Winter Garden | 100 Federal St. | Financial District

[whighlander]

I'm just hoping that the designers and builders don't destroy the nice monument to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention that ratified the US Constitution on that site in February 1788

Originally the Massachusetts Constitutional Ratifying Convention with its 364 delegates [the largest of any state] convened in January 1788 in the Old State House with Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut already ratified and everyone watching what was going to happen in Boston. There was a major question if the Federalists [favored strong central government and the Constitution as it was written] and the Anti-Federalists could agree. If Massachusetts [either Florida or Texas to Virginia’s California in relative size and wealth at the time] failed to ratify the whole thing might have failed.

*1

The turning point in the debate in Boston came when Gov. John Hancock proposed that Massachusetts recommend several amendments to the Constitution, including a Bill of Rights. This proposal effectively gave voice to many of the Anti-Federalist concerns, and after Revolutionary leader Samuel Adams spoke in favor of Hancock's "conciliatory proposition," a sufficient number of delegates shifted their positions to approve ratification.

Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution on February 6, 1788, by a vote of 187 to 168.

….after the delegates first gathered in the Old State House, they moved briefly to the Brattle Street Church and finally settled in the church of the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, who would soon after lead the founding of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In 1788, to celebrate the work of the state ratifying convention, Boston changed the name of the street where Belknap's church stood from Long Lane to Federal Street.

*1 Massachusetts Historical Society

 

[Padre Mike]

I like the plaza as it is, with the fountain, full of trees and very eye-appealing plants and seasonal flowers. I too dislike the white box...it's just another excuse for another expensive lunch mall.

 

[TheRifleman]

I like the plaza as it is, with the fountain, full of trees and very eye-appealing plants and seasonal flowers. I too dislike the white box...it's just another excuse for another expensive lunch mall.

+1 Hopefully they don't do this.

 

[JumboBuc]

I like the plaza as it is, with the fountain, full of trees and very eye-appealing plants and seasonal flowers. I too dislike the white box...it's just another excuse for another expensive lunch mall.

I worked one block from that plaza for 4 years and walked past it multiple times a day, every day. I honestly don't think I ever saw it being used even once. If you're looking for a fountain, trees, plants, and flowers in that neighborhood you cross the street to Post Office Square, where you'll find the nicest collection of those things in the city.

We can quibble over the details, but I see a winter garden at that location as a far better use of space than the existing plaza. It could attract in lousy weather the same people who frequent the park at PO Square in good weather.

 

[stick n move]

This forum blows my mind. People overwhelmingly seem to hate the winter garden, but like the waterside place phase 2 project. I feel like people here have been watching mediocrity be built in this city for so long that they get uncomfortable when something dramatic gets proposed. People seem to want filler to go up so they can complain about it and then at the end of the day it just blends in and everybody forgets it exists vs. something exciting and bold that changes the area around it but is out of the norm for Boston.

 

[whighlander]

This forum blows my mind. People overwhelmingly seem to hate the winter garden, but like the waterside place phase 2 project. I feel like people here have been watching mediocrity be built in this city for so long that they get uncomfortable when something dramatic gets proposed. People seem to want filler to go up so they can complain about it and then at the end of the day it just blends in and everybody forgets it exists vs. something exciting and bold that changes the area around it but is out of the norm for Boston.

No -- Sticknmove -- they can be involved at different levels on different projects

While there are plenty of opinions about the merit or lack of 100 Federal it is not going away anytime soon -- there is also the quite widely acclaimed P.O. Sq. Park diagonally across the Congress St./ Franklin St. intersection

The wide plaza at the Congress side of 100 Federal is under utilized -- properly done it could do several valuable things:

• Highlight the Constitution Monument -- this is not well known but on-par with the monument to the Boston Masacre
• Provide a true Winter Garden with Tropical Plantings to complement the P.O. Sq. Park for the Krappy weather which we experience every year off and on for several months [Climate Change notwithstanding]
• Provide some additional inexpensive lunch options in the heart of the Financial [and some would say up and coming Innovation District extension]

The key is done right -- I don't dislike the idea of a Glass Tent -- but it should:

• use structural glass or minimal stainless steel supports for openness views in all directions including the iconic view straight up
• better integrate with the existing structure -- in particular attach higher up to allow taller plants
• recognize our weather -- please don't burden us with stupid snow-catchment designs
• make sure there are plenty of in / outs along the ends and edge

 

[timsox6]

It will never happen in Boston given that 100 Federal is a top of the line Class A office building but a 4 season indoor/outdoor beer garden would absolutely kill it at this location. I can just picture all the suits lined up for a good beer 5 days a week starting at 5pm.

