The Hub on Causeway (née TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Is there some legal reason that keeps them from calling it the Garden, or the New Garden, or the North Station Towers, or something more rational?
 
"North Hub" in anticipation of there being a "South Hub" coalescing around South Station at some point?
I like the idea of keeping "Hub" in the name to reflect the traditional Boston conceit.
 
timsox6 said:
Is there some legal reason that keeps them from calling it the Garden, or the New Garden, or the North Station Towers, or something more rational?
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The name of the development was originally "The Boston Garden." It was inexplicably changed during the design process.
 
timsox6 said:
Is there some legal reason that keeps them from calling it the Garden, or the New Garden, or the North Station Towers, or something more rational?
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BoA sold the naming rights to TD after they aquired Fleet.
 
Not sure if this was mentioned anywhere already - I couldn't fin reference to it. But...
Gee... look familiar? The architects COMPLETELY ripped off Phillys' new Comcast tower. Of course... theirs is over 1,100ft tall and ours will barely break 500ft. :/

 
ngb_anim8 said:
Not sure if this was mentioned anywhere already - I couldn't fin reference to it. But...
Gee... look familiar? The architects COMPLETELY ripped off Phillys' new Comcast tower. Of course... theirs is over 1,100ft tall and ours will barely break 500ft. :/

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Woah. Good catch. The common link is Gensler.

Gensler is doing the interior design on the Comcast Innovation & Technology Center (designed by Foster+Partners) and they are the architect for the Hub on Causeway office tower portion. They must have borrowed the idea from seeing the Philly drawings.
 
Thats not quite true based on the height of the spire this is likely to reach almost 600 feet and could even reach a bit higher than that. So yeah it is a lot shorter but it is not 500 feet including the spire it is probably closer to or just over 600 feet. And yes it is very similar I think they did take some inspiration from that spire but it is not a complete copy.

This explains how I found that height all of this is based on the final presentation submitted to the BCDC.
The reason I submitted this at a height of 200 m to the spire is that the roof height is 420' which is to the first setback the crown extends another 1/3 of the overall building height adding another 138 ft to the height of the building and the spire appears to be about 100' tall for a total height of 658 ft or 200.5 m.
 
Actually this would have probably looked better with a glass spire like the comcast tower. The Comcast tower looks great I just don't understand why they wouldn't at least reach the roof of the other tower. It would have looked much better with an equal or taller roof and the spire to break the plateau. Either way it looks really good.
 
The Comcast Tower has better proportions and a more substantial spire... reminding me of the Sears Tower in Chicago. I just wish the Hub tower were designed with a taller "second step" so to speak, to take away come of the squatness. Even though the spire will reach over 600ft. I still think the visual impact of the building is around 500-550ft., which is a disappointment. Because of that, I hope they incorporate a more significant spire than what is currently shown in the renders. I like the mock-up someone made with the dual spires. (EDIT: Oh - CityLover... that was you!) I read the architect's explanation for a single spire, but I disagree with their assessment. I still don't understand why 2 spires, and thus a symmetrical north-south facing building isn't appropriate.
 
I think there is merit to their choice although i agree i like the two spire concept I disagree on your analysis of the rest of the design I think the steps up to the spire are more dramatic than you think although I could be wrong. I made a diagram for Skyscraperpage but I will post a larger higher quality version here. It is based on the measurements I calculated that I mentioned above and the visual impact to the top of the crown is going to be around 550 to 560 feet based on my calculations and the spire in the latest design is relatively substantial with a lower portion that is bladelike and relatively wide leading into a thin upper portion.

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The view here if from Causeway Street and so the spire will look its thinnest.
 
Thanks CL94. I saw your drawing on the skyscraper diagram page. Nice work on filling out so many developing projects. And thanks for reposting here. I think was throws it off are the black beams/brackets. In the renders from street level, the second step isn't quite as dramatic because from that angle it is greatly concealed by those beams. Coming down 93 however, I think this looks very good. I am happy to hear you say the top of the structure, without the spire, could actually reach 560'. Thanks!
 
Yeah the black beams/brackets definitely do make the second step somewhat disappear and I was just as surprised as you by how tall the roof could appear. At first when I was doing the math I thought I had messed up my calculations at some point.
 
Does anyone know the roof height before the antenna apparatus??

i wonder if they're staying with the original roof height of 151m/495'.
 
I have estimated it to be around 560 feet based on the fact that the height to the first setback/ highest occupied floor is 420 feet according to project docs I saw and that 420/3 is 140 feet so 420 plus 140 equals 560 and the spire appears to add around another 100 feet for a total height of around 660 feet or 201 m. So before the spire the height is about 560 feet.

That is the max height they could reach for the roof because Boston limits a crown on a building to 1/3 the total height of the building to the highest occupied floor.

For comparison the roof height of 111 Huntington is around 554 feet.

No matter what height the first setback happens at I can guarantee that everything above that is unoccupied and so is not related to the official zoning height. If odurandino is right that means the full height could be even higher. If the first setback is at 495' the height to the roof below the spire is 660 feet and the spire would probably reach around 760 feet in height which does not seem likely based on the renderings but would be an interesting development.
 
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