TD Gahhhden expansion

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whighlander

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strange how a development project annoucement only can be found on a sports website
http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/bruins/post/_/id/9865/jacobs-plans-expansion-around-garden

Jacobs plans expansion around Garden
May, 4, 2012
May 4
10:53
AM ET
By Joe McDonald | ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON -- The Jacobs family, owners of the Boston Bruins and TD Garden, are planning a major development project on the site of the old Boston Garden that will include retail, restaurants, sports bars and a new pro shop for both the Bruins and Celtics.

Charlie Jacobs, the Bruins’ principal and alternate governor, discussed the plans Thursday afternoon. While the plans are in “Phase 1,” Jacobs did say there are no plans to put an ice rink or practice facility in the planned complex, which will be adjacent to TD Garden.

“Our hope is that the game experience for any event-goer, when they enter into what would be the Garden, or at least the mall almost -- the mall perhaps is the wrong term, but the thoroughfare from Causeway Street into the North Station and then with elevators going up into the Garden,” Jacobs said.

“I would anticipate it would be a mixed use of retail, some food and beverage, a bar and a large pro sports shop for both Bruins and Celtics. I imagine there will be a number of shops as well that will be on ground floor.”

There will also be expanded offices for the MBTA and the Garden’s box office.
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Bruins Lease Garage From MBTA, Plan Mall-Style Shops
May 3, 2012 5:24 PM

BOSTON (CBS) – While the Bruins look forward to being back on the ice next year, they are also looking at making a Bruins game better off the ice.

The Bruins want to enhance the game-day experience of their fans and Charlie Jacobs says they’ve made a big step in that direction, signing a 75-year lease of the MBTA garage underneath North Station.

They envision mall-style retail shops, better parking and a second entrance and exit onto Legends Way and Causeway Street.

“As anybody who has attended a game or any event at the Garden, it can be very difficult to get out, and I personally have experienced it. It’s a grind,” said Charlie Jacobs, of the Bruins.

The Bruins’ Charlie Jacobs says they would combine that with the open parking area in front:

“Have them both combined, maybe do some enhancements to both properties, and when I say enhancements, I mean as we build up the front lot, maybe we do some bump-outs to this building to improve both game experience and the player environment, locker rooms, weight rooms, etc.” said Jacobs.

Specifics are not in place and Jacobs says this wouldn’t be reality until 2014 or 2015.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/05/03/bruins-lease-garage-from-mbta-plan-mall-style-shops/
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One of my NIMBY friends in Strada is already complaining about it.
 
Don't they already have approval for 2 400 ft buildings on the site? This would be awesome and single handedly revitalize that area. you could but 400+ residences right in north station, and shops that thousands of commuters go through each day. I hate that it took so long.

My only request is that the rebuild the entrance to the same quality and style as the old north station entrance- i wish i had a picture- but that was awesome. If they do that, i will keep my mouth shut about the inevitable Shen-style crap that goes on top.
 
choo said:
Don't they already have approval for 2 400 ft buildings on the site? This would be awesome and single handedly revitalize that area. you could but 400+ residences right in north station, and shops that thousands of commuters go through each day. I hate that it took so long.
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The towers have been approved for something like over 7 years now, but nothing ever came of them. They're even featured on the city model in the BRA at City Hall (I have pix that I haven't grabbed from my cam yet).
 
^ Nothing ever came of them as in they're dead?
 
bah. This is one area that really needed those developments to bring activity when the Garden is silent...
 
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/494-Maple-Leaf-Square-Multiuse-(CadFair-Lanterra-54-50-10s-KPMB-P-S)?p=386778#post386778

That's Maple Leaf Square, built next to (and incorporated with) the Air Canada Centre, home to the Toronto Maple Leafs (Maple Laughs) and the Toronto Raptors. The podium features street level retail, as well as a full-size grocery store below ground, several restaurants, a hotel and commercial space. On top are two condo towers. The project is separate from the ACC but integrated with it, allowing for a large square in front of the main entrance to the ACC.