What are the reasons that something like this could not be done?

 

[whighlander]

What are the reasons that something like this could not be done?

Timsox -- I think the strongest objection to an "Open 4 Seasons Beer Garden" would be how to control the patrons from taking the beer with them onto the sidewalks and street

You would need to do the Yawkee Wayon Game Day with turnstiles equipped with cops -- or else you need a "Laser" that could zap the cups being carried by the patrons beyond the boundaries --- or a force field preventing them from leaving before they had consumed the fluids in question

The reality is that even with Mayor Walsh at the helm an Open Beer Garden is not going to happen in the midst of the Financial District in Boston

The best you can expect is a Glass Tent with a few sliding doors with possibly in the summer an additional fenced-in area of tables

 

[DBM]

For all the extraordinary pedestrian traffic at the corner of Franklin & Congress, as you move north on Congress you quickly hit a dead zone. A large portion of that is due to the McCormack Fed. Courthouse (no longer federal, no longer a courthouse) at Congress & Milk.

The McCormack's dead zone will never change unless sold-off to private developers. However, that should be partially mitigated somewhat soon by the Congress Square development at Congress & Water with all the mixed-use goodies (residential/retail/hotel) it promises.

That leaves the block on Congress from Franklin to Milk. What can be done there? Seems perfect for sidewalk cafe seating... but if those financial services street-level tenants (Charles Schwab, Liberty Mutual) are locked-in to very long-term leases, could be a while before any transformation happens there.

Anyway, I support this, given that 100 Fed's Congress St. Plaza is obviously another dead zone on this corridor, for all of its carefully-manicured beauty. It's frequently bleak, windswept, gloomy with shadow, austere, even with the careful arrangement of its plantings, etc.

[In comparison, 133 Fed's plaza is just as engulfed by shadow most of the year, but tons of people sit out in it at lunchtime during the warmer months with the Boloco and Cosi right next-door.]

Look at the 100 Fed. plaza right now--there's a huge Christmas tree smack in the middle of it. How many people are going to wander up to that Christmas tree and photograph it, etc.? Time for a change, which I'm glad the developers are embracing.

 

[markhb]

Timsox -- I think the strongest objection to an "Open 4 Seasons Beer Garden" would be how to control the patrons from taking the beer with them onto the sidewalks and street

You would need to do the Yawkee Wayon Game Day with turnstiles equipped with cops -- or else you need a "Laser" that could zap the cups being carried by the patrons beyond the boundaries --- or a force field preventing them from leaving before they had consumed the fluids in question

The reality is that even with Mayor Walsh at the helm an Open Beer Garden is not going to happen in the midst of the Financial District in Boston

The best you can expect is a Glass Tent with a few sliding doors with possibly in the summer an additional fenced-in area of tables

Assuming there are defined doors to the space, couldn't this be solved the same way every other alcohol-serving establishment solves it, with bouncers?

Also, just wondering because I've never heard of it and it was mentioned: does Boston have a "central Christmas tree" with a lighting ceremony, etc., like Washington, New York (Rockefeller Center at least) and Portland?

 

[JeffDowntown]

Also, just wondering because I've never heard of it and it was mentioned: does Boston have a "central Christmas tree" with a lighting ceremony, etc., like Washington, New York (Rockefeller Center at least) and Portland?

Yes, it is on Boston Common, Tremont Street side. The tree lighting was last Thursday.

 

[BeeLine]

From yesterday.

https://flic.kr/p/BiDKTz
https://flic.kr/p/BPRQhN
https://flic.kr/p/BSak5R

 

[whighlander]

Assuming there are defined doors to the space, couldn't this be solved the same way every other alcohol-serving establishment solves it, with bouncers?

Also, just wondering because I've never heard of it and it was mentioned: does Boston have a "central Christmas tree" with a lighting ceremony, etc., like Washington, New York (Rockefeller Center at least) and Portland?

