The Boston "what if" thread

Filling some of Old Harbor like in your map is the last easy land fill job left in Boston. Would this be completely legally impossible due to waterfront protections?
 
The "long island" one? It would have been cool if they did it a long time ago but theres no way they could today.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
I love the idea of a Boston Harbor Bridge. Too bad it would fuck up Logan.
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Yea i was more showing what if in the 1800s they decided to line up the back bay with the rest of the street grid vs creating it separate from it. Also what if they had not filled in the south bay and built around it, or only partially filled it in. Im not saying go back and do this now at all its just a "what if" they had done things different a long time ago. Logan was nothing like it is now so this would have been built before logan was a problem and they would have aligned the runways different. One of the pictures I made shows logan further south with much more of East Boston filled in, which also would have been pretty cool. Obviously none of this happened and its not going to, but if they had gone about things different a long time ago this easily could have been what we had gotten. All it would have taken is to align the back bay different while its being built and don't fill in the south bay completely, two completely reasonable things. That being said neither happened and neither will.
 
The biggest "what if" for me was the proposed north-south rail links in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

There were at least three separate corridors proposed: a tunnel through the Downtown Crossing area; an elevated line where the Central Artery is now; and the third was a tunnel from South Station to East Boston to connect with the rail line there.

If any of these had happened it would have been incredibly significant, unifying the entire metro area.
 
We need a tidal barrier with a road atop and a tunnel section
 
One question Ive never seen answered is why are Bostons runways aligned the way they are? I would guess it just had to do with available land and just expanding on what had been there a while. Does anyone know the facts? Many airports have the runways rotated 90* from eachother. If you had to choose the worst direction to point 9/27 it would be towards the part of the city where the tall buildings are. Anyone have the real info on this?
 
If they had built a runway mirroring 15R/33L the height issue never would have existed. Itd add more noise over Chelsea, but 15R/33L already goes over it so it wouldnt add something that doesnt exist already. I wonder if theres any documents that can be dug up showing the thought process behind this. Again it appears 9/27 was built because the land already existed, but was it worth the cost savings here? Maybe in the future they can build a new runway there and use 9/27 as a taxiway. Or they could build a new runway as an expansion project and use 9/27 only in one direction like 14/32. Probably not, but if its touted as a safety measure and expansion project I could see it. You would now still have a downtown airport but without the flying over downtown problem. The flight path for 9/27 is right next to the fed so its not ideal to take off and land here with varying weather conditions.

Edit:

https://postimage.org/

Obviously they would fill in more land.
 
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Heres some more what ifs on already proposed towers.







+ a bonus at govt center



Art deco at 1 brom- not a fan



LED bar Hancock

 
too bad it couldn't be;

Hancock Red, Pru White, 1 Dalton Blue. :rtfm:
 
What if we could have had 40 Wall tower (the world's greatest 'thing' ever constructed before 1950) instead of the old JHT, Suffolk Court tower or Saltonstall bldg?


 
stick n move said:
One question Ive never seen answered is why are Bostons runways aligned the way they are? I would guess it just had to do with available land and just expanding on what had been there a while. Does anyone know the facts? Many airports have the runways rotated 90* from eachother. If you had to choose the worst direction to point 9/27 it would be towards the part of the city where the tall buildings are. Anyone have the real info on this?
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It's a combination of prevailing wind and available land. Find an old map, some of the airport land used to be small islands - the current layout takes advantage of where those islands were.
 
What if they had never filled this in... I know it was polluted, but imagine it today. Its a shame.

oldfanpier.jpg
 
Sad thing is, if it had lasted until the '70s or '80s it could've probably been cleaned up instead of filled. And then we would have beautiful waterfront land in Roxbury and the South End.
 
What if.....

United Technologies is merging with Raytheon and UTC execs are moving up to Boston with the NewCo taking the Raytheon name. Probably going to find some space in the burbs, but where do you think in the city they would park their HQ if in Boston / Cambridge?

Kendall..
Seaport..
Downtown..

Thoughts?
 
Czervik.Construction said:
What if.....

United Technologies is merging with Raytheon and UTC execs are moving up to Boston with the NewCo taking the Raytheon name. Probably going to find some space in the burbs, but where do you think in the city they would park their HQ if in Boston / Cambridge?

Kendall..
Seaport..
Downtown..

Thoughts?
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GE phase 2 is ready to go and looking for a tenant.

Probably Kendall if anything though.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
What if.....

United Technologies is merging with Raytheon and UTC execs are moving up to Boston with the NewCo taking the Raytheon name. Probably going to find some space in the burbs, but where do you think in the city they would park their HQ if in Boston / Cambridge?

Kendall..
Seaport..
Downtown..

Thoughts?
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I've heard it's been brought up. Raytheon has been desperate to get out of their Waltham HQ off of Winter Street for awhile, but they have had bad luck with building their own facilities.
 
Vagabond said:
I've heard it's been brought up. Raytheon has been desperate to get out of their Waltham HQ off of Winter Street for awhile, but they have had bad luck with building their own facilities.
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I think Kendall/East Cambridge if they move in. That's where most of the industrial tech is.

Also of note: Raytheon's security needs are not insignificant, which might keep them away from a truly urban site or turn an urban site into something like the new Volpe with grass and plazas on all sides.
 
A Raytheon+UTC headquarters would be a perfect fit for Cambridge Crossing, wouldn't surprise me at all if they end up there. Slightly lower rents, proximity to Kendall, transit/highway access, ability to build to suit.
 
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