Seaport Neighborhood - Infill and Discussion

Re: South Boston Seaport

briv said:
I'd like to see this. Anyone know where it can be found?
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I remember McCourt's plan well, because it was a fairly comprehensive Master Plan developed and presented without much fanfare while Pritzker's Fan Pier project and approvals were capturing all the headlines.

McCourt didn't get anywhere for one reason: politics. It had nothing to do with the quality of his plan, which was actually fairly well thought out.

Google "Gateway Project" and McCourt for references.

Here is one interesting reference, a thesis paper:

http://envstudies.brown.edu/theses/01Wilson.pdf

The stadium had nothing to do with it. That was a trial balloon, floated before and after the Gateway Project was being presented.
 
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Re: South Boston Seaport

TheRifleman said:
^^^^
I like McCourt's Vision.........
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Did you ever play baseball?

His diamond is oriented so that the batter gets to stare into an afternoon sun. If he reversed the diamond, then it would become a pitchers park with a damp east wind right off the water.

Plus, he probably could never get insurance given his proposed park is at the end of a departure runway.
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Looks like new LED signage going up between the Westin and Conv Center...

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Re: South Boston Seaport

I rest my case. The 'Innovation District' is a marketing gimmick similar to what real estate agents do when they need to sell properties outside desirable areas. That's why you see agents advertising west of Mass Ave condos as "South End" and Downtown Crossing condos as "foot of Beacon Hill".

I'm uneasy about the whole ID concept, even after giving it props for having been successful, to date. Something seems off to me. That they are building apartments is a good thing, at least it will give a bit of balance to the hotels and restaurants that exist there, now. But, I don't see how this takes care of the acres of open land, in the center of the district, that remain unbuilt. You can build in phases, but I don't know if that will work. And, I fear the "mallifcation" of the district, as we've all discussed before.

Are there enough people who want to live in such a place?

And, are the right types of properties being built that will create a cohesiveness?

An urban planner would have an opinion on this.

Gemvara opens HQ in Boston and extends the boundaries of the ID
InnovationDistrict.org

This Monday, August 8th, Mayor Menino was on hand for Gemvara’s opening of their new headquarters at One Financial Center, just a stone’s throw from the Innovation District’s “official” borders.

In the spirit of innovation, the Mayor presented Gemvara founder Matt Lauzon with some soil from the Innovation District for their new office plant and extended the boundaries of the district. “With a gift of a bit of innovation soil, Mayor Menino officially fudged the line & declared our office part of Boston’s innovation district!” said @Gemvara on Twitter.
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Source: http://www.innovationdistrict.org/2...-boston-and-extends-the-boundaries-of-the-id/
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

JohnAKeith said:
But, I don't see how this takes care of the acres of open land, in the center of the district, that remain unbuilt. You can build in phases, but I don't know if that will work. And, I fear the "mallifcation" of the district, as we've all discussed before.
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Is Seaport Square officially dead?
 
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Re: South Boston Seaport

No. Yeah, that's in phases. I don't know when Phase II will begin but the developer is supposed to start Phase I "this fall". It will be two buildings, if I'm not mistaken. Phase II is huge, though, and as proposed, would include the 6,000 underground parking garage. A lot has to go right for that project to succeed. In retrospect, and using the to-date build-out of the Seaport, perhaps it would be better if it was built in smaller phases, as the market bares, instead of all at once? I assume a developer would hate that idea.
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

JohnAKeith said:
No. Yeah, that's in phases. I don't know when Phase II will begin but the developer is supposed to start Phase I "this fall". It will be two buildings, if I'm not mistaken. Phase II is huge, though, and as proposed, would include the 6,000 underground parking garage. A lot has to go right for that project to succeed. In retrospect, and using the to-date build-out of the Seaport, perhaps it would be better if it was built in smaller phases, as the market bares, instead of all at once? I assume a developer would hate that idea.
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The phases are actually in that community meeting PDF (From Jan 2010). Slide 12.