Markhb-- Well Yes and No -- Boston being a "city of neighborhoods" and competing interests -- a Central Tree would be too much to ask for

However -- At various times in the past few decades there have been Major Trees with associated lighting ceremonies:

• @ the Pru,
• Boston Common near the Park ST T
• Filene's and / or Macy's buildings in DTX
• Quincy Market / Market Center Plaza near to the Custom's House
• the State House
• Copley Square
• North End near Paul Revere statue

This year:

• None at the Pru which is visible from the street
• On the Common -- the famous annual Gift from Nova Scotia Tree
• the tallest Tree is part of a fancy light show with 350k LED lights called "Blink" at the Greenway end of Quincy Market

  the music-light show Blink! will start at 4:30 and run every half-hour through January 3 from 4:30pm-9:30pm daily

• apparently there is one at 100 Federal St. on the Congress St. side
• the State House
• Copley Square -- generally one of the best with Trinity Church and the BPL as backdrops

see the following website for more Christmas in Boston
http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/christmas-in-boston.html

and then there is Cambridge

 

[shmessy]

Markhb-- Well Yes and No -- Boston being a "city of neighborhoods" and competing interests -- a Central Tree would be too much to ask for

However -- At various times in the past few decades there have been Major Trees with associated lighting ceremonies:

• @ the Pru,
• Boston Common near the Park ST T
• Filene's and / or Macy's buildings in DTX
• Quincy Market / Market Center Plaza near to the Custom's House
• the State House
• Copley Square
• North End near Paul Revere statue

This year:

• None at the Pru which is visible from the street
• On the Common -- the famous annual Gift from Nova Scotia Tree
• the tallest Tree is part of a fancy light show with 350k LED lights called "Blink" at the Greenway end of Quincy Market
• apparently there is one at 100 Federal St. on the Congress St. side
• the State House
• Copley Square -- generally one of the best with Trinity Church and the BPL as backdrops

see the following website for more Christmas in Boston
http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/christmas-in-boston.html

and then there is Cambridge

Warning, Warning!!!

Another Archboston Thread Whighjacking Alert!

 

[393b40]

This will be almost as dead as what is currently there unless there is a major attraction inside it.

 

[dwash59]

Markhb-- Well Yes and No -- Boston being a "city of neighborhoods" and competing interests -- a Central Tree would be too much to ask for

The tree on the common that comes from Nova Scotia is the official tree for the city of Boston.

The truth is actually the opposite of what you state because the tree in Rockefeller Center is not declared by NYC to be the official tree of the city, and the tree in DC is considered the national tree, so it isn't an official tree of the city either.

So, Portland and Boston have an official city-run central tree. Yes, Boston also has lightings in other neighborhoods and the mayor goes on a trolley tour to light them; but that's irrelevant to the fact that the city declares only one tree to be the "Boston Christmas Tree".

 

[whighlander]

The tree on the common that comes from Nova Scotia is the official tree for the city of Boston.

The truth is actually the opposite of what you state because the tree in Rockefeller Center is not declared by NYC to be the official tree of the city, and the tree in DC is considered the national tree, so it isn't an official tree of the city either.

So, Portland and Boston have an official city-run central tree. Yes, Boston also has lightings in other neighborhoods and the mayor goes on a trolley tour to light them; but that's irrelevant to the fact that the city declares only one tree to be the "Boston Christmas Tree".

DWash -- you are correct -- but you missed the opportunity to tell the masses why the Official Boston Christmas Tree comes complete with Mounty and often the Premier of Nova Scotia

not to continue the deflection of the this thread -- just Google "Halifax Explosion of 1917 and Boston"*1

*1 December 6, 1917 @ 9:00 AM -- Coincidentally there is likely to be a major ceremony 2 years from today

 

[datadyne007]

There is a BCDC meeting for this tomorrow.

Attached was the BCDC presentation from 12/01/15:

 

[found5dollar]

That has absolutely no relationship to the existing 100 Federal. It is almost a joke on what contemporary architecture is. A strangely shaped building, shaped this way for no apparent reason, latching onto an older one.

Also, that "concert series layout" leaves no room for the audience to get to their seats.

 

[cden4]

Agreed. It's such a bizarre design. It doesn't relate to the existing building, and it relates terribly to the street as well.