State Street HQ | One Congress | Bulfinch Crossing | West End

rjacobs said:
Stupid question: any chance that the parking garage that 33 Arch is cantilevered over could be torn down and replaced with underground parking and a decent-sized tower (in a decade or two, perhaps)?
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So long as you have the money/its feasible to bury and build, and can get past the NIMBYS and neighbors losing their views, and ensure the wind from resulting from the close proximity of the two buildings doesn't turn the area into a perpetual vortex, why not? It'd have nice proportions, compared to our usually wide towers we've been getting, the accounting for the wind could lead to some interesting setbacks or some depth in the facade, and the general massing could play off the cantilever of 33 Arch.

I'd give it <10% chance.
 
^^This exactly: it's a no They'd have to replace it with something incredibly tall to pay the way. It won't get very tall before being stopped by the Shadow Law.

And so it goes with Boston: You can find 50 or 60 other not particularly great, not-historic structures you'd desire to see go, but they can't be done for lack of allowable height.

If that wasn't enough, unless something drastically changes with zoning, or those cement structures (considered historic by a few people), there's going to be an astonishing reduction in highrise construction above ~240~270' in the City.
 
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The next garage that could conceivably go is actually right down the street, at Pi Alley. That one could go 700'+ I believe.
 
odurandina said:
^^This exactly: it's a no They'd have to replace it with something incredibly tall to pay the way. It won't get very tall before being stopped by the Shadow Law.

And so it goes with Boston: You can find 50 or 60 other not particularly great, not-historic structures you'd desire to see go, but they can't be done for lack of allowable height.

If that wasn't enough, unless something drastically changes with zoning, or those cement structures (considered historic by a few people), there's going to be an astonishing reduction in highrise construction above ~240~270' in the City.
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The area around the garden, with the second highest zoning in the city after back bay, may disagree with you later on once all the towers have gone up in the area and everyone is used to them. Menino wanted a pinnacle, and theres a reason basically every city builds one... Its a point of pride. He just wanted it in the wrong spot. One day when the citys more filled out we could get one in the right spot. People are already universally raving about the hub on causeway.
 
^^It's possible the planners might try--but the nimby's might burn the place down. 42 months ago, i was talking about the end of proposals > ~390' in Boston. That day is here. We haven't seen anything taller than 370' proposed in 2 years (since the Huntington) in a white hot market. Developers saw heights reduced at Tremont Crossing, and proposals are set under 280' outside the High Spine more or less... even close to transit. What's soon to be proposed inside the the High Spine after the Harbor Garage & maybe ~480' at 1 Bromfield?
 
bigpicture7 said:
One more floor of existing above-garage office structure to come off...then, the ellipse of the office tower will hang over the top of the garage building (e.g., the floors of the tower leading up to the top of the garage will not be the full ellipse...all floors after the top of the garage will be the full elliptical cross-section).

Change in cross-section shown here:
View+02_final.jpg



Bottom-level cross section shows partial ellipse:


180521-Webiste-Graphics7.jpg
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this post is accurate with the caveat that the top floor of office space is/has gone away. the bottom floor of office space is becoming a garage level that is decked over with the green/open space for tenants/residents.

HarvardP said:
The "executive parking" eating up 3/4 of the main level is a nice touch.
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the garage supports more than just the office building. a 2300 space garage supporting 200K office space is being reduced to 900 something spaces supporting over 3M SF of development and youre still complaining there will be a garage hidden between buildings in the internal of the site?
 
odurandina said:
^^It's possible the planners might try--but the nimby's might burn the place down. 42 months ago, i was talking about the end of proposals > ~390' in Boston. That day is here. We haven't seen anything taller than 370' proposed in 2 years (since the Huntington) in a white hot market. Developers saw heights reduced at Tremont Crossing, and proposals are set under 280' outside the High Spine more or less... even close to transit. What's soon to be proposed inside the the High Spine after the Harbor Garage & maybe ~480' at 1 Bromfield?
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I think you're assigning NIMBY's more power than they actually have. We have a ton of office space coming on line when you consider the wider area and not just downtown or Back Bay (seaport, Kendall, etc) as well as the new projects going up downtown. At the end of the day there's only so many companies in CT that we can screw them out of so maybe people are waiting to see if everything gets absorbed? For this project, for example, that's a lot of empty space in One Lincoln that's going to come available once State Street moves.

