Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Is a parking lot the use for the foreseeable future? No building plans here?
 
Theres been a few different ideas thrown around but it hasnt sold yet. That means its at least a year away from a groundbreaking once it does. Directly behind Goodwin Procter in the same grid footprint will be the tower, then the park will be brought up to the property line coming in from the left of that picture.


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Revised plans for L parcels, et al.

StairRendering_011317.jpg


seaport.jpg


A thin ribbon of green for the Seaport District
By Tim Logan, The Boston Globe

The new owners of the last major undeveloped swath of land in the Seaport District are planning a pedestrian promenade they hope will finally give the seemingly formless business district something of a spine.

Dubbed “Harbor Way,” the tree-lined thoroughfare would extend one-third of a mile, from an elevated section of Summer Street, down a staircase, and across the neighborhood to the edge of the waterfront. For much of its length, the walkway would thread through new buildings, with restaurants and stores contributing to the street life along it.

It would add a long, thin strip of open space to the Seaport, where just a few small parks and plazas, the Institute for Contemporary Art, and the publicly accessible District Hall have been carved out amid massive, blocky mid-rise office and apartment buildings.

The walkway is part of a larger plan that WS Development unveiled Thursday night for the remaining unbuilt portion of the 23-acre property known as Seaport Square, situated in the center of the budding neighborhood. This portion of the buildout would include nine blocks of new buildings on what is now a mix of parking lots and construction staging areas along Boston Wharf Road and Seaport Boulevard. The mix of office and residential buildings and hotels would also include more than 100 new storefronts at the street and lower levels.

“Our vision for the Seaport is focused on creating soul for the district,” said Yanni Tsipis, who’s leading the project for WS Development. “This means building buildings whose beauty and elegance will stand the test of time, and infusing every city block with restaurants, boutiques, residents, workplaces, and most importantly with diverse civic and cultural uses, all set amidst an extraordinary public realm.”

The lack of public space has long been a knock on the Seaport. The original master plan for Seaport Square envisioned a larger but more conventionally shaped park in the center of a four-building section of the development.

WS Development has reconfigured that open space to be narrower but longer, and friendlier to foot traffic. The buildings along the pathway will have fewer right angles, and their curvy design should let more light onto the walkway and nearby streets. The width of the walkway will vary but will be around 70 feet in many places, Tsipis said.

The developer is also planning to landscape Seaport Boulevard toward downtown and is considering public art to soften all the hard edges of new construction.

“They really seem to be paying attention to aesthetics and open spaces and connectivity,” said Kathy Abbott, chief executive of the outdoor advocacy group Boston Harbor Now, who was briefed on the new plans earlier this week. “They really seem to be listening to the criticisms that have been raised to date.”

But some who’ve watched development in the neighborhood are concerned the final buildout will result in less public space than was originally contemplated.

Fort Point resident and activist Steve Hollinger notes that the original master plan for Seaport Square approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency had a “performing arts center” of at least 200,000 square feet in one of the yet-to-be-built buildings. He urged city officials to hold WS to that requirement and create a substantial cultural space.

“I’d like to see something on the scale of the Boston Center for the Arts” in the South End, Hollinger said. “Anything less than a signature destination represents a lack of vision and responsibility at the Boston Planning & Development Agency.”

Tsipis said WS Development is still working on specific plans for each of the nine new buildings and will file more details with the city agency later in February. The company is reducing the number of parking spaces by about 900, to 5,500, and will invest in shuttle service, bike lanes, and pedestrian improvements to reduce the effects of car traffic.

WS hopes to break ground on the first new building by year’s end, Tsipis said, and build out all nine blocks over the next five to seven years, with the walkway pieced together in stages. At the end, Tsipis predicted the Seaport will finally feel like a true neighborhood.

“Great cities are made up of great neighborhoods,” he said. “We are honored to be responsible for weaving a small part of the neighborhood that will continue to make Boston the great city that it is.”
Click to expand...
 
Great article. Hopefully the push for public art transcends just this area. There are many blank walls throughout the city which would be great canvases.

Also, obviously nice to have more green space. Plant some poplars on Seaport Blvd median!
 
JohnAKeith said:
Revised plans for L parcels, et al.

StairRendering_011317.jpg


seaport.jpg


A thin ribbon of green for the Seaport District
By Tim Logan, The Boston Globe
Click to expand...

I hope I am reading this picture (and the text) right, and seeing that sloping walkway coming down from Summer street.

If anyone attended and can confirm, that would be swell.

The loss of green-space I could live with (if I get a vote) for something inviting, activated and retail-oriented. Putting an elevated path up to Summer street would be genius.
 
^I was not at any meeting, but the sloped path to the elevated Summer St-- called Seaport Hill back in the day-- has long been the plan for this area.
 
^How about a raised pathway along the entirety of Harbor Way, connected to a raised pathway along Seaport Blvd, a la NY High Line
 
The plan used to be to have a road from summer, going over congress, and landing at seaport hill, which was in the middle of the remaining L blocks.
See the master plan rendering in post 2390 (although that 1doesnt show the later to come seaport hill).
The stairs are now between elevated summer and congress, and there isn't a road.
 
Art museum, grocery store, harborwalk, performing arts center, memorial, movie theater, church, court house, waterfront dining, roof decks, parks, convention center... all we need is a library and a school and this is going to be a real neighborhood. A damn nice one at that. Starting to see the end game yet?
 
"Harbor Way"

SERIOUSLY FFS

NOT EVERY NEW THOROUGHFARE NEEDS TO BE NAMED AS A LITERAL DESCRIPTION OF ITS ROUTE OR AS AN ANODYNE REMINDER OF BEING PROXIMATE TO THE HARBOR
 
I read the article with so much excitement, but the end kind of killed me, "“We think the first building will probably be delivered in 2020"

I know that that is only three years away, but that's for only 1 building. I'd love to see the whole thing halfway done by then!
 
So a higher -quality pedestrian zone and street-level amenities in exchange for greater density?

That's like offering me a nice dessert in exchange for serving me a higher-quality dinner.
 
Associated map:

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StairRendering_011317.jpg


On the name: Seriously. Name it after Menino, or Sean Collier, or somebody's dog. I don't care. Just pick a real street name for once.

bolehboleh said:
I read the article with so much excitement, but the end kind of killed me, "“We think the first building will probably be delivered in 2020"

I know that that is only three years away, but that's for only 1 building. I'd love to see the whole thing halfway done by then!
Click to expand...

From the Globe: "WS hopes to break ground on the first new building by year’s end, Tsipis said, and build out all nine blocks over the next five to seven years, with the walkway pieced together in stages. At the end, Tsipis predicted the Seaport will finally feel like a true neighborhood."

File plans by the end of February and break ground in 2017 sounds much better...
 
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