My favorite part of that presentation is actually the figure ground diagram where they show the "grid," "historic wharf," and "floaters" and then show how the Seaport Square development adheres to all of those organizing principles. (Slides 31 to 34)
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

sat nite
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yes I messed w/the 1st pix,if u want the clear one I'll post it
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

AdAge Darling Allen & Gerritsen Plots Move to Boston’s ‘Innovation District’
By Kiran Aditham on August 22, 2011 2:54 PM

innovation-district-boston_2.jpg


Sounds like it was a big day at the office of Allen & Gerritsen, which just topped AdAge‘s “Best Places to Work” list and will soon have a new home according to an announcement made today by agency CEO, Andrew Graff. A&G’s top exec has revealed that the 120-strong agency will be moving offices from Waterton, MA to the “Innovation District” on the South Boston waterfront in September 2012 and expects to add 50 more staffers by the time the transition is complete.

In his statement, Graff said, “Creativity, technology and curiosity are at the heart of Allen & Gerritsen’s core. That’s why the Innovation District will be the perfect home for our agency.” A&G’s CEO seems like a Beantown supporter through and through as his agency not only counts local clients including the Celtics, Ninety Nine Restaurants and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, but he’s also on the board of the Greatest Boston Chamber of Commerce and is the chairman of the Ad Club of Boston.

Among other things, Allen & Gerritsen’s Innovation District digs will house the agency’s in-house production studio and allow for expansion of its Digital Incubator.

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

palindrome said:
where exactly?
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From today's Globe:

"Allen & Gerritsen will move into 34,000 square feet of office space at 2 Seaport Lane, next to the Seaport Boston Hotel, with the option of expanding to 40,000 square feet."​
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Just got back from nearly 3 weeks in India -- If you want Innovation City -- Google Bangalore or Bangaluru (new name)

There are at least 2 separate Innovation Districts of the scale of Kendall / Cambridge Center) where in 2 blocks of one you can find Dell, Microsoft, Volvo, Motorolla, Texas Instruments

from Wiki " Bagmane Tech Park is a Software technology Park in India. The park is situated at Sir C V Raman Nagar in Bangalore. This park is built and maintained by Bagmane Group. The park shares its boundaries with HAL and DRDO and is near the HAL Airport. It is equipped with all modern class facilities and is surrounded by a lake near the entrance. It also contains a Shopping mall, and a 4.7 hectare lake in its centre.

The park is home to some of the most prominent companies in world like Cypress Semiconductor Motorola, Dover Corporation, Yahoo!, Oracle Corporation, HP, Juniper Networks, Lenovo, Texas Instruments, MphasiS, Samsung India Software Operations, First Indian Corporation, Sasken, Novell, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Ogilvy, Volvo, Dell, Tesco Hindustan Service, Lifetree, and Saggezza India Pvt Ltd.

The park consists of 10 Large Buildings , 9 completed and 1 in construction "

and the second and older one -- Electroncs City -- some significant distance and hence in Bangaluru essentially unreachable in less than 1+ hour of unimaginable traffic -- from the wiki --

" Electronics City (Kannada: ಎಲೆಕ್ಟ್ರೋನಿಕ್ಸ್ ಸಿಟಿ ) is one of India's largest electronic industrial parks, spread over 332 acres (1.3 km²) in Konappana Agrahara and Doddathogur villages, just outside [center of] Bangalore, India. It has three phases – Phase I, Phase II and Phase III. Electronics City was established by Keonics, Karnataka Electronics,....Keonics Electronics City has a world class infrastructure which has housed major IT /ITES companies like such as Wipro, Hewlett-Packard, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, CGI, Siemens, Yokogawa Electric etc..... The Electronics City was the brainchild of R.K. Baliga, the first Chairman and Managing Director of Keonics, Karnataka Electronics...dreamt of making Bangalore the Silicon Valley of India...did not live to see his dream materialize (he died in 1988). The liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s by the then Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and then Indian Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh helped Electronic City to become what it is today—the outsourcing capital of the world. In 1997, the maintenance and upkeep of Electronic City was handed over by Keonics to ELCIA, the Electronics City Industries Association, having representatives from units in the enclave, for effective local governance and management.”

