Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

The developer owes no one nothing.

Damn right -- if the developers sell what they buy, or rehab what they buy, or sit on their ass with what they buy.

But if they pay a visit to City Hall to negotiate a change from what they bought to something significantly different from what they bought, then they enter a new deal. They no longer have 100% say in what gets built.

The planners' role is to shape the City to reach its maximum potential. Generally this means maximum value. This way, a guy who decides an Exxon station should be built on the corner of Tremont and Boylston because that is his dream might receive a fews guidelines to follow for the City to reach its true potential.

The deal coming out of City Hall should be good for the developer. But if the developer doesn't like it, he can rehab the property, sell it or sit on what was bought. THEN he owes no one nothing.

Modern unzoned, unplanned cities like Houston are not a great model for Boston. For one, we don't have the available space for experiments. As you can see on the Seaport, there are only a 15-20 sites available for megablocks, and the FAA is capping the heights. The closest thing to an unzoned territory is Massport parcels on the Waterfront and IMHO that area is third-rate - a walk around those cold, dead blocks of loading docks, subpar buildings and ridiculously ornamental parks seems to spell out that area has failed to achieve the maximum potential for a top-notch waterfront.
 
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An article in the B&T on Hynes' ever-evolving plans.

Seaport Square Developers To Take Risk, Go Small
By Paul McMorrow

Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer
06/30/10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The developers of Seaport Square, a 6-million-square-foot development on the South Boston waterfront, said they will be the first developers in Boston to test new models of workforce housing that shrink unit sizes and rely on shared amenities, transportation and public spaces.

Speaking yesterday at a City Hall symposium on bringing new, affordable housing models to South Boston, John Hynes, CEO of Boston Global Investors, said a shortage of affordable housing in Boston's urban core was hampering corporate growth.

"The answer is smaller units," Hynes said. "It's exactly what we believe the market wants. We need more affordable housing, retail and green space; you don't need a lot of cars. The risk is, it hasn't been done yet. You're going to have to convince your lenders and investors you have something worth investing in."

"Somebody has to go first," added John Buza, a managing director at Morgan Stanley, an equity partner in Seaport Square. "We're willing to be the first, and see if it works."

In January, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced plans to re-brand the South Boston waterfront as an innovation district. Menino said he wants to fill the neighborhood's warehouses and parking lots with technology companies, creative firms and business incubators, and with housing developments that keep those firms' workers in the city.

The City Hall symposium brought together architects with South Boston landowners to discuss how new European housing models might be applied along the waterfront.

"We can build more office towers and condos, but it would be anywhere else in America," Menino said. "This is the largest piece undeveloped land on the East Coast, and it has to be innovative. I hope out of this discussion will come new proposals and new ideas."

Several presentations pointed to Amsterdam, where developers have cut unit sizes, delivered partially-finished spaces, emphasized communal spaces and deemphasized costly parking spaces.

"Units are getting much smaller, and they need to get much smaller," said Brian Healy of Brian Healy Architects. The key to making small units work, Healy said, is "the relationship between private and public space."

"There's a sense of community in how the units interact with each other - you're constantly in touch with the people who live and work in the building," added David Hacin of Hacin + Assoc.

Hacin's firm designed Berkeley Investments' FP3 condominiums, and is currently designing the first residential building at Seaport Square.

Young Park, president of Berkeley Investments, said Boston's zoning code doesn't accommodate the kinds of live-work arrangements, shared spaces and dearth of parking that European housing models rely on.

Tim Pappas, president of Pappas Enterprises, said city officials must "help reset expectations in the public process," because the neighborhood groups that review development projects have come to demand ample parking and spacious unit sizes.

Kairos Shen, the Boston Redevelopment Authority's chief planner, agreed.

"The job of the BRA is to take these innovative ideas and make them the new norm," he said.
 
Great to see that Pappas is on board with this - his firm owns a wide swath of underused space between the BCEC and the Reserved Channel. I've never seen any plans for that land in particular (public transit over there becomes a bit of a challenge) but I have half a mind to email him a few ideas...
 
Several presentations pointed to Amsterdam, where developers have cut unit sizes, delivered partially-finished spaces, emphasized communal spaces and deemphasized costly parking spaces.

