Seaport Neighborhood - Infill and Discussion

Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Reading Heroic about Brutalist Boston has given me a new appreciation for the parking garages from that era. This, however, is an abomination.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Honestly if they are trying to hide that it's a parking garage you think there would be something better than... whatever that is... to not look that out of place.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

More details in the Globe:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/05/17/massport-sees-intense-interest-seaport-property/7l49kdEEy56m1Wr4emsLLP/story.html

Couple of excerpts:

Glynn said he hopes his agency’s staff can make a recommendation for a winner to the Massport board by September or October, although ground lease negotiations will probably continue well into 2019. Massport officials don’t expect construction to be done before 2022, regardless of who secures the deal.
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Meanwhile, the port authority is preparing for a groundbreaking next Tuesday at the Omni hotel site, across from the convention center, where a 1,054-room hotel is planned. Site work has begun, and Massport officials hope the development team can finish the hotel by the fall of 2020.
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Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

So, by the end of 2020 we'll have the following either finished or just about finished?

Echelon
Omni Hotel
Pier 4 Condominiums and park
Pier 4 office building
Waterside Place
SBWTC
Marine Wharf Hotel at 660 Summer St.
Apartment/Hotel at 315 Northern Ave.
399 Congress St Apartments (sausage parcel)
Martin's Park

I'm sure I missed a few but these alone will add so much to the evolving Seaport area.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...n-next-week/lF5U1cK18RfQOeaOkT2VlI/story.html

Boston will be the hub of the biotech universe starting Monday

excerpted:

By Jonathan Saltzman GLOBE STAFF JUNE 01, 2018

When more than 16,000 people from 74 countries descend on Boston for the annual Biotechnology Innovation Organization convention that starts Monday, they will find a Massachusetts biotech scene that’s more robust than the one in 2012 when the city last hosted the event. And, yes, the state relishes its renown as the life sciences hub of the universe.

The Massachusetts cluster employs thousands more people than it did six years ago and occupies millions more square feet of laboratory space. Since 2012, there have been over 60 new publicly traded local firms, as well as more divisions of multinational drug-maker giants. The biotech sector has launched novel medicines for diseases once thought hopeless, including a drug for spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic cause of death in infants.

“We’ve seen advances in science that are beyond all expectations, as it relates to therapies that can change the course of disease and, in some cases, cure disease,” said Robert Coughlin, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council trade group, whose 16-year-old son, Bobby, has a rare condition, cystic fibrosis....

....Today, the sector is indeed booming, growing at roughly double the rate of the US and state economy over the past four years.

For the first time, the number of employees in the life sciences in the state has crossed 70,000, according to a recent report by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation.

Half of those jobs — 34,366, to be exact — were in research and development in 2016, more than any state and slightly ahead of California, which ranks second, according to MassBio.

Investment has also soared. Biopharma attracted $2.9 billion in venture capital in 2016, more than triple the $900 million it received in 2012, says MassBio.

“It’s been a spectacular six years,” said Alexis Borisy, a partner in Third Rock Ventures, a Boston venture capital firm that began operating in 2007.

Consider this: Third Rock had yet to take a biotech public when BIO last convened in Boston. Since then, Borisy’s firm has taken 16 companies public, including Bluebird Bio, which is working on gene therapy to treat rare diseases, and Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc., which focuses on medicines to stimulate the body’s immune response against cancer cells.

Less than a year ago, Agios won approval of its first medicine, Idhifa. It is the first drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for acute myeloid leukemia in adults with a particular genetic mutation who suffer relapses despite other treatments.

“That’s the most important metric of success,” Borisy of the drug’s approval. “The whole point of biotech is to take innovation in science and medicine and to bring it to patients.’’

Signs of the white-hot life sciences industry are impossible to miss when you walk around Cambridge’s Kendall Square, ground zero for the Massachusetts cluster.

Once the site of old industrial buildings, the neighborhood features gleaming new office buildings, such as one on Binney Street that will soon house Bristol-Myers Squibb’s new research and development site and several smaller biotechs.

