Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Neoscape (the world-famous visualization/rendering team) just posted these on Facebook. They apparently won an award for their Seaport Square app. Lots of great images.

Neoscape is the proud winner of the MITX Interactive Award in the “2012 Mobile – Excluding Advertising” category for our Seaport Square iPad application, designed and developed for Boston Global Investors.

This custom app brings the story of BGI’s Seaport Square project to life through the use of innovative mobile technology and a compelling user experience aimed at visualizing future phases of this exciting South Boston development.
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After Sandy I'm weary about building on the Waterline , are there any plans to raise the site to protect from future storms?
 
^That is a very legit concern.

I'm very excited about what it is to come. The funny thing is that the renderings don't even include the full Pier 4 development (aka Quincy Market 2).
 
Looks like Kendall-on-Sea.

I will eat my left shoe if that video screen ever actually happens.
 
type001 said:
^That is a very legit concern.

I'm very excited about what it is to come. The funny thing is that the renderings don't even include the full Pier 4 development (aka Quincy Market 2).
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It has the old Fan Pier too. Neoscape did a lot of the Seaport Sq work a while ago. The ICA also seems to be missing too...
 
Have a nice day!

PLANNERS FOCUS ON SEAPORT DETAILS
By Anthony Flint, Boston Globe, March 1, 1999

The Seaport district plan, a kind of owner's manual for development of the South Boston waterfront, arrived at City Hall from the printer yesterday amid high expectations that the glossy bound document will guide building on Boston's new frontier for decades to come.There are few surprises in the 115-page booklet beyond what Mayor Thomas M. Menino previewed Jan. 5 at a Parkman House news conference. The plan calls for 5,000 to 8,000 units of housing, small-scaled city blocks and generally low-level buildings, along with parks and civic destinations to be funded by the developers of hotels, office buildings, condominiums, and restaurants.

But now that city officials have the actual planning document in hand, the focus is expected to turn to specific projects. The plan will be tested for the first time in coming weeks when the Chicago-based Pritzker family, owners of the Hyatt hotel chain, unveils plans for a hotel, office, retail, condo, and office complex on Fan Pier, between the new federal courthouse and Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant.

The Pritzkers and local partners Spaulding & Slye will be asked to transform the outer reaches of Fan Pier -- now rubble-strewn or used for parking -- into a waterside park and public destination point, according to the plan. Other landowners farther back from the water's edge will be required to contribute to a central fund for public amenities both in the Seaport and the Harbor Islands. The Pritzker project will also be a test case for the mix of uses, and the density and height of waterfront development that city planners say they will allow.

The original Pritzker plan for Fan Pier called for tall buildings, raising fears that the harbor could be walled off to pedestrians. The city's new master plan encourages such buildings away from the water, concentrated in the area between New Northern Avenue and Summer Street; the heights of buildings will then "slope down" in all four directions from that concentration of development, according to the plan.

The Seaport document itself, which includes aerial photos, maps, and artist renderings of what the future waterfront could look like, contains no strict zoning rules, but rather lays out general guidelines for developers. In fact, it is titled the "Seaport Public Realm Plan" and not "master plan," underscoring the Boston Redevelopment Authority's attempt to lay down only a basic foundation for future construction. Urban design guidelines and specific zoning regulations are due out later this year.BRA director Thomas N. O'Brien said yesterday the plan represents a consensus from hundreds of community meetings and consultations with private urban planners and design professionals. "It's something that when you stand back, all of us, and anybody who really cares about this area, can really be proud of. We took in a lot of comments that didn't always match up with each other, and tried to sort it all out."

The Seaport is universally regarded as the last major expanse of developable land close to the core of Boston, with some of the most prized real estate on the East Coast, commanding spectacular views of the city skyline. It is also expected to be a major economic engine; planners anticipate up to 20 million square feet of development in the 1,000-acre area, producing 16,000 construction jobs and 30,000 permanent new jobs.

Disagreement about several key aspects of the plan remain. For example, while the BRA wants to create a "24-hour neighborhood," City Council President James M. Kelly has said he wants to see no more than 4,000 housing units in the Seaport. Open space advocates say there is insufficient land set aside for parks. Supporters of the blue-collar jobs in the working port remain skeptical that trucks will be able to get in and out of what in 20 years will resemble Back Bay, as the western sections ofthe waterfront are gentrified.
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The original Pritzker plan for Fan Pier called for tall buildings, raising fears that the harbor could be walled off to pedestrians.
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Tall buildings do not wall off anything from pedestrians. Typical journalism logic fail with NIMBY implications down the line.

City Council President James M. Kelly has said he wants to see no more than 4,000 housing units in the Seaport.
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Was afraid of being ousted by non-Southie natives who won't take to his brand of tribal politics.

what in 20 years will resemble Back Bay
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Remember when this was the ambition, rather than Kendallification?
 
The following four images are from the 1999 "Seaport Public Realm Plan" created by Cooper, Robertson & Partners.

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That's one Fiesta del PoMo, but it looks like Canaletto compared to the above.
 
Dickhead! Not cool! Not cool!

The plan calls for 5,000 to 8,000 units of housing, small-scaled city blocks and generally low-level buildings, along with parks and civic destinations to be funded by the developers of hotels, office buildings, condominiums, and restaurants.
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Just realized how incredibly dense the residential component was originally. If my math is correct:
6500 units x 2 people per unit = 13,000 people.
"100 Acres" (isn't that roughly the size of the Seaport planning initiative) = .156 Sq Miles
So that works out to 83,200 people per square mile. Meaning the 1990's plan for the Seaport was almost 3x as dense as Hoboken???

Sicilian, come out of retirement and help me out. What's wrong with my math?
 
czsz said:
That's one Fiesta del PoMo, but it looks like Canaletto compared to the above.
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At this point I can't wait for the PoMo revival to begin, superfluous gables and all.
 
A few stucco gargoyles definitely couldn't hurt Kendall or the LMA.
 
Sorry if I'm retreading on all this but I just found out about the report while reading a Kunstler book I picked up over the weekend.

My search led me to this sweet little website. From Paul Cote (HSD)

Seaport Sandbox

This cybernetic approach to an urban planning and design studio examines the ways that information is organized, transformed and exchanged in the societal process of place-making. In this course, nine students discovered and organized resources, and developed new ideas about a place, and published their work such that the critical source and manuscript documents are available in a shape that can be understood and taken forward by others.
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https://sites.google.com/site/sbseaport/home
 
One of those kids actually proposed to build an "industrial area" on Fan Pier...ha!
 
It angers me that this crap is being done at the GSD. Is this the kind of urban design that is being taught and encouraged at Harvard? I've seen more vision with master planning from WIT juniors and seniors than these kids.

Julia Anderson gets my kudos though. I enjoyed her proposal. I think it's properly dense and incorporates a variety of building heights.
 
The GSD is principally a club to meet the right people to work for or get your foot into the door of academia someplace influential. Accept that, and the remains of the day seem less absurd

The older sketches depict a density and vibrancy rivaling, if not surpassing, the historic downtown core. Such development would have been a paradigm shift to 60 years of development policy sub-urbanizing the city. Even King Tom doesn't have the clout to push something that counter to the prevailing density abhorring development and open space fetishizing planning culture entrenched here.
 
Its amazing how many times a project like this or the WTC or the Hudson Yards will change , the original often is the best plan....
 
Maybe the same principle applies as applies to height? Make your vision 1,000 times crazier than you'd even prefer. The forces of erosion won't be able to do as much damage, then.

If someone actually did propose "Manhattanizing" Boston, the city would probably wind up with some happy, South Endish medium of decent urban design.
 
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