Seaport Neighborhood - Infill and Discussion

I hope Seaport Blvd. isn't so wide that it cuts of Fan Pier from the western part of Fort Point Channel.
 
I'm not too worried about the materials. The key thing is that the density and spacing is just about right given the area's location, and over the long-term having the right density will really answer all of its own questions. (Don't forget all the money that comes w/ it either!) What matters is that this development is going to bring tons of more people - and therefore *life* - to both sides of the Channel.

Throw Russia Wharf, South Station Tower, and Winthrop Square into that rendering and that's a pretty modern, good-looking city right there guys. Not too bad.
 
Like, by the Russians ...

Joe_Schmoe wrote:

It sure would have been nice such that when approaching the city by boat ...
Click to expand...

You mean like if we were being invaded by a foreign navy?
 
Re: Like, by the Russians ...

IMAngry said:
Joe_Schmoe wrote:

It sure would have been nice such that when approaching the city by boat ...
Click to expand...

You mean like if we were being invaded by a foreign navy?
Click to expand...
No point exerting ourselves to make the Seaport look good to an invading navy, because the invasion may never come and all our efforts would be wasted. Better to concentrate on making it look good to ferry commuters or tourists and conventioneers coming by water taxi from the airport.
 
What happened to this?

fanpier-2006.jpg


or

1157549587_2709.jpg
 
Re: Like, by the Russians ...

xec said:
IMAngry said:
Joe_Schmoe wrote:

It sure would have been nice such that when approaching the city by boat ...
Click to expand...

You mean like if we were being invaded by a foreign navy?
Click to expand...
No point exerting ourselves to make the Seaport look good to an invading navy, because the invasion may never come and all our efforts would be wasted. Better to concentrate on making it look good to ferry commuters or tourists and conventioneers coming by water taxi from the airport.
Click to expand...

maybe we could talk The Navy into parking The Constitution here. It would look nice to invading armies, aliens or commuter boat passengers.
 
palindrome said:
What happened to this?

fanpier-2006.jpg


or

1157549587_2709.jpg
Click to expand...

It looks like those are still in the new rendering, just not at that angle or with that much detail. First thing I looked for actually.
 
Those two renderings illustrate two totally different buildings. The first is light, sleek and elegant; the second is awkward, cheap-looking and dull.

And that rendering posted on the Fan Pier site--if it is indicative of what this development will actually look like-- is disgraceful. And I do have feeling that it may indeed be an accurate indication of what to expect because it is consistent with this developer's rapidly growing portfolio of garbage development in Boston's Seaport.

Our mayor loves touting Boston as a world-class city, but do you think cities like Chicago, San Francisco or New York would allow such a vast constellation of junk to be erected on their most prominent waterfront sites? This crap wouldnt even pass muster in Newport, Kentucky. World class embarrassment maybe.
 
briv said:
Those two renderings illustrate two totally different buildings. The first is light, sleek and elegant; the second is awkward, cheap-looking and dull.

And that rendering posted on the Fan Pier site--if it is indicative of what this development will actually look like-- is disgraceful. And I do have feeling that it may indeed be an accurate indication of what to expect because it is consistent with this developer's rapidly growing portfolio of garbage development in Boston's Seaport.

Our mayor loves touting Boston as a world-class city, but do you think cities like Chicago, San Francisco or New York would allow such a vast constellation of junk to be erected on their most prominent waterfront sites? This crap wouldnt even pass muster in Newport, Kentucky. World class embarrassment maybe.
Click to expand...

San Francisco, design considerations for 300+ acre Mission Bay site. (25+ meg pdf file)
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/sfra/Projects/MBD4DN.pdf

San Francisco, quicktime renderings for a 43 acre Mission Bay site:
http://pub.ucsf.edu/media/mbay_gtech_small_ref.mov

A residential building rendering for Mission Bay
http://www.ubayp.com/resources/ri/05/1027.html
 
stellarfun said:
briv said:
Those two renderings illustrate two totally different buildings. The first is light, sleek and elegant; the second is awkward, cheap-looking and dull.

And that rendering posted on the Fan Pier site--if it is indicative of what this development will actually look like-- is disgraceful. And I do have feeling that it may indeed be an accurate indication of what to expect because it is consistent with this developer's rapidly growing portfolio of garbage development in Boston's Seaport.

Our mayor loves touting Boston as a world-class city, but do you think cities like Chicago, San Francisco or New York would allow such a vast constellation of junk to be erected on their most prominent waterfront sites? This crap wouldnt even pass muster in Newport, Kentucky. World class embarrassment maybe.
Click to expand...

San Francisco, design considerations for 300+ acre Mission Bay site. (25+ meg pdf file)
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/sfra/Projects/MBD4DN.pdf

San Francisco, quicktime renderings for a 43 acre Mission Bay site:
http://pub.ucsf.edu/media/mbay_gtech_small_ref.mov

A residential building rendering for Mission Bay
http://www.ubayp.com/resources/ri/05/1027.html
Click to expand...


