South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

6-8-24 from the Greenway and the Seaport —

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6/8 Fired off some pics in a traffic jam on 93 heading into the tunnel. This has reemerged as the clear-cut best highway for the skyline entrance into the city. I actually preferred 90E for a hot minute until Parcel 12 blocked off the view of the Big 3 lined up before the tunnel. This has always been the best look at downtown though, other than maybe a few seconds from the Tobin Bridge.

IMG_0199 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0201 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0203 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0205 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0208 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0210 by David Z, on Flickr
 
Bill Blass said:
It helps that they’re mixed in with other types of architecture and style I think. It brings a modernism to the skyline that was needed.
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Sure, but that's enough blue glass buildings for now. Time for something else in another color.

(Not gray, like every single new or remodeled house in the country.)
 
I always thought the best highway skyline view was coming in on the Mass Pike and going over the "throat" overpass that may soon be gone. You have the Charles River, the downtown skyline, plus the Back Bay skyline all lined up for just a few seconds before you plunge down into the main cut of the Pike.
DZH22 said:
6/8 Fired off some pics in a traffic jam on 93 heading into the tunnel. This has reemerged as the clear-cut best highway for the skyline entrance into the city. I actually preferred 90E for a hot minute until Parcel 12 blocked off the view of the Big 3 lined up before the tunnel. This has always been the best look at downtown though, other than maybe a few seconds from the Tobin Bridge.
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Java King said:
I always thought the best highway skyline view was coming in on the Mass Pike and going over the "throat" overpass that may soon be gone. You have the Charles River, the downtown skyline, plus the Back Bay skyline all lined up for just a few seconds before you plunge down into the main cut of the Pike.
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You get all that with the BU bridge directly in front of it too which makes it even better. Def one of the better views.
 
Java King said:
I always thought the best highway skyline view was coming in on the Mass Pike and going over the "throat" overpass that may soon be gone. You have the Charles River, the downtown skyline, plus the Back Bay skyline all lined up for just a few seconds before you plunge down into the main cut of the Pike.
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Yeah but that's for like 3 seconds and you have to turn your head to see it. It's pretty dangerous trying to look while in traffic. I'd also still argue that the view from the Tobin for those few seconds is better. 93N is a long, drawn out process with a bunch of different looks and then at least 20-30 seconds of "money shot" before descending into the tunnel.

If you like those 3 seconds on Route 90 so much, try driving in more often using Memorial Drive. Nothing quite like passing the BU Bridge rotary and then having the whole skyline lay out in front of you.

Charlie_mta said:
Is there only one high-rise left to build, the one next to the new State Street Bank building? Any others waiting in the wings?
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0 buildings over 500' for the rest of our lives!!! (actually maybe) Kendall will have the 454' MXD and ~475' Volpe residential. Back Bay Garage could have some super ugly buildings that barely exceed 400'. Otherwise we're heading back to the dark times of 2005-2015 (maybe slightly improved over that, but more that than what we have gotten since). Luckily the buildings we did get don't go away into some dusty trophy case somewhere, so we get to enjoy our new skyline going forward. It just won't have any more major (Top 25 tallest) additions for the foreseeable future.
 
Just curious, why are you suggesting 500 feet as a magic number that Boston will not surpass again?
When all points suggest that a next boom would actually require higher buildings to have any profitability.
 
bdurden said:
Just curious, why are you suggesting 500 feet as a magic number that Boston will not surpass again?
When all points suggest that a next boom would actually require higher buildings to have any profitability.
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Everything remaining in the pipeline over that height has stalled or failed, and was proposed during past administrations. The appetite for height went down the drain when Marty Walsh was called to Washington. Even then, height had stalled under Marty, exemplified by projects such as Hub on Causeway cutting the residential, and Back Bay Garage defaulting to short/fat.

Hurley should go tall but apparently isn't. That garage by South Station should go tall but apparently isn't. Back Bay Garage, should but isn't. 1 Bromfield, should be a tall residential but probably will be a short fat office. Aquarium garage seems to be stalled forever (it should have been the 600' and 540' 2 tower iteration). Copley Place Tower gave up after being stuck at only 14 out of the 15 approvals needed, and sacrificed that site's ability to go tall in the future. Kendall could exceed 1000' in places but is capping in the 400's for now. Cambridge Crossing should have gone tall but capped itself at 250' and seems to have a rule where every building needs to be wider than it is tall. Where do you think these taller buildings are going to come from? We're lucky we even got what we got, excessively lucky. You could argue we should have built even more tall buildings, but with this being Boston even the reduced windfall has still been a miracle.
 
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