Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive - Parcel C | Seaport

Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

New rendering on the right of 22 liberty. Whats interesting to me also is that building on the left that is not mentioned, is that a placeholder or also going to be the design for that building.

fanpierbuilding.jpg
 
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Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Walk me through the idea of having such a large plot of land in front of the building. Even in their rendering, they can only find fourteen people who want to be on it.

I can see the concept - it looks as though you're offering up water access to the masses.

Basically, it just provides more of an unobstructed view for residents.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

+1 for cca and statler

Argue all day long about blocks vs. superblocks, VE and ROI.

A walk around the blocks of the Seaport demonstrates that, if past is prologue, this area will never evolve as one of a significant experience for pedestrians, or a destination worthy of a trip to Boston.

Walking around the built environment across from Fish Pier is like walking in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. One drab block of mega-restaurant frontage is followed by another block of loading docks.

Why? Because the lessons of architecture and planning, lessons even conveyed by neighboring Fort Point were not replicated on the waterfront. These lessons are made clear on this forum as posters looks at 315 on A and immediately recognize the possibilities of form and scale. As everyone looks at Congress St. doors on the street, sizes of spaces, and more. It's not rocket science.

One can argue that Vertex labs needed a large footprint. But Vertex has a 15-year lease, while the waterfront will remain as an invaluable, untapped resource.

As I've repeated for 15 years, with $billions in public investment I continue to think we can expect more.

Sicil -- did you actually read your own post --re-quoted for emphasis
Walking around the built environment across from Fish Pier is like walking in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. One drab block of mega-restaurant frontage is followed by another block of loading docks.

The original Fish Pier and Commonwealth Pier were the prototypes for "Super Blocks"

Commonwealth Pier -- [circa 1913 ] was one massive building on two plus floors
http://www.seaportboston.com/commonwealthpier.aspx
COMMONWEALTH PIER. CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF INNOVATION

Almost a quarter mile in length and wider than a football field, Commonwealth Pier has been a vibrant part of Boston’s history for more than 100 years....Borne from reclaimed land, inextricably linked to Boston’s maritime history......When completed in 1913, Commonwealth Pier was the largest pier building in the world.

Through the early part of the 20th century the pier served passengers of the White Star Line and Hamburg-American Lines. The Pier also served the nation as a military receiving area in World War I and World War II.

During the middle part of the 20th century the Pier served various maritime needs for Boston’s freight and fish industries under the stewardship of the Massachusetts Port Authority.

FROM FISHING TO FINANCE

In the 1980s, Massport, in partnership with Fidelity Investments and The Drew Company developed ambitious plans to reinvent the Pier - and indeed the entire area surrounding the Pier - into a multi-use complex with the rehabilitation of the Pier as the World Trade Center Boston.

The new World Trade Center Boston featured some of Boston's largest convention and exhibition space, a modern conference center, 600,000 square feet of first class office space as well as retail and a popular restaurant overlooking the harbor.

Fish Pier -- [circa 1915] was 3 buildings and an open area now a parking lot
http://www.exchangeconferencecenter.com/history-of-the-Exchange-Conference-Center.html
History of the Boston Fish Pier and The Fish Exchange Building

When the Boston Fish Pier opened in 1915, The Fishing Gazette described it as “the largest, most complete and sanitary building in the world devoted exclusively to the handing of fish- a monument to the industry for all time”. Built to accommodate Massachusetts’ flourishing fishing trade of the early 1900’s, the 1,200-foor long, 300-foot wide pier and its buildings provide a large, efficient facility for fishermen, fish processors and fish distributors. The facility included its own power plant as well as the world’s largest ice manufacturing plant. In 1963, the Boston Fish Pier reached its peak, landing a total of 339 million pounds of fish.....

By 1972,...The giant buildings were dilapidated and many areas were boarded up and vacant. Fishing boats were landing at alternative ports because of the poor condition of the piers docking facilities.....In April of 1972, The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) took control of the Pier. .... The Massport plan called for market rate office rents to subsidize industry users in order to prevent the struggling fishing industry from being pushed off the waterfront. From 1975 through 1983, a total of $25 million, 68% funded by Massport and the remaining funded by the federal government, was invested in the Pier to transform it into what is now a unique and successful mixed-use waterfront development project.

The Fish Pier is located in South Boston, just a short distance from Boston’s financial district and directly across the harbor from Logan International Airport. Today, 120,000 square feet of renovated space on the first two floors of the pier’s two three story-processing buildings is leased to fish processors and distributors. Separate first floor elevator lobbies lead office tenants to third floor office space.

