So your argument is that they shouldn't build here at all because it will overload the transportation network, but after a few more decades of growth they should build twice the density currently proposed?
I always found you to be one of the more impressive posters on this site, but I am really disappointed with you today. Having an off day?
Step 1: Satisfy the current and near-future demand in spots that make more sense. This includes downtown (particularly wasteland that still surrounds North Station), Kendall, Kenmore, Fenway, South End/NY Streets, and North Point. There is an absolute ton of room to absorb so much more in these areas, and keep it all concentrated on the transit hubs. We could easily have 20+ years of steady building before we have any sort of need to turn to a recovered wasteland like Suffolk Downs.
Step 2: Move the airport (which I said was likely never going to happen)
Step 3: Contingent on Step 2 happening, which it won't... Redevelop the open space in Eastie, which could include a lot of transportation reconfiguration to get there. Nowhere did I suggest putting the 500'ers into East Boston, although technically moving the airport would lift those height limits. However, as long as the airport is there, and the roads to the airport and in the surrounding neighborhoods are choked beyond belief, then development should happen elsewhere. Removing the airport would ease the traffic considerably in the short term, and allow for additional connecting routes across the harbor.
My ulterior motive, of course, is to see more tall and higher quality development downtown. This newly planned neighborhood is probably the least inspiring yet, an even stumpier version of the Seaport or North Point. As long as we build a steady stream of crap in the outward neighborhoods, there is less incentive to tackle the transformative (but difficult) possibilities downtown. Like, why bother trying to get a 60 story residential built near MGH when you could make a quick buck with a flimsy 5 over 1 in an outer neighborhood? I'm sick of the 5 over 1's. I wish they would outlaw this building method in the city and force developers to go 7+ floors, encouraging not just height and density but QUALITY. Is there a single noteworthy building in this entire development? Do we want to stifle developments like the upcoming State Street Tower so we can get more Burlington/Waltham-type developments in East Boston? This site is called "ARCH"Boston which stands for architecture, and the architecture here stinks!
This is like the opposite of the Hurley Building thread. Over there that building is strictly a stand-alone piece that turns its back to the city, but has architectural merit (to some). For Suffolk Downs it's more utilitarian, like who the hell cares what it looks like or what it stifles as long as it adds some square footage? Boston should be better than that. Boston's strength is the combination of beautiful architecture with a form that encourages thriving neighborhoods. Nothing here is beautiful. Nothing here will ever be beautiful. The State Street building will be beautiful. 1 Dalton is beautiful. Millennium Tower (except the open top) is beautiful. The Copley Square Tower would have been possibly the most beautiful one of all. A beautiful city is something that everybody can be proud of, even if we don't necessarily all use every single aspect of it. This development is just millions of square feet of dreck. Why are we in such a rush to develop more charmless dreck? Why are we in such a rush to water down Boston's beauty while allowing un/under-developed sites downtown to falter indefinitely?
Sometimes I feel like I am arguing with a bunch of robots who can only compute numbers, but can't see the forest for the trees. We can do so much better, but cookie cutter crap like this sucks away the demand FROM the better possibilities. It's like, if you don't have any standards, go move to some ugly city like Toronto and leave Boston to its most prideful citizens. I personally have way too much pride in the aesthetics of this city to applaud this POS redevelopment. If anything, just build the soccer stadium here and be done with it.