Admittedly, the plot that Maple Leaf Square sits on is bigger than what's in front of the Garden, something like this is what I'd like to see (And, obviously scaled down. The 550 ft towers - that will soon be dwarfed by the 700-800 ft. towers that are being built around it - would give many a Bostonian a conniption).
 
I demand a grand Greek revival bottom to serve as the entrance to the Garden.
 
KentXie said:
I demand a grand Greek revival bottom to serve as the entrance to the Garden.
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Ugh, no. Gimmicky copies of the past are not the way to go about architecture. The TD Garden complex is already done in a contemporary style. The style should continue in all additions. Imagine if Calatrava could design some striking entrance pavilion. Boston needs to re-emphasize what it once was: cutting-edge. The last time Boston was truly cutting-edge was when we built City Hall. It's time to cut this whole recreating-the-past scheme and get with the 21st century.
 
datadyne007 said:
Ugh, no. Gimmicky copies of the past are not the way to go about architecture. The TD Garden complex is already done in a contemporary style. The style should continue in all additions. Imagine if Calatrava could design some striking entrance pavilion. Boston needs to re-emphasize what it once was: cutting-edge. The last time Boston was truly cutting-edge was when we built City Hall. It's time to cut this whole recreating-the-past scheme and get with the 21st century.
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Data -- my wife just brought home a library book that's a bit apropos to this:
The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio
by Witold Rybczynski

something about timeless and human that connect -- i.e. everyone can feel at home with a Greek Temple -- its really rare when something comes along which can play in that league

Like I said in another post -- the Hancock is the only building from its era (1950 to 1975) which I hope is still standing in Boston in 2080

City Hall would be the first one I'd dynamite -- followed by all of Paul Rudolph's bastardisms and then Johnson's
 
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The Palladio fetishism is pretty ridiculous. For years, all they even taught in architecture school was his Quattro Libri dell'Architettura.

What is important to take away from Palladio and other examples of Greek and Roman architecture are their key organizational concepts and principles, not that they should be replicated piece-for-piece. The principles should be translated into the modern vernacular and applied to current building technologies.

This is also not a debate about whether you like City Hall or not either. This is the true statement that at the time it was built, City Hall was one of (if not the most) cutting edge buildings in the world and put Boston on the map in the architecture world. We've severely lost our place on the map since and recreating ridiculous gimmicks from the past isn't going to get us anywhere.
 
The TD Garden was designed to be hidden by subsequent development (thus the blank south-facing wall), so I would not use the existing building as any sort of style template for such development.
 
There better be plans to have the T station directly connect to the inside of North Station...
 
^ If only they could actually follow through on plans to hide it...
 
Ron Newman said:
The TD Garden was designed to be hidden by subsequent development (thus the blank south-facing wall), so I would not use the existing building as any sort of style template for such development.
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gardentwo415.jpg


It's also right next to the Zakim. These sites are begging for contemporary Toronto-styled development.
 
datadyne007 said:
The Palladio fetishism is pretty ridiculous. For years, all they even taught in architecture school was his Quattro Libri dell'Architettura.

What is important to take away from Palladio and other examples of Greek and Roman architecture are their key organizational concepts and principles, not that they should be replicated piece-for-piece. The principles should be translated into the modern vernacular and applied to current building technologies.

This is also not a debate about whether you like City Hall or not either. This is the true statement that at the time it was built, City Hall was one of (if not the most) cutting edge buildings in the world and put Boston on the map in the architecture world.
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Data -- perhaps in an absurd, self centered academic sense -- but outside of a few hundred people -- no one cares about that kind of acheivement

What matters is that in 1890 Trinity Church was one of the most respected bits of architecture in the US. in 1990 the same was still true. I sincerely doubt that in 2060 many people outside of architectural historians will care whether City Hall is still standing.

What most of the academic architects chose to forget is that people have been building cities for 5,000 plus years and there are certain ways structures relate to humans that were discovered way back -- what has fundamentally changed over that span is the materials of construction, methods of building, and the force balancing design techniques enabling one to build tall and wide with minimal materials

The rest is as they say -- "mental masturbation" -- after you've finished no one cares about how cutting your edge was
-- with very very few exceptions (see Trinity Church)
 
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