Winthrop Center | 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

[kmp1284]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

I guess I'm an oddball, because I like the DPIR design better. I'm tired of the all glass look.

Let's wait and hope for someone other than Millennium and their house architects at Handel on that one. There's enough brown and gray around where this is going to be poking up in the skyline that it won't be glass-overload.

 

[odurandina]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

So did the city agree to shut down future possible dense buildings in the area in order to get 115 Winthrop through in a way that really backfired, or am I completely mistaken here?

Any insights would be deeply appreciated.

1 Bromfield St would add only very modest shadow at the far corner of the Common at Park & Beacon Street/s.

i asked the very nice person heading the 'Downtown Planning' study.....

Me; "Oh, you mean a skyscraper study...."

BPDA; "haha, well it's not called that.... but the study is very comprehensive. The parcels that can be developed will be identified... and height makes up a significant part of the study."

[in other words, it's a skyscraper study].

Me; "Will the reduced height at Winthrop Square help 1 Bromfield in regards to the Shadow Bank?"

BPDA; "The 1 Bromfield St proposal presents only a small fraction of the impact of Winthrop Square. The height proposed would require drawing very little from the Shadow Bank."

 

[617]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

1 Bromfield St would add only very modest shadow at the far corner of the Common at Park & Beacon Street/s.

i asked the very nice person heading the 'Downtown Planning' study.....

Me; "Oh, you mean a skyscraper study...."

BPDA; "haha, well it's not called that.... but the study is very comprehensive. The parcels that can be developed will be identified... and height makes up a significant part of the study."

[in other words, it's a skyscraper study].

Me; "Will the reduced height at Winthrop Square help 1 Bromfield in regards to the Shadow Bank?"

BPDA; "The 1 Bromfield St proposal presents only a small fraction of the impact of Winthrop Square. The height proposed would require drawing very little from the Shadow Bank."

What does this mean ? There’s hope for 1 Bromfied ?

 

[DZH22]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

What does this mean ? There’s hope for 1 Bromfied ?

If they fixed the podium, 1 Bromfield is essentially in a 3 way tie for me with the Copley Place Tower and Congress Street Garage Office Tower for buildings I desperately want to see built here. 1 Bromfield just might have been my favorite of the 3. (except again, the podium and street level stunk) It would be a huge disappointment if we couldn't get a single one of those curvy towers.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

One Bromfield should never be built unless the developer's overweening contempt for Bostonians, i.e. those persons who use Bromfield and Washington Streets, is cured.

What a travesty of a design.

 

[tysmith95]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

I feel like this as good of a design as they could do considering the awkward proportions.

 

[coleslaw]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

1 Bromfield would get rid of kung fu video, that is the real travesty.

 

[odurandina]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

With 115 Winthrop, Parcel 15, SST, 1 Congress/50 Sudbury, Garden Garage and the Hub on Causeway solved, it seems 1 Bromfield could leap past the Harbor Garage on the BPDA to do list in the near future. It's going to be a very tight squeeze at its base. Gotta hope they solve the receiving/ sanitation/ staging/ parking plan, a construction plan, preserve the ground level retail, and fix the relatively less complex massing.

Then, the biggest hurdle will be the 45 Province St nimby's, Friends of the Public Garden, etc.

705' or bust! .....need to mobilize a Medieval band of (Yimby's)..

 

[393b40]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

I don't love it, but whatever. I think the previous proposal everyone hated looked a hell of a lot better and at least attempted (perhaps poorly?) to be more than a curtain wall glass stump. The ground floor is all that really matters though.

As for 1 Bromfield... it's been almost 2 years since the developer said they would come back with a redesign "soon". That project is as good as dead IMO.

 

[DBM]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Anyone else happened to have perused the comment letters yet?

The second one (not sure how the BPDA decided to sequence them in the PDF scroll; they don't appear to be alphabetical) is a highly technical, sober, and extremely apprehensive objection from 100 Summer St. about projected 1--1.5 inch subsidence the project might cause. The third one is a litany of diverse and nettlesome concerns that 75-101 Federal St., 100 High & 160 Fed. have.

Houston, we have a[n abutter] problem--although I can only presume there are continuous discussions/negotiations going on to remedy/rectify...

 

[tobyjug]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

With 115 Winthrop, Parcel 15, SST, 1 Congress/50 Sudbury, Garden Garage and the Hub on Causeway solved, it seems 1 Bromfield could leap past the Harbor Garage on the BPDA to do list in the near future. It's going to be a very tight squeeze at its base. Gotta hope they solve the receiving/ sanitation/ staging/ parking plan, a construction plan, preserve the ground level retail, and fix the relatively less complex massing.

Then, the biggest hurdle will be the 45 Province St nimby's, Friends of the Public Garden, etc.

705' or bust! .....need to mobilize a Medieval band of (Yimby's)..

You can add Toby's Province Street Fox and Hounds Club to the list that will fight this to the last dog bone unless that street level gets fixed. Woof.

