me bereft of the benefit of great art.

5. Too many signs. Don't climb on sculpture. Don't sit here. Park closes at 11:00 PM. Please donate to the Conservancy. Etc.

To get into psychoanalysis, these last two points seem representative of a decision-making process dominated by folks who are either anal retentive of fearful of the unknown.

On the recent discussion regarding Boston in general. It is notable that Boston doesn't have a district with an EXTREME residential density -- I mean the equivalent of the Financial District with housing instead of office space. That may be the kind of density required to activate something as large as the RKG.

Overall I still give the RKG a thumbs-up long term. As the Globe suggested recently, patience is key.
 
There's an Armenian garden and labyrinth under construction just north of Quincy Market and Christopher Columbus Park ... but that is not near the Custom House.
 
Ron Newman said:
There's an Armenian garden and labyrinth under construction just north of Quincy Market and Christopher Columbus Park ... but that is not near the Custom House.
Click to expand...

Ron, Scicil, etc -- After the huge controversy about a monument to the Armenian Genocide and monuments on the Greenway

Ironically the non-confrontational, no-controversial privately funded Armenian Garden might be the very thing to activate the Greenway

Consider the following:

1) Armenians have some of the highest per capita income and wealth of any relatively recent immigrant group to the US

2) Watertown is a major center for Armenian religion, community and culture in the US
http://www.almainc.org/

"Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA)
ALMA purchased and renovated its present building in 1988. A former bank designed by renowned architect Ben Thompson, it is a modern, four-story brick and glass building in the heart of Watertown, Massachusetts, the center one of America's largest Armenian communities.

ARMENIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICA
A Division of ALMA

This Museum’s collections constitute the largest and most diverse holding of Armenian cultural artifacts outside of the Republic of Armenia. They comprise over 20,000 artifacts, including: 5,000 ancient and medieval Armenian coins, over 3,000 textiles and 180 Armenian inscribed rugs, and an extensive collection of Urartian and religious artifacts, ceramics, medieval illuminations and various other items."


3) the Armenian Garden is being built to the highest quality standards in materials and workmanship -- comparable to recent construction of the plazas at the MFA

4) Armenians are very entrepreneurial
Think of all of the Oriental and Persian rug stores -- 90+% owned by Armenians

5) Armenians might want to invest in developing retail and other properties on and near to the Greenway

6) the Armenian Garden may become a global site for Armenian "pilgrimages"
 
So what happens when a Turkish Restaurant opens on the Greenway?
 
^ this is the most offensive thing i have read in a long time.....

and i couldn't stop laughing!

well played... well played.
 
I think it's a little...don't know quite the right word...odd? depressing? dark? politicized?...to have spaces dedicated to the Irish famine, Holocaust, and now Armenian genocide all in relatively close proximity (yes, I know they aren't next to each other). Of course, these are all hugely important historical events, and making them so "public"/pedestrian-heavy is obviously defensible (lest we forget), but I feel that such somber memorials are best placed in more quiet, discreet and reflective spaces.

And whighlander's suggestion that a garden could possibly be non-confrontational/non-controversial is a bit naive, perhaps. Did you just hear Erdogan rip Sarkozy a new one for the recent French ruling that it is illegal to deny the genocide? Whatever your politics, regardless of intent, however tasteful, this is definitely going to be interpreted as offensive and a slap in face to Turks.
 
Last edited:
Ron, not every part of the world moves on and forgets history so quickly. In particular paces with a strong tradition of passing down oral histories are ripe for centuries old conflicts to flare up for what appears to be no particularly logical reason to an outside observer. People are far more tribal than you'd like to think in a supposed age of nation states.

Sticking a controversial monument in the middle of the Greenway is just asking to exponentially increase the variety of issues the Greenway is going to have to deal with politically to ultimately evolve into something successful.
 
If we are going to get into the sad memories business, I'd be more impressed with some memorials that dealt directly American history, for example, the conquest of and genocide against the Indians, and African slavery for rum and profit.
 
Few plans for Greenway parcel
.Boston Business Journal by Thomas Grillo, Real Estate Editor
Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 2:12pm EST
An artist rendering of the Boston Museum that was proposed in 2009.
Thomas Grillo
Real Estate Editor - Boston Business Journal

Email Two years after the state rejected four proposals for one of the last parcels on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, officials are seeking new plans for the property, but fewer developers are expected to compete this time.

Development teams have until March 9 to devise plans for Parcel 9, the 29,400-square-foot lot at the corner of Blackstone and North streets steps from Faneuil Hall. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has re-issued the Request For Proposal which calls for some of the same uses as the original RFP including ground floor retail that would complement the Haymarket Square push cart vendors and allows uses such as housing, office space, a hotel, or a cultural center on the upper floors.

