Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Thanks for the renders, Data. That section of Summer Street looks like it will be totally transformed from a windswept ghost town to an activated destination (SeaPAC, restaurants) that is only steps away from a park and the waterfront. Would be a huge win for the neighborhood.
 
Thanks for posting the images!

Lots to be said, but among these are:

- Love the Summer St. street wall, and especially the ramp air rights work adjacent to the vent building.

- Figure 3-7 shows that the space in the middle is actually an offset rectangle, which is pretty cool.

- Making the congress st. crossing surface level also means that access to harborsquare can also be at grade from surrounding sts. The previous plan included steps up from the east and west, and a continuous slope through the grade, which i think would have served to isolate it from rest of the 'hood.

- The SL capacity / volume chart is eye-opening

- Skeptical / concerned about the connectivity / continuity between L and M blocks via Autumn Lane and Service Road
 
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I'm hoping the new outdoor areas and corridors will be properly lit at night. Night time on parts of the Greenway can be pretty sketchy.
 
Did you catch the part where the developer is promising to not build in any way that would preclude the city / state from putting BRT on both sides of Congress Street? (You can see a rendering in the PDF, above.)
 
Did you catch the part where the developer is promising to not build in any way that would preclude the city / state from putting BRT on both sides of Congress Street? (You can see a rendering in the PDF, above.)

That's cool - but its also pretty weak sauce. Hard to think of what a developer might actually do to prevent future BRT use of an established street, after all..
 
Thanks for the renders, Data. That section of Summer Street looks like it will be totally transformed from a windswept ghost town to an activated destination (SeaPAC, restaurants) that is only steps away from a park and the waterfront. Would be a huge win for the neighborhood.

If this gets built as envisioned, a lot of people will follow the Summer to pedestrian corridor route to the ICA area. It has potential to be a really fantastic promenade.
 
That looks incredible. The seaport is getting better and better architecture with each project and its turning into its own unique neighborhood.
 
Looks like work has started on the median. Should be cool to see how this ends up.








 
It's too bad they don't put in nicer, dark black street light posts to complement the new black street lights. The old silver ones look tired and cheap.

After seeing stick's first and second photo, yeah, nicer street light posts would sure look a lot nicer. I presume there's a lot of regulations involved with replacing these and the city would have to decide if its worth the time and money to replace light posts for the sole reason of better aesthetics.
 
I have never noticed that in all my years of watching architecture and development, so Im sure its not a big deal at all to your average city dweller, thus not worth the cost until they need replacing.
 
There's a lot in here:

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This is going to be one of the nicest modern neighborhoods in Boston. Hell one of the nicest in the country. I haven't seen something that comprehensive and engaging.....ever. Hudson yards maybe. This is insane. I just drove through there yesterday and just looking at how much retail is about to go in with whats only been built so far is staggering. This is going to be a juggernaut when completed. I cant imagine this not being an enormous selling point for company relocation to the area, it doesn't get much better than this for the future vision of what cities are going to look like.
 
I have never noticed that in all my years of watching architecture and development, so Im sure its not a big deal at all to your average city dweller, thus not worth the cost until they need replacing.

Well, I definitely notice the horrible mismatches in lighting styles. It really grates on me.

And although the average city dweller might not notice specifically that the lighting is mismatched, I am pretty certain they pick up the subliminal clue that mismatched design signals that this neighborhood doesn't matter. (i.e. the city doesn't care). Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay -- all consistent lighting end to end. Chinatown, every lighting style the city has used in the past 100 years -- often 3-4 styles in the same block.

The city does tend to try to harmonize street lighting when they do a major street rebuild, like the Seaport Blvd. project, so there is hope they will clean up the hot design mess of lighting.
 
^ Well its still all under construction. Theres a million things you could point out right now, but its one huge construction site. Who knows if they have a plan to tie up all of those loose ends, well find out eventually.
 
Well, I definitely notice the horrible mismatches in lighting styles. It really grates on me.

And although the average city dweller might not notice specifically that the lighting is mismatched, I am pretty certain they pick up the subliminal clue that mismatched design signals that this neighborhood doesn't matter. (i.e. the city doesn't care). Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay -- all consistent lighting end to end. Chinatown, every lighting style the city has used in the past 100 years -- often 3-4 styles in the same block.

The city does tend to try to harmonize street lighting when they do a major street rebuild, like the Seaport Blvd. project, so there is hope they will clean up the hot design mess of lighting.

Hmm.. Never noticed it either until you pointed it out, and I am there frequently. Now I can not unsee it and it annoys me more than it probably should. I guess I usually just focused on the construction progress and the buildings.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do get swapped out for the newer nicer ones sooner rather than later though. I mean, why replace them all on one side (Yotel side) and not the other?
 
Hmm.. Never noticed it either until you pointed it out, and I am there frequently. Now I can not unsee it and it annoys me more than it probably should. I guess I usually just focused on the construction progress and the buildings.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do get swapped out for the newer nicer ones sooner rather than later though. I mean, why replace them all on one side (Yotel side) and not the other?

I would assume that a swap out is in the plans as well. After all, not too long ago this was a neighborhood the city didn't care about -- it was just a sea of parking lots! A lot of the functional old lights are leftovers from those days.
 
I would assume that a swap out is in the plans as well. After all, not too long ago this was a neighborhood the city didn't care about -- it was just a sea of parking lots! A lot of the functional old lights are leftovers from those days.

FYI - the old lamp posts around the Benjamin have been removed. Safe to assume the rest of the remaining ones along Seaport Blvd will be replaced as the parcels get developed on.
 
1st pic,They could have laid the Hancock Tower on its side and got almost the same skyline, hopefully some of the new towers being built now will break it up a bit
 
^^^ But the future development, in the Seaport, will fill in the gaps in the 2nd pic, which will also look like the Hancock on it's side. Not great, but a lot better than wind swept parking lots.

https://flic.kr/p/ZcSNSb
 
Seaport Square should really liven up in the next few weeks with Kings, Equinox, Tuscan Kitchen, Grand/Scorpion bar all opening by the end of October.
 

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