 

[DBM]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

With 115 Winthrop, Parcel 15, SST, 1 Congress/50 Sudbury, Garden Garage and the Hub on Causeway solved, it seems 1 Bromfield could leap past the Harbor Garage on the BPDA to do list in the near future. It's going to be a very tight squeeze at its base. Gotta hope they solve the receiving/ sanitation/ staging/ parking plan, a construction plan, preserve the ground level retail, and fix the relatively less complex massing.

Then, the biggest hurdle will be the 45 Province St nimby's, Friends of the Public Garden, etc.

705' or bust! .....need to mobilize a Medieval band of (Yimby's)..

So... we're talking about a proposal that the BPDA completely, utterly, unequivocally rejected. The regulators said this has to be totally rethought, redesigned, reimagined, reconceptualized. And that was two years ago. And we haven't heard a peep since then. During the biggest development boom in ages.

Your enthusiasm, while certainly admirable--how perfect would it be to have a twin pinnacle diagonal from MTower to balance off the intersection--couldn't be more misguided, as best I can judge.

 

[stick n move]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Wow, Im shocked. It at least appears they listened. They had done the bait and switch, but now have brought back the parts we all liked and re-embraced verticality. This design is not trying to hide its height it embraces it. This is huge for the city because this is “the” showpiece parcel and could not be a ve’d and half assed effort, especially the way they were trying to hide the height. They kept the T shape on the eastern face, its needed to get the floor space, but it is lower and the crown rises above it so it will be well hidden. This is a huuuuuge win for Boston. I had lost almost all hope after copley tower was nixed, this was ruined, and finally the hub on causeway was completely changed....again....for worse and no reason.

As i said before they had already gotten it right, just forget about the new one and go back to what worked. They have, and combined some parts of the other tower to get the square footage needed while keeping the good elements of both towers.

This is the last thing I expected and this may be a first in Boston. Usually designs get progressively worse and worse before construction, but I cant ever remember them going back to something previously proposed that was better and using it. Lets get Copley towers rights sold to another developer since its the last tower that can be built there, fix the hub on causeway, and pray that the govt center glass office tower is never changed and is built as its been shown. That tower scares me because there is too much time...alowing for revisions.

Anyways this is a huge win and I absolutely cannot believe that they did this. This doesnt happen. Thank god because of how important this parcel is.

Now we need to write letters of thanks showing them that this is very much appreciated. This will actually be a great tower and I hope they have kept the opening curtain effect on the facade to give it those intricate details. Either way Im speechless and absolutely did not expect this.

 

[stick n move]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Well damn.

Thank god. Just look at that difference. Boston making moves. It even looks taller in the picture on the right because the other design was so clunky and did such a good job of hiding its height. Huuuuuge win. Having the extension that comes off the eastern side being lower also allows the crown to soar above and not look so clunky. It also should help hide that part behind the pregnant building from many angles including hopefully the waterfront view. That part almost came to the roof before, now its much less pronounced and is about equal height to the preggo building hopefully hiding it.

 

[prodigy92]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Based off my interpretation of the detailing, this could look really neat depending on the light... Playing of MT and the Hancock at sunset, but with its own distinct look... If those indents make it through to the final design, they'd also make for some great lighting at night.

Looks much better than the rendering in February. Thank God and hopefully make it look more like the original rendering.

 

[odurandina]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

....It also should help hide that part behind the pregnant building from many angles including hopefully the waterfront view. That part almost came to the roof before, now its much less pronounced and is about equal height to the preggo building hopefully hiding it.

They have drastically improved a severely handicapped 'revenue tower' by increasing the appearance of two distinct skyscrapers. But like you mentioned above; they've made every part of the new design more attractive by combining the best features of both previous designs.

Being suggestive of a sky bridge exonerates the lower tower from the indignity of benefiting from 'the Preggo hopefully hiding it.'

Visitors to Boston just quickly scanning the skyline probably won't even realize it's a single building, if they even give it a second thought.

 

[617]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Overall love this new design. What are the chances the “sky bridge” is a glass elevator that lets you see the outside ? Would also look cool from the street watching it move up and down the building. But anyway looks great. I wonder how much power abutters have to delay/stop construction.

 

[JSic]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

So... we're talking about a proposal that the BPDA completely, utterly, unequivocally rejected. The regulators said this has to be totally rethought, redesigned, reimagined, reconceptualized. And that was two years ago. And we haven't heard a peep since then. During the biggest development boom in ages.

Your enthusiasm, while certainly admirable--how perfect would it be to have a twin pinnacle diagonal from MTower to balance off the intersection--couldn't be more misguided, as best I can judge.

It will probably be revived at some point. Winthrop Square disappeared for years, then came back in a different form.

 

[odurandina]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

big Globe story......

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/03/31/winthrop/3QpLJKeskQSzDg0CvpduEI/story.html

 

[odurandina]

Re: 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Wow. Don't know what to make from the BCDC's harsh appraisal. I thought the latest changes addressed their complaints. Maybe not. Instead it sounds like they might have to rethink this whole thing – and pay less to the City. If this happens, why did it take them 2 years to do what they should have done all along? You can probably take out $10 or 15M in lost taxes from the tower not being up.