Lastly I'll ask, is the city making any new NIMBY's or is it the dwindling # of ancient old coots who've been opposing projects since the 70's?
 
To get to the elliptical shape they need to demo the tall brick elevator bank. Any idea when that will start up?
 
Rover said:
I think you're assigning NIMBY's more power than they actually have. We have a ton of office space coming on line when you consider the wider area and not just downtown or Back Bay (seaport, Kendall, etc) as well as the new projects going up downtown. At the end of the day there's only so many companies in CT that we can screw them out of so maybe people are waiting to see if everything gets absorbed? For this project, for example, that's a lot of empty space in One Lincoln that's going to come available once State Street moves.

Lastly I'll ask, is the city making any new NIMBY's or is it the dwindling # of ancient old coots who've been opposing projects since the 70's?
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I don't like speaking for the big O, but a couple of points from my perspective -

1. Let's be clear, Connecticut screwed themselves.
2. Yes, the city does have a new style NIMBY's which differ from those of the past. In the past it was driven much more by self interests and simple resistance to change, however, due to the deep seated corruption, they could be overcome or appeased through back channels if the right parties were involved. Today, although the corruption is still exists, it is much different and the NIMBY's are more inclined to protest something simply because their influencers tell them to and those influencers are much more diverse in their interests, and therefore more difficult to contain.
 
stoweker said:
Does any one know how they are going to stage the removal of the garage section over congress street? Presumably phase 3 is the removal of the garage street overhang and build out of the next resi portion once phase 1 stabilizes (so maybe 2-3 years out from now?)
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Reposting this. I thought the garage would come down over Congress as part of the construction for the office tower. These recent posts about the cantilevering sort of change things. Anyone have any insight? Can the office tower be completed without removing the garage? It seems like it's probably in their best interest to keep the garage (and revenue) as long as they can.
 
Lrfox said:
Reposting this. I thought the garage would come down over Congress as part of the construction for the office tower. These recent posts about the cantilevering sort of change things. Anyone have any insight? Can the office tower be completed without removing the garage? It seems like it's probably in their best interest to keep the garage (and revenue) as long as they can.
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garage over the street and over bus station has to be gone before occupancy.
it takes longer to build the building than it does to take down the garage so that work doesnt need to start now (why displace the T for longer than necessary).
 
Phase 2a is removal of the overhanging garage section and phase 2b is completion of the office tower so yes it should be coming down fairly soon. This is gonna be one of the best parts yet, seeing what it looks like once thats gone is going to be awesome. Sightlines that people havent seen in decades opened back up.

https://gasstation-nearme.com/e85
 
Has phase 3B been finalized, and is there a render that depicts what phase 3B will actually look like? It seems to be different in every render I find on line.
 
stick n move said:
Phase 2a is removal of the overhanging garage section and phase 2b is completion of the office tower so yes it should be coming down fairly soon. This is gonna be one of the best parts yet, seeing what it looks like once thats gone is going to be awesome. Sightlines that people havent seen in decades opened back UP.
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This changes my outlook on the whole development. I was worried the office and taller residential towers would be built (aka the real money-makers), and then the garage would be left standing, we'd unfortunately hit a lull in the building boom, and this would-be-beautiful development would forever remain half finished with a gigantic hulking garage still over Congress St.

Now that it's apparent the garage over Congress is coming down relatively soon, it seems like phase 3A is much more likely (and 3B is still up in the air, IMO).
 
stick n move said:
Phase 2a is removal of the overhanging garage section and phase 2b is completion of the office tower so yes it should be coming down fairly soon. This is gonna be one of the best parts yet, seeing what it looks like once thats gone is going to be awesome. Sightlines that people havent seen in decades opened back up.
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If true, that means that the garage should be coming down ASAP.

I'm excited. I was also worried that the garage would stay up after the office and residential towers were built.
 
I have not parked in the garage in a while. Are there signs at the entrances that read "Garage closing soon"?
 
It's probably going to take a solid 3 years to build this tower. This means they could leave the garage up into 2021.
 
DZH22 said:
It's probably going to take a solid 3 years to build this tower. This means they could leave the garage up into 2021.
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I tweeted them last month about this. To quote "#OneCongress is set to deliver in 2023. Plans are still underway for the second residential tower. Stay tuned for more milestones and updates!"
 
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