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

Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

What a great location for a development like this. Regardless of architectural merit, I'm excited that one of the most transit-accessible locations in the region, that sees lots of pedestrian traffic, while this site is being wasted as a parking lot, is seeing a great use of its land. An arcade filled with pedestrian amenities? Offices? Residences? Connection to a mega-transit Green+Orange+Newburyport/Rockport/Haverhill/Lowell/Fitchburg Line Commuter Rail+Amtrak Downeaster? Street-wall? This will be a huge boon!!

Now to beat the even-more-transit drum:
  • The Green Line will terminate here while Lechmere is relocated/reconstructed. Hopefully that happens soon and quickly, otherwise this project will open and transit to Lechmere and points beyond will be quite difficult.
  • Once the GLX opens, this location will be even more transit accessible! Quick, rapid-transit, one-seat rides from North Station to Cambridge/Somerville/Medford in 2017-2019 (hopefully)!
  • Hopefully Government Center finished on-schedule, returning a necessary transfer station to the area.
  • Hopefully the Red-Blue connector gets built. I know this development isn't the target that connection would serve, but transit-oriented development like this underlies the importance for better downtown connections, to relieve stress from the Green Line that this will add passengers to.
  • Hopefully the North-South Rail Link gets built, which would open this location up to one seat rides to every stop in the commuter rail system, as well as the entire Northeast Corridor!

I know I'm dreaming, but maybe in 10 years this development will be complete, and the area could have Government Center reopened, the Green Line Extension fully operational, and the Red Line-Blue Line Connector built.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Does nobody else see a mini Seagram-inspired building on the right?

NewYorkSeagram_04.30.2008.JPG
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

bosdevelopment said:
Does nobody else see a mini Seagram-inspired building on the right?

NewYorkSeagram_04.30.2008.JPG
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Yes and that's part of the reason I don't mind it, unlike some others who are freaking out about it. I think the office building in the original renders was PoMo hell. It was even stepped. The modernist glassy tower in the newer renders is of course no Mies, but it's way better than the original proposed tower.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

I can't believe you guys are defending that right tower. It looks like it belongs on 128 and most of you hate that.

The street level does look very cool though and almost would make it feel like causeway street used to feel instead of rt 1.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Suffolk 83 said:
I can't believe you guys are defending that right tower. It looks like it belongs on 128 and most of you hate that.

The street level does look very cool though and almost would make it feel like causeway street used to feel instead of rt 1.
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Does the city have plans to redesign Causeway Street? I noticed the renders had bike lanes down a median.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

ConnectHistoric-Boston is designing a cycle track for Causeway Street here.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

KentXie said:
The ground level is amazing, the left tower is great, the right tower belongs in Anchorage, Alaska.
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I think it actually looks like a lot of buildings in Boston

coleslaw said:
I do say that the right building looks a lot the top of 100 federal, one federal, one beacon, some angles of 100 summer, and 28 state street. we really do have a lot of similar buildings
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Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

One thing I did notice is the taller building appeared to be 44 floors without counting either the ~4 story base, as well as the ~4 floors worth of empty "crown". I guess technically it would be a 48 story tower? I do hope they change it a little. I'm mostly nervous about the materials, especially for such a prominent building/location. It's a little too fat, plain, and drab looking in its current incarnation.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

coleslaw said:
I think it actually looks like a lot of buildings in Boston
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I'm pretty sure it looks more like this than any of the examples you mentioned.

14BLi1.So.7.jpg
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Great street activation, should be a real success. The old Garden podium design though is sentimental hokum (and more than likely will look like a cartoon homage.) The big tower smells like a precast special. These new renderings say "LOL did you foolishly think we were going to do something iconic? Yer gettin' the same old same old."
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

I think the tower on the right is ok... Sort of Houstonian but really it looks alright. The taller tower looks improved, although I think it could be made even better with some kind of crowning thing.... Not a corny pyramid on top but something cool and modern. But the whole thing looks decidedly a-ok. Will definitely improve the area vastly.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

datadyne007 said:
What? The Fenway is the latest booming neighborhood in Boston. There's no way you can use "it looks like the Fenway" as an insult. More developments in Boston should look like those going up right now in The Fenway.