Although new uses have been introduced to the Pier, fishing and fish processing remain its primary function. In 1989, 16 million pounds of fish was landed on the Pier and, supplemented by trucked in product; 32 million pounds was processed there.

The Fish Exchange building is now known as the Exchange Conference Center. This multi-purpose function facility is now managed by East Meets West Catering. The historic home of Boston Fish Auction, now serves as the centerpiece to corporate and private functions with a breathtaking view of Boston’s Harbor.

Yet both are successful destinations today --- why?

I think they are successful because they offer a diversity of functions and nooks and crannies as if they had been built organically

I think think the reason Super Blocks are anathema urbanisticly - is that traditionally they are occupied by one function with one massive entrance on the block -- the worst of course of these are government behemoths in DC and its surroundings -- or the Tip in Boston

Obviously another one of these Ancient Mega Super Blocks that is successful as part of the Urban Fabric is the circa 1903 South Station

Except for an infill -- no one is likely to build in any urban environment on any 8, 25, 50 or even 100 foot wide lots -- the key is to have lots of doors, variety at the pedestrian level for browsing and open access functions
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Walk me through the idea of having such a large plot of land in front of the building. Even in their rendering, they can only find fourteen people who want to be on it.

I can see the concept - it looks as though you're offering up water access to the masses.

Basically, it just provides more of an unobstructed view for residents.

Greenspace, yo.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Walk me through the idea of having such a large plot of land in front of the building. Even in their rendering, they can only find fourteen people who want to be on it.

I can see the concept - it looks as though you're offering up water access to the masses.

Basically, it just provides more of an unobstructed view for residents.

Sounds like a win-win, John.

The view of the city from Fan Pier is fantastic. As a card carrying member of "the masses" who will never be able to afford a place at 22 Liberty, I for one am glad for that particular plot of green. The new randomly placed park on Boston Wharf Rd, on the other hand, would be much better for the fabric of the area if it were a building.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Sitting on the balcony of my expensive condo or rental in this building would be a lot less tranquil when there are plans whizzing overhead taking off or landing at Logan.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

I doubt the noise (which I never notice when I'm down there) will be a deterrent. To the contrary, I bet people will buy these because of the activity/viewing that being near the port provides.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Render mashup as of yet.

medium_a6d2f11dbdbd70b7cb7d9c5d6ea94ae1.png


new-22lib-ext-rendering-sea-1030x360.jpg


143-22-liberty.jpg


103013liberty.jpg
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Boston is going to go from a bland and boring skyline to classy and memorable in about 10 years. I can see our skyline going from being the weak point of our city, as of now the street life is what we have going for us, to being a skyline that ranks high among the rest of the worlds skylines and also stands out from them. Boston having a world class skyline along with a world class street level experience is going to really make us a world class city all around, and other people will start to believe us when we say this is the greatest city on earth.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

I LOVE BALCONIES! This looks promising to me and i think that greenspace is perfect right there it will deffinetly end up getting used by all these new residence especially if theyre putting in a resturant or two along the first level looking out on the ocean
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

If they can make this exactly like the rendering then this will probably the best looking development since....yeah.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Boston is going to go from a bland and boring skyline to classy and memorable in about 10 years. I can see our skyline going from being the weak point of our city, as of now the street life is what we have going for us, to being a skyline that ranks high among the rest of the worlds skylines and also stands out from them. Boston having a world class skyline along with a world class street level experience is going to really make us a world class city all around, and other people will start to believe us when we say this is the greatest city on earth.

Unfortunately, we don't yet have a world class transportation system, which most other world class cities do. For this city to really take off and become a place where more and more people want to move to and live in, we'll need Beacon Hill to get serious about improving transportation.

I do love this building tho, and really wish I could afford one of the units overlooking the harbor!
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

One good thing though is they just approved the trains to run until 2am for a year and see how it works out. I cant even imagine the views this will have, some of the best if not the best in Boston. You can see the downtown skyline, planes taking off and landing, and the harbor all at the same time. Not to mention you are right next to the atlantic beer garden, liberty wharf, the barking crab, anthonys pier 4, and soon to be seaport square with its theater and tons of stores. This is literally going to be THE spot to live in Boston. Once the whole pier 4 is built out too its going to be insane. They definitely need to figure out the silver line situation fast before its too late.
 
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Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Boston is going to go from a bland and boring skyline to classy and memorable in about 10 years. I can see our skyline going from being the weak point of our city, as of now the street life is what we have going for us, to being a skyline that ranks high among the rest of the worlds skylines and also stands out from them. Boston having a world class skyline along with a world class street level experience is going to really make us a world class city all around, and other people will start to believe us when we say this is the greatest city on earth.