*Crossing fingers for even a crappily-executed facsimile of Java Island*
 
Is the same thing going on here, units being made smaller or are they looking to add the already built units(The Modern 27 units) to the new units on this project for a total of 60:

Notice is hereby given that at 9:30 a.m., on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, a public hearing will be held by the
Board of Appeal of the City of Boston in Room 801, Boston City Hall, upon the appeal of:

SoCo Lofts LLC

seeking with reference to the premises at:

255-257 Northampton Street, Ward 9

From the terms of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, State Building Code, Chapter 802, Acts of 1972,
in the following respect: Erect a six story addition and change occupancy from twenty-five residential
units and parking to sixty residential units and parking.

SECTION: 101.1 SCOPE: Title Shall be known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State
Building Code.

SECTION: 101.2 SCOPE: Scope; In Accordance with M>G>I>c. 143 ?? 92 through 100, the
provision of 780 CMR shall apply to;
(a) the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, etc.

SECTION: 102.1 APPLICABILITY: General; The provisions of 780 CMR apply to all matters,
etc.

A full copy & description of variances sought can be obtained in the office of the Board of Appeal, 1010
Massachusetts Avenue, 4th Floor, any weekday between the hours of 8:00 a.m. & 5:00 p.m. with the
exception of legal holidays.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the Board of Appeal, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue,
4th Floor, Boston, MA 02118 (617-635-4775).
 
Re: Fan Pier

from link posted above

seaport-condos.jpg


i kind of like that. nice in scale with the bridge and the childrens museum and takes cues from the same two buildings. The page is from 2008 though so it may not be happening.
 
Re: Fan Pier

^Arborway

You asked for the name of the condo in the lot across from the courthouse. I didn't know the name. Still don't.

Here's what's being built in the lot across from the Courthouse in Phase One Seaport Square.

kprWD.jpg


The Hacin piece, may 35 units of residential or so, will be visible from a few distant perspectives, notably from atop the Old Northern Ave. Bridge.

That building is eclipsed from nearly every ground level view by the Moakley, the Crab, the Courthouse and as you can see in these views, the office buildings on Seaport Square. Without question, it is a great building from all views I've seen, and at ground level should be one of the best in the area.

I don't think showing the scale of what is being built on the Hynes parcels is far afield of the topic, certainly not as far as a coffee shop on the common.
 
Re: Fan Pier

Ron just, uh, misunderstood the point of my comment. But his news is welcome nonetheless (maybe should be cross-posted to new retail).

Sicilian, what's your source for those renderings? Can we get a link?

The building overshadowing the Crab looks fantastic. I hate to sound like Kairos Shen, but that's the kind of human-scaled, street-engaging but still modern architecture that should have colonized this whole area to begin with. It manages to be "Bostonian" without being depressingly slavish to tradition.
 
Regarding a recent filing with the State for approval on Seaport Square:

"In addition, the project proponent will replace 358,800 square feet of educational/cultural space with 358 hotel rooms, thereby expanding hotel uses to 859,200 square feet, while decreasing educational/cultural uses from 600,000 square feet to approximately 243,000 square feet."
 
Where is all of this educational or cultural space that the developer is proposing to tear down?
 
I'd guess it is what was intended to be built in the original plan but has now been scaled back. I don't think it exists yet (nor, will it).
 
I remember the original plans included a museum, or some such thing. Also, I think Menino's elite private school academy thing may have been initially included in the proposal?
 
Isn't this just living in a dorm? I couldn't wait to get out of the dorms in college, I sure wouldn't pay for it.
 
I remember the original plans included a museum, or some such thing. Also, I think Menino's elite private school academy thing may have been initially included in the proposal?

just picking hairs here, but Menino was adamantly against the private school if i remember correctly.
 
Where is all of this educational or cultural space that the developer is proposing to tear down?

None of it has been built yet.
There was a private school that Hynes proposed to build to make the area attractive to wealthy families (Menino wanted a public school).
There was a church across Seaport Blvd from Fan Pier.
And there was a "cultural space" that showed up in the heart of the development, but I don't recall Hynes ever defining what that meant.
 

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