South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

Re: South Station Tower

I have no idea how I feel about this. At first glance I was like wtf is that, but Im gonna wait for more renders because you would have to rent a helicopter to ever see it from this angle. More renders and well know for sure. Either way still good that this is moving forward.
 
Re: South Station Tower

Dont freak out....but I thinned it out just to see what it would look like with this design but all residential. Not saying this should be built or will or anything, just playing around with the design. Honestly looks way too thin for the site.

 
Re: South Station Tower

The render is scaled all wrong. That's the problem. The render makes the tower look about 4x as tall as the station, which is obviously wrong - tower is more like 10x the height, if not more. No way the render makes this look anything like the tallest building in the area. The render makes the entire thing look like a chubby spire appended to the station building. Lets withhold judgment until there are better renders.
 
Re: South Station Tower

Yea we definitely need more renders to know what this will actually look like from areas people actually go and not 100ft above the greenway.
 
Re: South Station Tower

What a fun coupla days!! i was reading all your posts with the laptop on the passenger seat on Wednesday along a few of the straight stretches when the opportunity presented. Thanks for keeping me informed/entertained. Add today's news!!
 
Re: South Station Tower

TheRifleman said:
It would be a GREAT place for a SOUTH STATION CASINO.
Click to expand...

While we're at it lets make it BOSTONS PREMIER RED LIGHT DISTRICT. Worlds first red light district in the sky. People would pay good money to fuck whores in a room with a view.
 
Re: South Station Tower

datadyne007 said:
Hi-res render:

South-Station-rendering_NEW_2016.jpg
Click to expand...

Doesn't this seem a little small? Not the tower itself, it looks nice but let's not shoot for height over practicality. Could there be three or four mid-sized towers in this location with one taller (600-800ft). I understand we would need to build over the tracks but if your going to build one tall tower, I'm not sure how much more $ it would be to just build a few more small 10-30 story buildings. Again, I'm not an engineer or architect so I could be considerably wrong but it's an idea I want to throw around
 
Re: South Station Tower

*a couple towers (10-20 stories) to left and right of what's proposed? Is that unreasonable?
 
Re: South Station Tower

Shepard said:
The render is scaled all wrong. That's the problem. The render makes the tower look about 4x as tall as the station, which is obviously wrong - tower is more like 10x the height, if not more. No way the render makes this look anything like the tallest building in the area. The render makes the entire thing look like a chubby spire appended to the station building. Lets withhold judgment until there are better renders.
Click to expand...

Shepard -- Yes that might make a significant visual impact difference

South Station's Head House is 5 floors tall -- let's say that each of the floors is 12' except the bottom floor of 20'

That would make the South Station Head House 68 ft tall + roof == 72'

Shep's estimate looks spot on for a 700' tower == 10X the Head House

Interesting discovery -- i came across a document written by some MIT Students circa 2003 about the history of South Station and the plans for the renovations first begun in the 1970's

http://web.mit.edu/1.011/www/finalppr/wilrf-South_Station_web.pdf

Phase 1 was completed with the foundation work for the then Phase 2 planned development

The Renovation of Boston’s South Station

Alexander French & William Fowler
May 19, 2003
1.011 - Project Evaluation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Section 2: Concept of the Renovation
The 1980s Renovation of South Station
In 1981, the Environmental Impact Statement for the renovation project cited the need for a renovation of the station. With urging from the MBTA, the Federal Railroad Administration proposed “significant improvements to Boston South Station to eliminate current deteriorated conditions in the station building and tracks and provide adequate facilities form the increased patronage projected for 1990" (USDOT EIS 1-1).......

Alternative 6: Full Build

Alternative six was the most construction-intensive and was the alternative that was ultimately chosen for the renovation. It consisted of two phases:
phase 1 was to be completed by 1985, while phase II would be implemented by 1990.

Phase I incorporated all the elements of alternative five, plus the construction of foundations to support Phase II air-rights development.

Phase II was originally proposed to include (USDOT EIS 2-12):
  • The office tower – a 12 - 14 storey, 400,000 square foot office tower located closest to the headhouse on a 35,000 sqft area on AR-3 over the bus terminal.
    The estimated cost was $40 million 1979.
  • The hotel tower – an approximately 100,000 sqft development pad on AR-4 directly south of the office tower would contain the public elements (lobby, convention facilities,
    restaurants) and the first floor of the 25-storey hotel tower.
    The estimated cost was $60 million 1979.
  • Low-rise development – The southernmost area, a 125,000 sqft space on AR-6, would be developed as a two-storey structure suitable for high-tech industries.
    The estimated cost was $20 million 1979.
Click to expand...
Section 4: Conclusion
When compared to the plans laid in the 1970s, the progress made on South Station seems inadequate. The current bus terminal is only half of what was planned and was still completed ten years behind schedule. The air rights development, including parking and valuable downtown space, is currently almost twenty years behind schedule.....