I think this is going to be a beautiful building (an exception proving the rule), but it will be a pebble in the pond of a fairly bland skyline. In terms of ranking "high among the rest of the world's skylines"??? Wow... I don't mean to be negative, but there are lots of really beautiful skylines out there with increasingly dynamic architecture. On the positive side, street-level Boston is very engaging for the most part--very world class in my view--and I think developers are cognizant of that and trying to perpetuate that in many (if not most) parts of the city.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

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Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

^ That's Pier 4, not 22 Lib.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Wonder if they are overcompensating for the blunder that was the redevelopment of West End. Plenty of residential development there, but it's probably the worst neighborhood to live in downtown because of the poor planning and design and overemphasis on residential units.

Walk there on a Sunday morning in the wintertime, feels like Chernobyl.

FortP -- That is an ignorant statement -- When you say feels like Chernobyl -- which I doubt you've had the opportunity to feel at all -- you really mean seems like "Pripyat" -- this is the abandoned city originally built to house the workers at the Power Plant.

from the Wiki article:
Pripyat (Ukrainian: При́п'ять, Pryp’yat’; Russian: При́пять, Pripyat’ wasnNamed for the nearby Pripyat River

It was founded on 4 February 1970, the ninth nuclear city in the Soviet Union, for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant It was officially proclaimed a city in 1979, and had grown to a population of 49,360 before being evacuated a few days after the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster. "

Today Pripyat is an ecological park hosting one of the largest communities of European wildlife

Chernobyl itself is a much smaller and much older city located further away from the Poer Plant.

"Originally part of the land of Kievan Rus Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of 1193, described as a hunting-lodge of Knyaz Rostislavich.[3][4] It was a crown village of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The village was granted as a fiefdom to Filon Kmita, a captain of the royal cavalry, in 1566. The province containing Chernobyl was transferred to the Kingdom of Poland in 1569, and then annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793.[5] Prior to the 20th century, Chernobyl was inhabited by Ukrainian and some Polish peasants, and a relatively large number of Jews. During the period 1929–33, Chernobyl suffered greatly from mass killings during Stalin's collectivization campaign, and in the Holodomor (famine) that followed. The Polish community of Chernobyl was deported to Kazakhstan in 1936 during the Frontier Clearances. The Jewish community was murdered during the German occupation of 1941–44.[3] Twenty years later, the area was chosen as the site of the first nuclear power station on Ukrainian soil.
The Duga-3 over-the-horizon radar array several miles out of Chernobyl was the origin of the infamous Russian Woodpecker, designed as part of Russia's anti-ballistic missile early warning radar network.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chernobyl remained part of Ukraine, now an independent nation."
Chernobyl was evacuated soon after the disaster. The base of operations for the administration and monitoring of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was moved from Pripyat to Chernobyl. Chernobyl currently contains offices for the State Agency of Ukraine on the Exclusion Zone Management and accommodation for visitors. Apartment blocks have been re-purposed as accommodation for employees of the State Agency. Due to regulations to limit exposure workers in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone are limited in the number of days per week or weeks per month they stay in Chernobyl.
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Unfortunately, we don't yet have a world class transportation system, which most other world class cities do. For this city to really take off and become a place where more and more people want to move to and live in, we'll need Beacon Hill to get serious about improving transportation.

I do love this building tho, and really wish I could afford one of the units overlooking the harbor!

Deet -- don't fall into the standard rhetoric without doing the homework

World Class transportation means access to the city much less so the rumbling underground

Boston has World Class access -- in that its almost built on top of a major International Airport, sits astride major rail and highway networks and has a small but active ocean cargo terminal

It also is compact enough that one can walk from most anywhere in the city limits to any other point in about 2 hours [about 6 mi]

Oh yes it does have a quite extensive and reasonably well integrated public transportation system -- albeit mostly designed to shuttle commuters in/out of the core

Could it be improved -- certainly -- but don't just grab one of the "off-the-shelf" cliches and post it
 
Re: Twenty Two Liberty @ Fan Pier | 22 Liberty Drive | Seaport

Fair enough, I guess what I meant was more of a world class rapid transit network that we're lacking. Cities like London, Paris, Tokyo, New York (all admittedly much bigger) have dense networks that allow people to live without cars. Expansion of this system would lead to a lot of economic development, which in turn could eventually lead to boston being a world class city
 

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