Seaport Neighborhood - Infill and Discussion

Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

I'm curious what the seaport would look like if all the glass boxes were literally all cubes. Glass cubes lined up in neat rows and columns. Led lit cubes. The idea seems really cool in concept, but it would probably not be good as a neighborhood at all. It's like those brutalist buildings downtown, that shall go unnamed. They have a ton of merit as art, with some kind of dark twisted beauty to them... but they should have stayed on paper. Completely non functional for binding together a thriving city. Would have been better places on the movie set for some dystopian theme.

Oh yeah. Seaport. I see glass boxes, but sometimes I like to picture them as cubes.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

CSTH said:
Yeah this looks awesome. Especially because its such a prominent location. Don't forget about the connection under the bridge to the barking crab 'plaza' too (and the rowboat rental under the bridge actually activates the space really nicely..though the underbridge space would beneft bigly from some thoughtful 'tactical urbanism').

This looks like we could end up with a nice continuous active pedestrian boardwalk from Congress st all the way to northern ave
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CSTH -- don't forget the GE part of the Fort Point Channel branch of the Harbor Walk

I'm guessing that over the next 10 years the walk from Dorchester Ave to the Northern Ave [bridge or whatever] will become a showpiece -- another [slightly smaller scale] "Emerald Necklace with:

  • Northern Ave Bridge /whatever its called Park
  • right after Martin's Park [in time] will come GE Plaza [when the HQ is finished] with a nice walk to the Summer St. Bridge
  • and then will come GE Park where an ugly parking lot is currently located
  • then finally at the Dot Ave end -- P&G / Gillette Park -- they'll be shamed into this after they see GE Park
  • finally we'll see a re-opened and landscaped DOt Ave when the USPS leaves

All connected by a nice well landscaped walkway [mostly paid for by private contributions]
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

So the FP Guy claimed everything near GE as his -- this one also I presume is his as is the Reserve Channel

https://goo.gl/maps/2i9hyQeTKQS2

Give me a break -- that's akin to telling everyone to vacate Massasoit's land
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

whighlander said:
So the FP Guy claimed everything near GE as his -- this one also I presume is his as is the Reserve Channel

https://goo.gl/maps/2i9hyQeTKQS2

Give me a break -- that's akin to telling everyone to vacate Massasoit's land
Click to expand...

??

GE is moving to the Fort Point. It was the Fort Point District before they moved there, and it won't change because one company is moving their headquarters and a mere 800 employees there.

You can see the outline of the Fort Point here. The BPDA website even shows the 100 acre masterplan as being in the Fort Point, which also won't change because GE is moving there. The companies that move there might be different from what they had in mind, but the overall plan will not change.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

whighlander said:
So the FP Guy claimed everything near GE as his -- this one also I presume is his as is the Reserve Channel

https://goo.gl/maps/2i9hyQeTKQS2

Give me a break -- that's akin to telling everyone to vacate Massasoit's land
Click to expand...

Your fetishism for the 800 person GE headquarters is... odd to say the least. That other thread made no sense - why would rename a historic district of the city because of a single company? Calling it GE Area is silly.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

How's the landscaping plans for Seaport Blvd coming anyway? Shame for all the construction guys from NH and cops from Quincy to lose their prime parking spaces on the median.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

bakgwailo said:
Your fetishism for the 800 person GE headquarters is... odd to say the least. That other thread made no sense - why would rename a historic district of the city because of a single company? Calling it GE Area is silly.
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Bakgwallo -- its not the 800 person building per se -- its the new vision for GE which comes as part of the move to Boston that can make the GE HQ at least the same kind of catalyst to energize Boston that DEC used to be and before DEC, Raytheon. Note that we we were in the process of growing one in EMC before its merger with Dell -- now the future of EMC is unclear [even with Michael Dell buying a penthouse in the Millennium Tower].