Like several other pharmaceutical giants, Bristol-Myers Squibb decided to put its research scientists in what a spokeswoman called “the heart of a vibrant ecosystem of world-class science, innovation, and business opportunities.” It will house about 300 employees, some from elsewhere in the state, and others from outside Massachusetts, or new hires.

Cranes in the sky nearby attest to other commercial and residential constructions projects underway that cater to people in the drug-making industry.

LabCentral, a coworking biotechnology space that opened on Main Street in Kendall Square in late 2013, has repeatedly expanded and now houses 55 startup companies in about 105,000 square feet across its two-building campus. LabCentral is among about two dozen incubators that have opened throughout the state.

Today, Big Pharma companies domestic and foreign consider it almost imperative to have a presence in Massachusetts, and often in Cambridge. Among the giant companies that have increased their presence in the state in recent years — either by moving or expanding divisions here or by buying Massachusetts-based biotechs — are Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi SA, and Amgen Inc.

Just last month, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals Inc. finalized a $62 billion agreement to buy Shire PLC, which has its headquarters in Ireland but is the second-biggest biotech employer in Massachusetts. Shire, which has most of its operations in Lexington, makes the ADHD drug Adderall and focuses on developing medicines for rare diseases.

Drug companies are changing the landscape of Boston, as well. One of the most prominent features of Boston’s Innovation District on the South Boston Waterfront is the relatively new headquarters of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. The drugmaker moved its headquarters from Cambridge to a 1.1 million-square-foot complex there in 2014.

Given the catalyzing effect biopharma has had in Massachusetts, it’s no wonder that a slew of cities, states, and countries are sending contingents to BIO to encourage drugmakers to set up shop there.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Based on BeeLine's excellent photo set, we have:
Under construction: 294 keys, 1847 units, 400ksf office,
Massport Parcel K
Pier 4 Office
Pier 4 Residential
Waterside 1B
399 Congress/Sausage Parcel
Parcel M1/M2​
Site exploration/construction prep: 1465 keys, 211ksf office
Omni Hotel
Parcel Q1 Office
Marine Wharf Hotel​
Waiting for approval/site prep: 744ksf office
Fan Pier Parcel E
Seaport Square Parcel L4​
This isn't counting parcels that are approved and haven't broken ground. >1K hotel rooms, >1K units, >1Msf Class A office.
 
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Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

The ICA really gets lost in the mess of glass boxes.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

JumboBuc said:
The signature building of the Seaport will always be the Moakley Courthouse.

Sorry, ICA...
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Sadly true if only for the fact that the immateriality just happen to be so distinct from the glass boxes that grew up around it. If the ICA were made out something not glass and metal it would also stand out.

cca
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

cca said:
If the ICA were made out something not glass and metal it would also stand out.
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I've always been a fan of the sober gray metal elements, but maybe it's time for a splash of color out of the James Stirling playbook -- a splash of red matching the ICA's logo would do wonders for its visibility.

I really wish they'd do a better job of cladding the "ribbon" on the (awfully named) Harbor Shore Drive facade; IIRC, the DS+R originally intended for this to be wood, matching the underside of the cantilever, but it was VE'd out. Similarly cladding the mechanical "mohawk" would also be an improvement.
 
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Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

The walkway next to the new Pier 4 office building is now open. BEAUTIFULLY done - going to be even better once the condo portion of the walkway opens.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

Beton Brut said:
I've always been a fan of the sober gray metal elements, but maybe it's time for a splash of color out of the James Stirling playbook -- a splash of red matching the ICA's logo would do wonders for its visibility.

I really wish they'd do a better job of cladding the "ribbon" on the (awfully named) Harbor Shore Drive facade; IIRC, the DS+R originally intended for this to be wood, matching the underside of the cantilever, but it was VE'd out. Similarly cladding the mechanical "mohawk" would also be an improvement.
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The ICA would be a perfect place for some bold eye-catching color(s). That would be fantastic if tastefully done. Don’t know the chances of that every happening, but fun to think about nonetheless.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

I’ve always thought they should screen the mechanical Mohawk with a public art piece. Open it up to local artists for a design competition. Perhaps change it on an annual basis like the Greenway vent building.
 
Re: Innovation Dist. / South Boston Seaport

The ICA red logo mysteriously came down yesterday.
 
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