However --- Houston (or perhaps Delhi) -- we have a problem -- there is NO Worldclass infrastructure in India outside of micro or nano districts -- the transportation network is barely functional -- a well traveled Indian professor who was a visitor to one of our meetings in Bangluru -- coming from his home in Hyderabad to Bangaluru and attempting to return missed flights on both ends due to traffic – later as the company car taking our professor friend was trying to take him to the airport -- we had to squeeze ourselves and luckily only our computer bags into a Tata car and get a ride from one of the local participants because no cabs could be able to reach Electronics City in less than 1.5 hours

More from the wiki "Biotech Park Helix, has been set up by the Department of Bio Technology in Electronic City....Transport facility has seen commendable improvement over the last couple of years. BMTC buses to all parts of the city and BIAL ply through Electronic City. Several residential projects are being developed in the stretch between Neeladri Road and Thogur. Reputed educational institutions and medical facilities are located in Electronic City. " "

The scale of Indian Cities is truly awesome as the populations are always measured in Millions -- but the lack of highways which enable a trip of the scale of Waltham to the Innovation District without stopping nearly hundred times -- total lack of drinker water and eccentricity that fails frequently (several times a day) would be intolerable -- no --- closer to unimaginable anywhere in the US, EU or even most former Soviet Republics.

As a City Planner -- I'll take Tommy over anyone in India -- and that includes Chandigarh master planned by none other than Le Corbusier

By the way -- that Lake in the Center - let's just say you really don't want to look at the water too closely
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Sorry -- totally still not overcome jet lag and the spelling checker -- but please replace
" The scale of Indian Cities is truly awesome as the populations are always measured in Millions -- but the lack of highways which enable a trip of the scale of Waltham to the Innovation District without stopping nearly hundred times -- total lack of drinker water and eccentricity that fails frequently (several times a day) would be intolerable -- no --- closer to unimaginable anywhere in the US, EU or even most former Soviet Republics. "

with

" The scale of Indian Cities is truly awesome as the populations are always measured in Millions -- but the lack of highways which enable a trip of the scale of Waltham to the Innovation District without stopping nearly hundred times -- total lack of drinker water and electricity that fails regularly (several times a day -- every reasonable scale building has a prominently situated back-up generator and hotels advertise 1 minute or less reconvery times) would be intolerable -- no --- closer to unimaginable anywhere in the US, EU or even most former Soviet Republics. "

By the way for one of the regular comments -- there are over 800 Engineering Colleges just in Andrah Pradesh (state of 80 Millions) -- although their quality varies enormously
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

^ There's an "Edit" button for that exact purpose.
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Are the railways there sufficient to overcome the lack of highways when going between these places?
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Depends on where you are going and how much time and money you want to expend

The commuter rails move milions each and everyday into the midlle of the biggest cities -- those cities would colapse without them -- i wouldn't however want to brave them casually

the long haul passenger railroad has been relegated to the poor and tourists (both Indian and especially those Europens with a "suicide of the west perspective").

Everyone who can afford to drives if it is 4 hours or less -- beyond that they now fly -- privately funded and operated airports are growing vey rapidly

Freght seems to move quite extensively on rail -- athough it also travels extensiely on what passes for highways -- there are millions of trucks, trailers pulled by farm-equipment, 3 wheelers, ox/camel/elephant/huan power vehicles -- as well as people carrying stuff on foot or on a vehicle-- and essentialy wearing it while riding bikes and motor cycles (e.g. milk cans strapped to your back and hanging from panniers)
 
Re: South Boston Seaport

Delhi's metro is insanely good, not just for India. I was truly impressed. It is expanding now to Gurgaon, Delhi's "Innovation District" - which is an unplanned jumble of anything-goes office parkitecture (other than the Metro there is almost no infrastructure - many of these office complexes have their own generators, water treatment, waste disposal constracts, and armies of contracted drivers to bring their middle-of-the-night employees home safely.) Just wondering, Westie, did you have a chance to ride the Metro there?
 
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