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

No pics but when I drove by last night I saw that they are now forming the core. Hopefully the pace starts to accelerate once that's out of the ground.
 
Hi, I'm a long-time reader (about 15 years!) and enthusiast but never got around to registering, but here I finally am. I was wondering if anyone knows when the garage portion that goes over Congress St is coming down. This State St HQ building is by far my favorite that's going up this cycle!
 
Garage has to be down before occupancy of this office building. It's not a simple task with the amount of activity that occurs underneath it (road, bus stop, subway entrance).
 
Hi, I'm a long-time reader (about 15 years!) and enthusiast but never got around to registering, but here I finally am. I was wondering if anyone knows when the garage portion that goes over Congress St is coming down. This State St HQ building is by far my favorite that's going up this cycle!

According to BLDUP, on 6/29/2020 "A permit has been pulled for the removal of the roof and tenth and eleventh-floor office space at the Government Center Garage." Looking at the pictures - not sure what's left of them... I would expect that to be complete this summer first.

From the BPDA website: "The construction phasing plan was changed by moving up the demolition of the Garage from Phase 3A to Phase 2A" What does that mean? Saws-out pretty soon from what I can tell, and not just the overpass but the whole other side. That large-scale demo will be fun to watch.
1595511486066.png

 
According to BLDUP, on 6/29/2020 "A permit has been pulled for the removal of the roof and tenth and eleventh-floor office space at the Government Center Garage." Looking at the pictures - not sure what's left of them... I would expect that to be complete this summer first.

From the BPDA website: "The construction phasing plan was changed by moving up the demolition of the Garage from Phase 3A to Phase 2A" What does that mean? Saws-out pretty soon from what I can tell, and not just the overpass but the whole other side. That large-scale demo will be fun to watch.
View attachment 6332

I confess, I've never actually seen this phasing plan before. Given the current market and economy, I wonder how long we will be living with an empty lot where Phase 3A is supposed to sit?
 
3A is the bus station/T entrance area correct ? It won’t exactly be empty.
 
3A is the bus station/T entrance area correct ? It won’t exactly be empty.

Yes, not exactly empty, but close to it/wasteland.. the base of 3A is almost entirely retail and cafe, which would have been nice and relatively easy to attract tenants 5 months ago..

Though that brings up a good point - are they going to just simply alter the existing "headhouse" until the new one is built in 3A? I can't imagine a temporary one being constructed, nor can I imagine the permanent one being built this early, especially as there has been little talk/meetings about the design.. Also, how much of this is conceptual/set in stone? I haven't seen docs further than renders for phase 3A/3B, apart from the pedestrian/connectivity plan:

1595517482035.png
 
From the BPDA website: "The construction phasing plan was changed by moving up the demolition of the Garage from Phase 3A to Phase 2A" What does that mean? Saws-out pretty soon from what I can tell, and not just the overpass but the whole other side. That large-scale demo will be fun to watch.

But it looks like they've already strayed from that schedule, as the core of the office tower is starting to rise, meaning 2B has started. Does 2A and 2B mean that the two are done synchronously, and 2B just appears to be a bit ahead of 2A? I'm not sure how construction phasing parlance is usually used.
 
Of all the projects in the city, this one presents the least speculation to me in regards to the potential for an empty lot on the "east parcel". I don't think State Street thinks in terms of one or even two cycles when it comes to real estate. And realistically, the east parcel won't be finished for 2, 3? years, by which time the economy will have recalibrated to a post Corona world and that spot remains one of the finest in the city.
 
Thanks for all the info, everybody. It does seem like 2B and 2A will be happening together, so hopefully we'll see that behemoth coming down this Fall! I actually believe that 3A will begin as the main tower is rising, so I doubt there will be any downtime of empty, unfinished space on that side. Fingers crossed!
 
Asked on Twitter about the garage demolition timeline and this was their response: "Strategic deconstruction of the garage will begin this fall and is expected to finish in Q4 2022."

Nice! Good idea to just ask.

I appreciate that they have really learned about deconstructing this thing before they tackle the big project.
 
But it looks like they've already strayed from that schedule, as the core of the office tower is starting to rise, meaning 2B has started. Does 2A and 2B mean that the two are done synchronously, and 2B just appears to be a bit ahead of 2A? I'm not sure how construction phasing parlance is usually used.

It really depends how you read it. 2B only shows a finished tower, so that leaves a lot of wiggle room. 2A could still be under way. Technically to follow this diagram the overhang only needs to be demoed before the office tower is complete.

The tower is just at the very start of the core, so they still have plenty of time to demo the overhang.

2A could include both the start of the tower, and demo of the overhang. Then 2B would include the portion of tower construction post overhang demo-to top out.

 
Last edited:
how does that little forest of big "toothy" i-beams work?
50069771512_77c0d72465_b.jpg


Are they inside the rebar cage and all embedded in the concrete? OR are they like cog railway tracks, partly embedded and partly grippable in the hollow core space?

Are they covered with teeth so that they'll be fully structurally integrated into concrete being poured around them? Essentially giant rebar to ensure that the concrete never get under tension as wind pushes on the future top of the concrete core??
 
Last edited:
This process has been interesting to watch, since there's no hole in the ground usually masking all of what we're seeing now. It appears they're building the core in sections. Are the bases of cores usually constructed/phased like this?
 

Back
Top