:oops: ...you can scratch San Francisco off that list. I assumed they knew better.
 
Actually when I was in San Francisco over the summer I was very impressed with what had been built in SoMa. There were a few buildings I felt were bland but for the most part the area worked together as a contemporary neighborhood.

Reading that design outline I think they hit the nail on the head. Where is this for the SBW?

Also, I can attest to many buildings going up in NYC that are cheap pre-cast construction. In fact almost all the new condos I see are like this. The only difference is in NYC they blend in well with the rest of the city. Anything in the SBW will stand out like a sore thumb, good or bad.
 
could all these failed designs actually be from a lack of something we all love to hate....nimbys?
 
palindrome said:
could all these failed designs actually be from a lack of something we all love to hate....nimbys?
Click to expand...

No, this is because these are the design standards of today and because they are cheap to build.
 
The Globe said:
History lesson

By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | March 28, 2007

O, Fan Pier! Is there another spot in this burg we call Boston with such a delicious, twisted history? A wind-swept parking lot with a harbor view that has promised so much and frustrated so many? And now history, deliciously, is threatening to repeat itself.

Turn the clock back nearly two decades. The year is 1990, and Anthony Athanas, the storied and cranky Boston restaurateur, had just lost a stunning court decision to his former partners to develop Fan Pier, the Pritzkers of Chicago. Athanas made a deal with the Pritzkers only to back out when he decided he wasn't being adequately compensated. The Pritzkers sued and won a judgment of nearly $60 million in damages and interest.

Facing ruin, Athanas' old friend, US Representative Joe Moakley, as good an inside player as this town has seen, stepped in. About 18 months after the judgment, Moakley engineered a surprise deal to put the new federal courthouse on Fan Pier rather than downtown where it belonged. Athanas got $34 million for the courthouse site, which he turned over to the Pritzkers along with the rest of Fan Pier. The key: Athanas got to keep his restaurants. And the city got a building block for the South Boston Waterfront.

Now, all these years later, Fan Pier remains the same wind-swept parking lot it was then -- save for the stunning new Institute of Contemporary Art. My question: Is Tom Menino taking a page straight from the Joe Moakley playbook?

What Joe Fallon, the latest in a line of would-be Fan Pier builders, needs more than anything is a tenant. And he and his friend, the mayor, have their eyes on a big one: the FBI, currently in the market for 270,000 square feet of space for its new Boston office. Menino told me last week that he had recently pitched the FBI and the Government Services Administration, the FBI's landlord, on Fan Pier as a site. "The federal courthouse and the FBI, right next to each other," Menino told me. "What better location could you have?"

Can Menino pull it off? The good old days of city building using the Fed's urban renewal checkbook is gone. But government buildings, even big government leases, remain a viable strategy. Think of Government Center, with its collection of city, state, and federal offices downtown. Now think of a new Government Center on the waterfront, including the federal courthouse, a new City Hall, and the FBI. That is what the mayor is thinking.

Fallon says the chat about town that his banker, MassMutual Financial Group, is getting anxious to see something happening on the huge $115 million investment on Fan Pier is baloney. "I have more than enough anxiety for both of us," he says. Fallon says he will break ground on an office building, even without tenants, and a hotel and condo building around the first of the year. MassMutual says it is "pleased with its partnership with Fallon."

The FBI is hardly a perfect fit on Fan Pier. This was supposed to be the jewel of the waterfront, a place filled with great architecture and great public spaces. In our post-Oklahoma City, post-9/11 world, the FBI's requirements favor security, not cafes. The FBI's bid proposal, just for instance, calls for the adjacent parking garage to be above ground; all the parking on Fan Pier is supposed to be underground. But, then, it is a tenant, which Fan Pier could sorely use.

The deadline for FBI bids is Friday. Fallon says he will definitely bid, but knows there are some FBI requirements he can't meet because of the restrictions on Fan Pier. His ace in the hole, if he has one, is the mayor. Can Tom Menino deliver for his friend on the Fan Pier as Joe Moakley delivered for his friend nearly two decades ago?

And is that good, or bad, for the waterfront?

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.
Click to expand...
Link
 
Great! Kill two birds with one bomb! This is a horrible idea. Send it out to 128 where it belongs.
 
I think it would be a great Idea. It would be the perfect compliment to the Federal court house.
 
Arch21 said:
I think it would be a great Idea. It would be the perfect compliment to the Federal court house.
Click to expand...

I think it looks good on paper but the Feds require so much security that it would kill any street level life and make the area feel even more like a suburban office park.
 
fbi

I took a look at the RFP for my own company...the FBI requires setbacks of 100 feet on each side of the building. With a 30,000 square foot floor plate, that would mean it would occupy a three acre site...ALL Alone. There is little if any chance that any developer, any where in the city, will be able, or willing, to meet these requirements. The highest and best use for fan pier is absolutely not such a building.
 
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