The Alcott (née Garden Garage Towers) | 35 Lomasney Way | West End
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Suffolk 83
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
It's promising there's a $300 million project wanting to begin in 18 months in the city that's not medical or educational. I think they should've aimed for 1 building 50% higher in that area and if successful go from there.
Something like this from them in Jersey City. It does have 180 more units and its not crazy but better than what we're getting maybe.
It's promising there's a $300 million project wanting to begin in 18 months in the city that's not medical or educational. I think they should've aimed for 1 building 50% higher in that area and if successful go from there.
Something like this from them in Jersey City. It does have 180 more units and its not crazy but better than what we're getting maybe.
Suffolk 83
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
czsz...someone to aspire to.
czsz...someone to aspire to.
found5dollar
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
i still don't see what all the huffing and puffing is about....
before it was because everyone was sure the plans that were presented wouldn't be ok-ed... but they have been.
So what is the problem now?
i still don't see what all the huffing and puffing is about....
before it was because everyone was sure the plans that were presented wouldn't be ok-ed... but they have been.
So what is the problem now?
Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Don't worry if the Jersey City building had been proposed for the garage site and the proposed garage towers were in Jersey City the postings would be the same.
Don't worry if the Jersey City building had been proposed for the garage site and the proposed garage towers were in Jersey City the postings would be the same.
TheRifleman
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Paul McMorrow
A fix for the West End
By Paul McMorrow
January 21, 2011
THE end of Nashua Street, in the shadows of a parking garage and the Boston Garden, lies the closest thing to a grave marker that the old West End ever got: the slogan, ?the greatest neighborhood this side of heaven,?? etched onto the side of a highway onramp.
There?s a nice bit of righteous anger in affixing the slogan to a piece of highway infrastructure, which is just about the worst thing urban renewal planners ever could have traded a real neighborhood for. But if the onramp rising above Nashua Street serves as an ongoing protest of John B. Hynes, the mayor who orchestrated the razing of the West End, then the West End Park, which sits at its base, is a testament to the ongoing struggle to recapture the neighborhood?s vitality, a half-century after it was bulldozed.
The park was created as mitigation for the Big Dig. There?s really nothing sadder than an empty park. And this thing is empty. Why wouldn?t it be? Northbound cars rush overhead. The park overlooks the rear of the massive Garden, and the only slightly-less-massive Tip O?Neill Federal Building. There?s an apartment building across the way, but it?s overshadowed by the monstrous parking garage next door. The garage abuts residences on three sides, but its presence chokes off any life that might take root along the street, leaving that sad little patch of green with no constituency to speak of.
Other parts of the West End were rebuilt long ago, but this stretch, along Nashua Street and Lomasney Way, remains largely dead. It?s a kind of service door for the city ? a conduit for getting people into town, but not an actual place in and of itself.
That?s why the imminent destruction of the parking garage overlooking West End Park is so meaningful.
Next week, Boston development officials will begin formally vetting a proposal by the garage?s owner, Equity Residential, to bury the old garage, and replace it with a pair of apartment towers. Equity?s proposal brings urban renewal in the West End full circle.
The developer acquired the concrete eyesore, which is officially known as the Garden Garage, but which most commuters know as the home to Basketball City, when it bought the adjacent Charles River Park apartments in 1999. Charles River Park was built to replace the old West End. It was laid out as a rare swath of urban green space, lined by apartment buildings. In order to rent those new apartments to wealthy suburbanites, the complex?s original developer built a hulking concrete parking garage along Lomasney Way. The garage?s construction had the effect of walling off Charles River Park from the rest of the city, deadening the streets around it, and warding off future development.
Since the construction of the Garden Garage at Charles River Park, we?ve learned a lot about the terrible things above-ground parking garages do to urban spaces. They break up streetscapes. They?re unfriendly to pedestrians. They diffuse the density that?s necessary for good, vibrant public spaces. We?ve learned so much, in fact, that the owner of a waterfront garage across town can propose redeveloping his garage, mount a public relations campaign based largely on arguments about good urban design, and actually win converts.
The economics behind Equity?s Garden Garage redevelopment are friendlier than at Don Chiofaro?s Harbor Garage, since Equity?s 710-space garage is half the size of Chiofaro?s. The Garden Garage has the added benefit of being in a neighborhood where significant construction projects are an easier sell: Equity?s proposed 21- and 28-story towers would be built next door to a pair of existing 38-story apartment buildings.
Bob O?Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association, has been advocating for years for the redevelopment of the corridor between Nashua Street and Causeway Street ? the part of the West End that urban renewal redevelopment left behind. ?An area that?s been devoted to transportation could be reclaimed as a residential neighborhood,?? he says. Razing the Garden Garage, he says, ?could be the catalyst for the development of the rest of it.??