After we lost DEC and since in the major Defence Industry Consolidation [Bill Clinton's Peace Dividend after the Cold War ended] -- with Raytheon morphing into something else [by merging with Hughes and E-Signals] than the old familiar Lexington HQ'ed Co with major operations in Bedford, Waltham & along Rt 20 and along I-93 North. Greater Boston has not had a really major home-based dynamic Tech company. Now we have GE.

Beyond the sheer scale of GE as a corporation -- there is already a substantial GE Keiretsu including Rethink Robotics [located @ 27-43 Wormwood in the Fort Point neighborhood]

Finally and most exciting however is the commitment of GE to making the GE HQ complex into a center for STEM and incubating of tech spin offs.

In several documents I've likened its potential to the role played by the Charles Williams Co [109 Court St.]. Williams was not only a successful manufacturer of telegraph equipment -- he also made his staff and facilities available after normal business hours. The 109 Court St. facility was the incubator for:
  • a young very entrepreneurial inventor who would later be one of the creators of what is now GE -- he got his first patent based on work he did in some space in a corner of Williams Co.
  • the Fire Alarm Telegraph -- considered by some to be the invention which saved more lives than any other at least until the later part of the 20th C
  • and the invention -- the patent associated which is generally considered the most valuable invention in history

the names associated with the above are left to the reader

If 1 GE Plaza or whatever it is eventually called -- has even a fraction of the impact of 109 Court St -- it will have been the most important business emigration to Boston ever
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

whighlander said:
In several documents I've likened its potential to the role played by the Charles Williams Co [109 Court St.]. Williams was not only a successful manufacturer of telegraph equipment -- he also made his staff and facilities available after normal business hours. The 109 Court St. facility was the incubator for:
  • a young very entrepreneurial inventor who would later be one of the creators of what is now GE -- he got his first patent based on work he did in some space in a corner of Williams Co.
  • the Fire Alarm Telegraph -- considered by some to be the invention which saved more lives than any other at least until the later part of the 20th C
  • and the invention -- the patent associated which is generally considered the most valuable invention in history

the names associated with the above are left to the reader
Click to expand...

Edison
Channing & Farmer
Bell

These would be some worthy names for streets around the GE HQ. (Of course, Edison in particular.)
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

other than 150 Seaport and the Harbinger hotel development at the other end of Summer Street, can anyone name the projects that aren't yet under construction? ...anyone have a roll call for recently topped?
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

odurandina said:
other than 150 Seaport and the Harbinger hotel development at the other end of Summer Street, can anyone name the projects that aren't yet under construction? ...anyone have a roll call for recently topped?
Click to expand...

approved, with potential 2017 starts:
- 660 Summer Street, Harbinger Hotel, starts Q2/Q3 2017
- 150 Seaport Boulevard, starts mid 2017
- Drydock Avenue, Parcel Q1, starts Q3 2017
- 315 Northern Avenue, Parcel K, starts 3/2017
- 501 Congress Street, Waterside Place Phase 1B, starts spring 2017
- 399 Congress Street, The Residences at the Sausage Parcel, starts ???
- 145 Seaport Boulevard, Block M, starts soon
- Martin's Park (though technically Fort Point), starts 2017
- 25 Fid Kennedy Avenue, Parcel N, Cannistraro Factory, start imminent
- 318 Northern Avenue, starts ???

recently topped:
- 50 Liberty Drive

hopefully will be proposed soon:
- Fan Pier Parcel E
- Fan Pier Parcel H
- Seaport Square Parcel D
- Seaport Square Parcel G

65Jvwcu.png


Seaport-Square-map.png
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

GR,

Thank you very much sir, and for all the amazing photos you gave us this year.

Merry Christmas.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

JeffDowntown said:
Edison
Channing & Farmer
Bell

These would be some worthy names for streets around the GE HQ. (Of course, Edison in particular.)
Click to expand...

JeffDowntown -- BRAVO!!

I was expecting the Channing and Farmer for the Fire Alarm Telegraph to trip-up most people

For a Bonus who was the first bonafide Telecom Millionaire??
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Thank you.