The ground floor/podium of this thing in the latest Boston Properties renders looks epic. It's very contextual for the area and offers tons of street level activation.
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What insult?? I live in the Fenway. I like the Fenway. Van Ness and Viridian really add to the nice urban vibe with a bit of style. The expanded Landmark Center will be very cool from that same vibe perspective. But are any of the buildings architecturally iconic? Are they distinctive?
As others note, the ground floor of the TD Garden development will be quite nice in terms of street activation (I would say the same about the Millennium Tower). That's no mean feat, but it seems like Boston developers don't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity architecturally. Tall-ish glass boxes/slabs that contribute to density but make absolutely NO statement or engage the eye or the brain for more than a second.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

I absolutely love that design it is perfect. The ode to the old garden base is way more than I had expected. Theres no way I can hate on the right tower because surprisingly Boston doesn't actually have a complete glass box skyscraper. Not to mention black glass, all of the power house cities have a few boxes clad in all black glass which whenever I see them it makes me wish Boston did. We have a ton of boxy buildings not none are truely 100% all glass boxes. That tower on the left also is incredible I did not see this coming at all I didnt like the original rendering with that random grey elevator bank hanging off the side thats some gimmicky stuff that ages fast.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Not all icons have to be in the sky.

The main entrance to this at street level can/should end up as iconic. This is the shot you often see on TV when watching coverage of games. The approach and all the fans milling outside walking to the game. The aerial coverage already uses the Zakim and the colors on the Garden for that iconic view.

Quincy Market & Faneuil Hall are iconic while being pretty small, and non eye catching from afar.

I won't call these high rises perfect, although them not being a copy of anything else in the city is a good start to adding more diversity to the skyline. But, their limitations in style or architectural merit, will not limit this development from being 'iconic'.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

AB: Stop saying "iconic" all the time!

And I'm not saying it can done, but how many 600ft residential towers in other major cities do you know of that are truly "iconic"? Asking this building to assume that burden is like asking a Miss America contestant to solve the ISIS problem in 20 seconds when the government can't solve it at all (Thanks John Oliver).
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

type001 said:
AB: Stop saying "iconic" all the time!

And I'm not saying it can done, but how many 600ft residential towers in other major cities do you know of that are truly "iconic"? Asking this building to assume that burden is like asking a Miss America contestant to solve the ISIS problem in 20 seconds when the government can't solve it at all (Thanks John Oliver).
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I don't know that anyone is demanding that anything be "iconic" or assume a "burden." I do think that the biggest buildings in many/most cities are attempting to be distinctive. Boston gets so few opportunities to do anything "iconic"--personally, I'm just commenting that we don't seem to use those opportunities. The Hancock remains the only sizable tower in the city that made (and continues to make) you look twice. No "demand," just an observation...
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

In Boston Properties defense, they do typically go for high quality materials and Class A+ space. So I'm a little less worried about this being VE'd to death.
For example, whether you love or hate Atlantic Wharf, the ground floor is tremendous and they spent money on the tower.
 
Re: The Boston Garden (TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

Tombstoner said:
The Hancock remains the only sizable tower in the city that made (and continues to make) you look twice. No "demand," just an observation...
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The Pru, Fed, and Custom House want some of what you're smoking.... The IP complex also kind of sort of wonders about you.....

But honestly, yeah, you're basically right. The absolute vast majority of the skyline is made up of filler, background buildings. It's like, how many different versions of the same brown/tan box can you possibly fit into 1 city?

I think that's what I hate about the current proposed towers. The podium looks INCREDIBLE and I hope they keep it like that. But, the overall color scheme is so drab. Don't we already have enough brown, expecially around that part of the city? Most of the newer glass buildings are towards DTX, Chinatown, South Station, etc. (talking MP 1 and 2, W Hotel, 33 Arch, new MT, 1 Atlantic, top part of State Street, etc) Back Bay has the Hancock and the upcoming CSC, Copley Tower, and Trinity Tower. We really could use something glassy (or at least more colorful) by North Station.
 
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