The future of South Station continues to look bright. Hines Development Corporation is nearing the end of the permitting process to develop air rights above South Station tracks (Brenner). This development will be accompanied by the required expansion of the bus terminal. Predictions for continuing use of rail and bus services imply that South Station in the first few decades of the twenty first century will be as successful as it was in the beginning of the twentieth.

Future Development
Since the completion of the first half of the bus terminal, construction at South Station has been at a stand still. The second half of the bus terminal and development of air rights beyond have stalled due to redesigns, permitting trouble and debate over foundation placement.

Foundations for air rights development were placed during track renovation in the 1980s, but designed to support a slightly different payout than the Hines Development Corporation wanted. Negotiations have led to a compromise that uses current foundations and makes minimal modifications without interrupting train service, while meeting Hines’ needs for a significantly larger (up to 40 stories, as opposed to originally 12-14 stories) building (Salvucci).

The horizontal extent of air rights over the headhouse itself has also been debated by the BRA, the MBTA and Hines, but the again a compromise has been attained that suits all parties.

With a slight reduction in height to satisfy the FAA, final designs for air rights development are currently in the City Of Boston permitting process (Brenner). The first phase of construction will necessarily involve the completion of the bus terminal, and continuing construction will be only a matter of the Hines Corporation securing financing
Click to expand...

The last statement which I have [bolded] for emphasis was written 13 years ago

Perhaps with the Chinese $ -- the modified version of Phase 2 of Alternative 6 -- circa 1980 -- will finally come to fruition circa 2020
 
Re: South Station Tower

Unless jet packs get released to the general public in the next 59 years we are never going to see the tower from this angle. Lets hold off until we get some renders that show anything close to what people may see on a day to day basis.
 
Re: South Station Tower

stick n move said:
Unless jet packs get released to the general public in the next 59 years we are never going to see the tower from this angle. Lets hold off until we get some renders that show anything close to what people may see on a day to day basis.
Click to expand...

There are a few people that would have that view -- it is the view from the 10th floor of the Greenway side of the Keystone Building, 99 High Street.
 
Re: South Station Tower

The rendering is not that far off. Across the street is One Financial at 590 feet.

At street level approaching from the north by car, the view will be blocked until you are almost at Dewey Square. The best unobstructed views will be from the south on I-93, and from across Fort Point Channel.

For those who want other towers, modest mid-rises are coming with expansion of South Station and relocating the Post Office.
 
Re: South Station Tower

I think they just oversized South Station or pushed the heights on the towers lower to make the tower seem shorter to try and keep NIMBYs from freaking out. When I compared 1 Financial Center to South Station based on a height of 72 feet it should be about 8 times taller and instead came out in my rough estimate looking at the photo as only about 4.75 to 5 times taller.

Even if we assume South Station is 80 feet tall if you multiply that by 5 to get the height of 1 Financial Center which in this image appears about 5 times as tall that would make 1 Financial Center only 400 feet tall.

Proportionally all the towers are the right heights but, the scale of South Station is off it is too big or all of the towers were made smaller.
 
Re: South Station Tower

Looks like a worthy (i.e., equally inoffensive and uninteresting) sister to MT; yet another missed opportunity to do something distinctive/engaging. But it's tall(ish) and glassy, so I guess it passes community standards for "iconic."
 
Re: South Station Tower

How Tall is the Fidelity -- Née Stone & Webster

Since its directly adjacent to South Station there should be no scaling issues

Emporis says that the building now known as 245 Summer St.

Technical Data

Height (estimated) 173.79 ft or about 2.5X South Station

The tower should be about 4.25 X the Stone & Webster
 
Re: South Station Tower

hockey92 said:
Doesn't this seem a little small? Not the tower itself, it looks nice but let's not shoot for height over practicality. Could there be three or four mid-sized towers in this location with one taller (600-800ft). I understand we would need to build over the tracks but if your going to build one tall tower, I'm not sure how much more $ it would be to just build a few more small 10-30 story buildings. Again, I'm not an engineer or architect so I could be considerably wrong but it's an idea I want to throw around
Click to expand...

There will be more. The tower is only Phase One of the development. Hines project includes another 1,000,000 s.f. after construction of the tower. From Hines website describing the project:

The South Station development will consist of the completion of the South Station Transportation Center at the lower levels of the project, plus the addition of a 49-story, 970,000-square-foot office tower, a 155-unit residential condominium and 200-room hotel building, a 525,000-square-foot office building, and parking for approximately 755 cars.
Click to expand...

Somewhat oddly, the rendering has been updated to reflect the new design but the description of the tower itself has not been revised to reflect the change to a mixed use tower.
 
Re: South Station Tower

whighlander said:
Shepard -- Yes that might make a significant visual impact difference

South Station's Head House is 5 floors tall -- let's say that each of the floors is 12' except the bottom floor of 20'.

That would make the South Station Head House 68 ft tall + roof == 72'
Click to expand...

According to Emporis, South Station is estimated to be 62.07 feet tall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top