Waterside Place 1A | 505 Congress Street | Seaport

While I'm not a huge fan of Waterside, ^^^ this may as well be a parking lot for all I'm concerned. Build over it!!!
 
The site is huge. Here's a few more pics arranged in a pseudo-pano from Congress St to Summer St. The pics were taken from WTC Avenue back in March.

Congress St side, north of the SL tunnel.
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No-man's land between the SL tunnel and highway.
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Highway ramps and railroad tracks.
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Summer St side, south of highway.
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It almost blows my mind how the waterfront could go so long without development.
 
It was developed once before -- with railroads and warehouses and shipping terminals.
 
I believe that the 'highway' in those pictures is the recent extension of the SB haul rd. to the port, rather the the I-90.

justin
 
There is really no reason why this parcel has to be covered with one huge, monolithic development. Especially the side along Seaport Boulevard could be split up and made into several smaller buildings for a more interesting streetwall - it's not ramps, or a highway, or air rights. It's a parking lot. Why can't this thing be split into smaller parcels?
 
justin said:
I believe that the 'highway' in those pictures is the recent extension of the SB haul rd. to the port, rather the the I-90.

justin
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True, but I-90 is below all those surface roads. 6 to 8 lanes depending on ramps and hov lanes.
 
The law firm I work for, located in the World Trade Center East just hosted a speaker from Massport on the development around the Silver Line.

It turns out that as Massport was building the tunnels, they reinforced the tunnel ceilings over this parcel of land knowing that this block was the "gold" of the entire area. They also placed in a huge 150' deep slurry foundation wall, pinned to the bedrock to act as a future foundation wall for any development.

That takes care of a few of my logistical questions for this parcel of land.
 
This is a wild idea, and one that its bound to be hated here, since it wouldn't look like the Back Bay, but I've been looking at the plans for that Xanadu thing at the Meadowlands and it might be a cool concept for this site. For those who aren't familiar, Xanadu includes flashy versions of some big box stores that include attractions, kind of like Jordan's Furniture but for a lot of different products. It has a fancy movie theater and some sort of kid-world thing where kids pretend they're grown and work at jobs to earn money to buy toys and art supplies.

It may seem a little sprawl-ish, but if done correctly (and on a much smaller scale than Xanadu) it could provide both the amenities the neighborhood needs and the attractions the Waterfront needs. All while making considerable money. Boston doesn't really have a premier flashy shopping district and DTX just isn't living up to that vision. South Boston has the land available and the transit connections to fit the bill.
 
Boston doesn't really have a premier flashy shopping district and DTX just isn't living up to that vision.
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What city has a "flashy" shopping district that looks like an oversized Jordan's Furniture?

The problem with this entire neighborhood is that it consists of giant development parcels with their own mediocre visions of an ersatz instant cityscape. No need to add tastelessness to that formula.

So... Coney Island for Boston?
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I always thought Revere Beach + Suffolk Downs + Wonderland was Boston's Coney Island.
 
I always wished S. Boston would have turned out to be the new entertainment district filled with theaters, restaurants, a mall, parks, dance/night clubs, hotels, an arcade, residence, and maybe have a pier similar to Navy Pier in Chicago, all near the Convention Center and the Cruise Ship terminal. S. Boston could have been Boston's 24 hr district and a top destination for both tourists and Bostonians,
 
DarkFenX said:
I always wished S. Boston would have turned out to be the new entertainment district filled with theaters, restaurants, a mall, parks, dance/night clubs, hotels, an arcade, residence, and maybe have a pier similar to Navy Pier in Chicago, all near the Convention Center and the Cruise Ship terminal. S. Boston could have been Boston's 24 hr district and a top destination for both tourists and Bostonians,
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That's never going to happen, at the rate stuff happens in Boston. It already took 20 years to fill up half of the SBW with mediocre buildings (with no nightclubs, barely any residences, a cheap suburban park that no one uses, 1 hotel, 1 theater that might get demolished for the new city hall, almost no restaurants except for chains and mostly offices), who thinks that they're going to make an exciting streetscape there? And the development's going to take at least 30 years to reach the cruise ship terminal. Fan pier and the Hynes land will have to be built first before they even consider building near the cruise ship terminal, and then building there will be bogged down in 20 years of bureaucracy.
 
Ron Newman said:
Ahh. I never think of that as a "theatre", but yeah.
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The BofA is a "theatre" the way McDonalds is a "restaurant."

The ICA has something that approaches a real theatre; the outdoor grandstand space could also be used as a performance venue.
 
More like the way Jordan Hall is a 'theatre' -- the more usual term is 'concert hall'. (But there's always the exception -- for instance, Sanders Theatre.)
 
the outdoor grandstand space could also be used as a performance venue.
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I believe they're doing this already...or at least, I keep reading about performances on the boardwalk outside the ICA. Anyone seen one?
 
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