The urban consequences of demolishing Chiofaro?s Harbor Garage are easy to grasp, now that the Central Artery is gone and the garage is sitting between the waterfront and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Equity?s proposal to bury the Garden Garage and open up the West End to the rest of Boston is more difficult to envision, because the Garden Garage is on a street that?s been devoid of vibrancy for decades. There may be no surer endorsement than that.
Paul McMorrow is an associate editor at Commonwealth Magazine. His column appears regularly in the Globe.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/21/a_fix_for_the_west_end/
Paul McMorrow
A fix for the West End
By Paul McMorrow
January 21, 2011
THE end of Nashua Street, in the shadows of a parking garage and the Boston Garden, lies the closest thing to a grave marker that the old West End ever got: the slogan, ?the greatest neighborhood this side of heaven,?? etched onto the side of a highway onramp.
There?s a nice bit of righteous anger in affixing the slogan to a piece of highway infrastructure, which is just about the worst thing urban renewal planners ever could have traded a real neighborhood for. But if the onramp rising above Nashua Street serves as an ongoing protest of John B. Hynes, the mayor who orchestrated the razing of the West End, then the West End Park, which sits at its base, is a testament to the ongoing struggle to recapture the neighborhood?s vitality, a half-century after it was bulldozed.
The park was created as mitigation for the Big Dig. There?s really nothing sadder than an empty park. And this thing is empty. Why wouldn?t it be? Northbound cars rush overhead. The park overlooks the rear of the massive Garden, and the only slightly-less-massive Tip O?Neill Federal Building. There?s an apartment building across the way, but it?s overshadowed by the monstrous parking garage next door. The garage abuts residences on three sides, but its presence chokes off any life that might take root along the street, leaving that sad little patch of green with no constituency to speak of.
Other parts of the West End were rebuilt long ago, but this stretch, along Nashua Street and Lomasney Way, remains largely dead. It?s a kind of service door for the city ? a conduit for getting people into town, but not an actual place in and of itself.
That?s why the imminent destruction of the parking garage overlooking West End Park is so meaningful.
Next week, Boston development officials will begin formally vetting a proposal by the garage?s owner, Equity Residential, to bury the old garage, and replace it with a pair of apartment towers. Equity?s proposal brings urban renewal in the West End full circle.
The developer acquired the concrete eyesore, which is officially known as the Garden Garage, but which most commuters know as the home to Basketball City, when it bought the adjacent Charles River Park apartments in 1999. Charles River Park was built to replace the old West End. It was laid out as a rare swath of urban green space, lined by apartment buildings. In order to rent those new apartments to wealthy suburbanites, the complex?s original developer built a hulking concrete parking garage along Lomasney Way. The garage?s construction had the effect of walling off Charles River Park from the rest of the city, deadening the streets around it, and warding off future development.
Since the construction of the Garden Garage at Charles River Park, we?ve learned a lot about the terrible things above-ground parking garages do to urban spaces. They break up streetscapes. They?re unfriendly to pedestrians. They diffuse the density that?s necessary for good, vibrant public spaces. We?ve learned so much, in fact, that the owner of a waterfront garage across town can propose redeveloping his garage, mount a public relations campaign based largely on arguments about good urban design, and actually win converts.
The economics behind Equity?s Garden Garage redevelopment are friendlier than at Don Chiofaro?s Harbor Garage, since Equity?s 710-space garage is half the size of Chiofaro?s. The Garden Garage has the added benefit of being in a neighborhood where significant construction projects are an easier sell: Equity?s proposed 21- and 28-story towers would be built next door to a pair of existing 38-story apartment buildings.
Bob O?Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association, has been advocating for years for the redevelopment of the corridor between Nashua Street and Causeway Street ? the part of the West End that urban renewal redevelopment left behind. ?An area that?s been devoted to transportation could be reclaimed as a residential neighborhood,?? he says. Razing the Garden Garage, he says, ?could be the catalyst for the development of the rest of it.??
The urban consequences of demolishing Chiofaro?s Harbor Garage are easy to grasp, now that the Central Artery is gone and the garage is sitting between the waterfront and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Equity?s proposal to bury the Garden Garage and open up the West End to the rest of Boston is more difficult to envision, because the Garden Garage is on a street that?s been devoid of vibrancy for decades. There may be no surer endorsement than that.
Paul McMorrow is an associate editor at Commonwealth Magazine. His column appears regularly in the Globe.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/01/21/a_fix_for_the_west_end/
Shepard
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
It's a strange assumption based on backwards logic that a new apartment complex, itself built into a park-like campus, will somehow revitalize a swath of overgrown green space across three lanes of fast-moving traffic and adjacent to a highway overpass.