In 2009, a proposal by Eastat Realty Capital was favored by the MassDOT staff for its $35 million plan that included apartments above a ground-floor produce market. But the idea was rejected by MassDOT’s board who heard from push cart vendors who said the early morning noise made by fruit and vegetable sellers are incompatible with housing. The other original proposals included a $120 million Boston Museum by developer Frank Keefe that depended upon taxpayer funding , a five-story building with art galleries or offices on the upper levels by DeNormandie Cos., and a six-story, 137,000-square-foot office building by the Gutierrez Co. .Gutierrez Co. Latest from The Business Journals E Ink lease is quite a deal, after reading the fine printE Ink moving to BillericaE Ink moving to Gutierrez facility in Billerica Follow this company .
William Caldor, managing director of Guitterez Co., a Burlington, Mass. developer, said he will reapply only if his company can secure a single tenant for the second through fifth floors. “It’s a centrally located parcel in downtown Boston in one of the best neighborhoods in the city —the North End,” he said. “You’ve got the MBTA Green Line and Orange Line nearby and a significant amount of foot traffic and demand in the area. If we can sign the tenant we are negotiating with, we expect to compete again.”

Boston Museum CEO Frank Keefe did not return calls seeking comment. But the museum’s board member Roger Berkowitz, CEO of Legal Sea Foods .Legal Sea Foods Latest from The Business Journals Blount buys Cape Cod Chowder, plans production move to R.I.285 Marietta seeking ‘destination attraction’Brio Tuscan Grille to open near Inner Harbor Follow this company ., said the museum expects to be a bidder. It’s unclear if others will compete. Eastat Realty Capital was disbanded and its owner Eamon O’Marah joined Jones Lang LaSalle ..

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has said he wants something built on the site as soon as possible. “I am looking for the most viable project that will get built right away,” Menino told reporters two years ago.
Click to expand...


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/real_estate/2012/01/few-plans-for-greenway-parcel.html?page=all


Love the comments at the bottom of the page. So true it hurts

James J. Adams · Founder at J. Adams Commercial
As long as Mayor Menino, the BRA’s Peter Meade, and the BRA’s chief planner, Kairos Shen, continue to ignore the concept of land economics and allow any and all special interest group in the vicinity of the Greenway to oppose and hold up development, the Greenway will continue to be the Deadway. It will not have even achieved its mission as a link north-south or east-west because it follows a circular path that Bostonians understand the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. That holds true especially in the winter but even in the summer as activity along the lots of the Deadway is nonexistent.
Land and construction costs require a developer to construct an income producing property large enough to generate a return on investment—simple as that. A 10-story building along the Greenway doesn’t do it. A 5-story market and office building doesn’t do it. A carousel doesn’t do it.
Boston has a fear of heights. But only height generates sufficient income that will lead to development and activity on the Greenway. Or we can look at the Aquarium garage for the next 20 years, while the Mayor ignores the Chiofaro Company’s and Prudential Insurance’s logical plan to develop an appropriate office tower.
Reply · Like· 18 hours ago

Dennis DiTullio · Qteros at Independent Consultant
We should be focused on affordable housing along the Greenway....think about the 99% and not about the 1%.
Reply · Like· 17 hours ago
Click to expand...

Blogger Mr. James Adams has just rebranded the name of the Rose Kennedy Greenway to the Rose Kennedy Deadway. This guy should run the BRA.

Classic....We just moved away from the Glorified Median Strip to the Deadway.

I think looking at Aquarium Garage for the next 20 years is proof that the BRA is doing a great job.
 
Last edited:
BostonObserver said:
More low income housing, just what the city lacks.
Click to expand...

Taking valuable taxable land and somehow transforming it into burden on the backs of taxpayer is something the BRA has had a mastery of since its inception.
 
Lurker said:
Taking valuable taxable land and somehow transforming it into burden on the backs of taxpayer is something the BRA has had a mastery of since its inception.
Click to expand...

Riff -- when you are quoting --edit out the useless and irrelevant KRAP -- no-one cares about the peripheral stories associated with the various potential developers especially in Dallas

Lunk --this is exactly the same discussion that occurred in Cambridge after the collapse of NASA ERC in what is now Bio Heaven

the only proposal for Kendall / Cambridge Center in the 1970's / early 1980's which I haven't yet heard for the Greenway is a new City Hall

I suggest that rather than hurry to some unpleasant decisions -- lets put in some simple plantings wherever there is an open site and Let the whole area evolve on its own over the next few decades -- then we can see how it turned-out
 
The problem with turning every vacant lot into a park is that they become sacred cows to NIMBYs. Even if poorly maintained and a financial burden, they persist and block a better use of the site. The South End is now littered with townhouse sized lots turned into crummy parks, which other than serving as dog waste receptacles, add nothing to the neighborhood. But because they are "parks" the lots can't be redeveloped, back into some very valuable high demand housing which would put a lot of money back into the city's coffers, rather than persisting as nontaxable land perpetually drawing resources from an already strained Parks Department. Downtown is too valuable and important to be allowed to lay fallow for a glorified highway median.
 
The trick is finding the right balance.

Cities do need open space, it's not really an either/or situation. It a matter of the correct quantity, location and quality.
 
Lurk -- "The problem with turning every vacant lot into a park... which other than serving as dog waste receptacles, add nothing to the neighborhood " -- our good friends the Canine Americans have to go sometime -- and as we all know -- when you have to go -- you have to go :=}
 
Oh great, now we get to hear from all the would-be Bundys who hate animals and think they should all be slaughtered.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top