South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

Boston should be really proud of how far it's come in the last 70 years. Today it's one of the best cities in the country, with lower crime rates, more transit, more great history, more beauty, than most of the others in its size class. I sense that the country as a whole is worn out and discouraged from over 2 years of the Covid pandemic, and now the Ukraine invasion and genocide. It will take a decade or longer, IMO, for the US, including Boston, to regain its former momentum. So for now, no new tall buildings for a while.
 
bdurden said:
A tall, slender 400' tower with no setback at this site would be a site to behold.
Click to expand...

why no setback? in total, this city has maybe 7 highrises and/or skyscrapers that could legitimately be described as having setbacks. everything else is a damn box/rectangle. boxy, rectilinear boredom on lather/rinse/repeat everywhere.
 
bdurden said:
A tall, slender 400' tower with no setback at this site would be a site to behold.
Click to expand...

While I doubt it'd actually happen, a tower at the Lord & Taylor site should be at least 600' to fit in well with the rest of the High Spine in Back Bay. It would fill the huge gap in the Back Bay skyline and IMO deserves to be taller than 400'.
 
Charlie_mta said:
Boston should be really proud of how far it's come in the last 70 years. Today it's one of the best cities in the country, with lower crime rates, more transit, more great history, more beauty, than most of the others in its size class. I sense that the country as a whole is worn out and discouraged from over 2 years of the Covid pandemic, and now the Ukraine invasion and genocide. It will take a decade or longer, IMO, for the US, including Boston, to regain its former momentum. So for now, no new tall buildings for a while.
Click to expand...

I appreciate that you're trying to keep things in perspective, but it's not that the market is afraid of growth, it's the local government.

stick n move said:
The hurley building is also being shopped for redevelopment so that site could definitely see something substantial.
Click to expand...

It's still beholden to city zoning, no?

Also, this thread seems to be veering off-topic. This tangent might be better off in Design A Better Boston.
 
Not to veer any more off topic but this is the worst time for a slow down in new development activity given the continued rising cost of rent in Boston. I was a bit shocked that there hasn't been new proposal for residential projects or a restart in several old proposal since many of them stalled because of fear of a cooling housing market but it has been the complete opposite. Boohoo to Simon Properties because their conservative approach likely costed them millions $$$ of revenue that they could have brought in since their could-have-been project would be coming online at literally the best time.
 
W-4 said:
I appreciate that you're trying to keep things in perspective, but it's not that the market is afraid of growth, it's the local government.
Click to expand...
I also had in mind the likely impending recession. But you're right; it's more the current city government leadership putting a damper on tall buildings.
 
New render
image-asset.jpeg
 
Is the tower itself supposed to start construction (going vertical, not the foundation work) this year or next year?
 
bobthebuilder said:
According to the project website, the tower won't really get going till next year. That being said, I wouldn't be totally surprised to see some steel poking up by the end of the year.
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced that it will take quite that long to go vertical, at least by the wording on the website. Under March 2021-December 2022 is the following blurb:
The contractor will perform foundation and structure work on the mixed-used tower.

The key words are "and structure work" which I think would be vertical progress on the tower. There doesn't seem to be an obvious delineation on that timetable for when the tower will actually get out of the ground. Of course you would be more knowledgeable in this area since I'm not in the construction industry, but you also said "according to the project website" so I'm mainly referring to that.
 
I expect it to rise very slowly. It has quite a complex deep foundation that they're still excavating out and spent months prepping, and the tower sits on a vaulted arch system being constructed in the middle of a busy transit hub. The video referenced in the link above shows how complex the structure of the first few 'real' floors are too.

There have been a few weeks since we last saw an update of the excavation of the foundation, but I imagine that's going to take some work getting set up and up to ground level, then the arches, and then the platform level that defines the shape of the tower directly above the arches. After that, its as typical construction as it can get on this site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top