I never realized that this was a "park" - much the less "big dig mitigation." What the god frigin hell is this mitigating? (Except for healthy development along an underutilized corridor?) This is one of the most egregious "Big Dig mitigation" parks there is. Don't worry about revitalizing this unusable patch of weeds. Build on it and actually tie the neighborhood back together.
It's a strange assumption based on backwards logic that a new apartment complex, itself built into a park-like campus, will somehow revitalize a swath of overgrown green space across three lanes of fast-moving traffic and adjacent to a highway overpass.
I never realized that this was a "park" - much the less "big dig mitigation." What the god frigin hell is this mitigating? (Except for healthy development along an underutilized corridor?) This is one of the most egregious "Big Dig mitigation" parks there is. Don't worry about revitalizing this unusable patch of weeds. Build on it and actually tie the neighborhood back together.
KentXie
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
They are following Le Corbusier's city in a park. Unfortunately they missed out on the part that Le Corbusier's vision included massive towers, not 200 ft stumps.
Also the middle tower in the picture from that angle looks exactly like One Lincoln.
They are following Le Corbusier's city in a park. Unfortunately they missed out on the part that Le Corbusier's vision included massive towers, not 200 ft stumps.
Also the middle tower in the picture from that angle looks exactly like One Lincoln.
statler
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
And before someone jumps down my throat, parks in a city are a good thing.
What they do, and do well, is provide a needed respite from the hustle and bustle of a city.
They rarely create activity in and of themselves.
And before someone jumps down my throat, parks in a city are a good thing.
What they do, and do well, is provide a needed respite from the hustle and bustle of a city.
They rarely create activity in and of themselves.
Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Greetings, statler.
Greetings, statler.
Sometimes they "create" vitality by transferring it laterally from say, 42nd Street to Bryant Park or 14th Street to Union Square; or most especially vertically to the High Line from the streets beneath: bustle and respite at the same time.
Mayor Menino's Crohn's
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Good article
But why the need to take a cheap shot at Chiofaro?
Good article
But why the need to take a cheap shot at Chiofaro?
Ron Newman
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
I believe the park being referred to here is the strip along the northeast side of Nashua Street, abutting the Charles River. That's much too narrow a parcel to ever build on, and it used to be just parking lots.
I believe the park being referred to here is the strip along the northeast side of Nashua Street, abutting the Charles River. That's much too narrow a parcel to ever build on, and it used to be just parking lots.
BostonYoureMyHome
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Jersey City residential: http://www.live70greene.com/
Jersey City residential: http://www.live70greene.com/
Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Yes, it's essentially an extension of the esplanade, and is supposed to connect to the lovely park across the river.
Thats not a bad thing.
Yes, it's essentially an extension of the esplanade, and is supposed to connect to the lovely park across the river.
Thats not a bad thing.
gooseberry
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
They're referring to that little patch of weeds across from the old tenement building. I had no idea that was a supposed to be a park either.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cotting+st+and+nasgua+st+boston,+ma&aq=&sll=42.36573,-71.064227&sspn=0.001938,0.005262&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Nashua+St+%26+Cotting+St,+Boston,+Suffolk,+Massachusetts+02114&ll=42.365496,-71.064656&spn=0.001938,0.005262&z=18
They're referring to that little patch of weeds across from the old tenement building. I had no idea that was a supposed to be a park either.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cotting+st+and+nasgua+st+boston,+ma&aq=&sll=42.36573,-71.064227&sspn=0.001938,0.005262&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Nashua+St+%26+Cotting+St,+Boston,+Suffolk,+Massachusetts+02114&ll=42.365496,-71.064656&spn=0.001938,0.005262&z=18
Ron Newman
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Re: Garden Garage Towers (New West End building)
Given the adjacency of the Green Line portal and highway ramps, that sure doesn't look like a buildable lot to me. If the tenement is ever torn down and the streets realigned, perhaps a larger and buildable lot could be assembled.
Who owns the empty lot just north of the tenement, next to the huge billboard? The tenement owner, or the state?
Seems to me that a land swap, removing the diagonal of Nashua Street and replacing it with two sharp 90-degree turns, would allow proper land assembly for development.
Given the adjacency of the Green Line portal and highway ramps, that sure doesn't look like a buildable lot to me. If the tenement is ever torn down and the streets realigned, perhaps a larger and buildable lot could be assembled.
Who owns the empty lot just north of the tenement, next to the huge billboard? The tenement owner, or the state?
Seems to me that a land swap, removing the diagonal of Nashua Street and replacing it with two sharp 90-degree turns, would allow proper land assembly for development.