What is the proposal for Parcel H (Fan Pier)? I know I could look it up, but ...

Reason I ask is, a narrow lot compared to others and, if I'm not mistaken, shares the same underground parking lot as the Northern Ave building next door, just completed?
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

JohnAKeith said:
What is the proposal for Parcel H (Fan Pier)? I know I could look it up, but ...

Reason I ask is, a narrow lot compared to others and, if I'm not mistaken, shares the same underground parking lot as the Northern Ave building next door, just completed?
Click to expand...

Just like every parcel at Fan Pier, no recent renders exist for Fan Pier Parcel H, and probably, unfortunately, will not exist until the day we're told that it's starting construction that very day. In most full-development renderings, H looks like I's thinner twin.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Any idea when parcel M is supposed to start?
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

whighlander said:
JeffDowntown -- BRAVO!!

I was expecting the Channing and Farmer for the Fire Alarm Telegraph to trip-up most people

For a Bonus who was the first bonafide Telecom Millionaire??
Click to expand...

I think this question is a bit in dispute, and depends on when you try to snapshot the wealth. (I could have this totally wrong, depending on how you define millionaire.)

Alexander Graham Bell's shares in the Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T) would have made him the first telecom millionaire, but he didn't keep them, he gifted most of them to his wife Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, nee Mabel Bell.

Mabel Bell's father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, also had significant shares in the Bell Telephone Company and was President and Chairman. Mable also gave her father power of attorney over her shares while he was alive.

So it was either Gardiner Greene Hubbard or Mabel Bell (after she inherited back her and her father's shares), depending on the date that the stock valuation passed $1 million.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

JeffDowntown said:
I think this question is a bit in dispute, and depends on when you try to snapshot the wealth. (I could have this totally wrong, depending on how you define millionaire.)

Alexander Graham Bell's shares in the Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T) would have made him the first telecom millionaire, but he didn't keep them, he gifted most of them to his wife Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, nee Mabel Bell.

Mabel Bell's father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, also had significant shares in the Bell Telephone Company and was President and Chairman. Mable also gave her father power of attorney over her shares while he was alive.

So it was either Gardiner Greene Hubbard or Mabel Bell (after she inherited back her and her father's shares), depending on the date that the stock valuation passed $1 million.
Click to expand...

JeffDowntown -- You are well versed on these matters

However, I believe that as the Bell Stock was in flux because of the patent disputes the person who actually made it across the line first was Charles Williams Jr.

He essentially converted his business in very short order to become both the original Bell Labs and more financially significant -- Charles Williams Co. -- became the designated manufacturer for the Bell System. in 1882 Williams sold out to Western Electric for $120,000 cash and stock in the newly recapitalized manufacturer [he stayed on as GM until he retired in 1886].

Williams_WE_Ad4c.jpg


as an aside Williams also had the first Telephone Line to a private residence and the first home telephone in his house in Somerville [April 4, 1877]
williamshouse2a.JPG
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

I can't believe the price discrepancy Boston vs Cambridge
$56 vs $66 Sq-Ft
That's pretty significant--

Saw this in the comment field.
rkiley212/25/16 08:04 PM
The Seaport presents a notoriously difficult for those who work there, the Silver line is not as reliable as Red Orange, Blue or Red lines and traffic is horrid.
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Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

TheRifleman said:
I can't believe the price discrepancy Boston vs Cambridge
$56 vs $66 Sq-Ft
That's pretty significant--
Click to expand...

I have to wonder if some of the discrepancy is Lab Space in the Cambridge number (a lot more there than Seaport or Downtown). If that number is cleanly office space only, that is a big difference.

This is the Globe reporting, so probably not terrible careful with the details. For example, the Shire PLC lease, cited in the article, is a mixed office and lab space lease. Kendall Square leases are averaging about $76 per sq. ft., but many of the leases include lab space (which is much more expensive than office space).

You really need to see a head to head comparison of Class A office space to Class A office space to know what the real comparison is.
 
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