Winthrop Center | 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

Thats what Im saying too. A couple of them are good, some are OK, and the rest suck. Thats not good enough here. Not one of them are great. Accordia was...... No idea what theyre smoking over there. NYC is popping out icons like candy, hell even China has a suprising amount of very nice towers going up. What is the problem here? I was hoping we would have a hard time deciding between all of the great proposals which one is best. Instead we get a bag of turds and whichever one blows the least is what were going to have to be happy with. How can you work at the BRA and not slap somebody for trying to slide the trinity proposal across your desk. That is straight up disrespectful to propose that being built here.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

DZH22 said:
I actually completely disagree with this sentiment. It WOULD HAVE BEEN everything you say, except that it's capped at 725'. Considering 1 Bromfield looks to be taller, this parcel will likely only be the 2nd tallest downtown and 5th in the city by the time it's built. It's not as important as it would have been if it could have supported a new tallest.
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It will be prominent from the harbor, from PO Square, and from the I-93 approach. With One Bromfield it will be basically invisible from the Longfellow.

The 3 towers will appear in profile from the west, so they'll stand out based on their appearance.

Lendlease (and Accordia, for that matter) strangely chose to render the Longfellow view, which basically won't be seen, and not the harbor view, which will. They also seem to have two very different faces of the tower, and the wrong one faces the harbor. Again, I don't feel like Lendlease is really proposing for Boston here so much as trying out a design that they can use somewhere else later.

stick n move said:
Thats what Im saying too. A couple of them are good, some are OK, and the rest suck. Thats not good enough here. Not one of them are great. Accordia was...... No idea what theyre smoking over there. NYC is popping out icons like candy, hell even China has a suprising amount of very nice towers going up. What is the problem here? I was hoping we would have a hard time deciding between all of the great proposals which one is best. Instead we get a bag of turds and whichever one blows the least is what were going to have to be happy with. How can you work at the BRA and not slap somebody for trying to slide the trinity proposal across your desk. That is straight up disrespectful to propose that being built here.
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These are the same sorts of designs that New York is getting. I don't think the Accordia proposal is significantly different than what SHoP has done there, or anywhere.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

DZH22 said:
I actually completely disagree with this sentiment. It WOULD HAVE BEEN everything you say, except that it's capped at 725'. Considering 1 Bromfield looks to be taller, this parcel will likely only be the 2nd tallest downtown and 5th in the city by the time it's built. It's not as important as it would have been if it could have supported a new tallest.

Right now 1 Bromfield is more iconic than most of these, and even if Lendlease is built, it won't replace the (former) Hancock on the totem pole. Hell, it will be ~30' shorter than 1 Dalton.

Frankly, THE most obvious parcels to go iconic are the ones being screwed up by Boston Properties. (North Station and Back Bay Garage) All we're doing now is raising the rest of the plateau closer to the (former) Hancock/Pru. Nothing short of a new tallest is worthy of your above reaction in terms of skyline impact.
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Im clearly not saying its going to be the tallest in the city. It may be the tallest in downtown, 1 bromfield can too we dont know yet. We have 2 skylines and the downtown skyline is starting to look good and I would rather that they dont fuck it up. We have different opinions which is fine and I agree I wish we got an icon at north station but that is off to the side of the rest of the skyline. This is going to be the central focal point of the downtown skyline so in my personal opinion it is very important to do it in a way that reenforces that.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

DZH22 said:
I actually completely disagree with this sentiment. It WOULD HAVE BEEN everything you say, except that it's capped at 725'. Considering 1 Bromfield looks to be taller, this parcel will likely only be the 2nd tallest downtown and 5th in the city by the time it's built. It's not as important as it would have been if it could have supported a new tallest.

Right now 1 Bromfield is more iconic than most of these, and even if Lendlease is built, it won't replace the (former) Hancock on the totem pole. Hell, it will be ~30' shorter than 1 Dalton.

Frankly, THE most obvious parcels to go iconic are the ones being screwed up by Boston Properties. (North Station and Back Bay Garage) All we're doing now is raising the rest of the plateau closer to the (former) Hancock/Pru. Nothing short of a new tallest is worthy of your above reaction in terms of skyline impact.
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Let's not mistake height for iconic; they are not the same. Just because a building is tall doesn't make it iconic and a building doesn't have to be tallest (or even tall) to be iconic. The Swiss Re in London is only 591 ft but it's definitely iconic whereas the Four Seasons tower in Miami at 789 ft is not. It can even be argued that the Liberty Place towers in Philly are more iconic than the Comcast Center despite being shorter.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

I like this version of lend lease because the swirly shit is so "anywhere in China" that I don't think it fits Boston.

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I think Im starting to lean toward Millennium.

Its wide but generally looks pretty good. The way the interior meets the facade here is a little bit weird but its worth it for what is on the inside.
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This looks good, the bottom half of the tower will be blocked by other buildings and I think that this is a nice crown.
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The west elevation you can see in the bottom image of this post. Looks good. And the eastern elevation honestly I feel that the crown would look very good from the waterfront.
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And this honestly just "fits in well" which if were not getting Accordia #1 I guess works. We will also have 1 bromfield and SST in this shot so they will all kind of work together. If it was going to dominate downtown it wouldn't be the greatest but it wont. I think I'm in on Millennium after really looking into all of these.
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This also looks really good. The way it engages the facade on the outside is kind of tacky but this would be a really cool public space to have.
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Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

We all know Belkin has the huge upper hand here because he owns adjacent site

I personally favor lendlease, the architecture is bold but what i really love is the inclusion of a major cultural space. It takes many things to make a great city
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

Not to scale, not right perspectives, n all that shit. Just whipped this up quick to get a look at it and I understand where the inaccuracies are. Don't have the time or right software to do the full shit so If u like it cool if not keep scrolling I don't want to create an argument and go off topic.

 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

datadyne007 said:
TRANSNATIONAL
HEIGHT: 725' TO UNKNOWN

RENDERS
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I like this rendering of Transnational-- I love the concept but the rest of the renderings are not that impressive on this project.

I actually like Millennium project the best overall
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

mass88 said:
All of these proposals look pretty good - Trinity is the weakest looking, imo.

I like Landlease, HYM and TransNational the best.
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^^Right on!....Accordia has lost my vote, Lendlease is now number one, then HYM , then TransNational. Though TransNational could move to second place if the renders showing their proposal from different skyline perspectives look great. Plus, TransNational's dual-tower proposal means we get two-for-one in the deal. I am praying to the development gods that the boom cycle keeps going till this project gets built. :)
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

Jrubbs said:
Which is why it should be built.
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^^Correct....if we aren't getting a spire (sorry, it's a fetish) then we can at least get a futuristic, out-of-this-world looking skyscraper that looks like it belongs on Mars. The exoskeleton is out of this world.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

+1 on that lapradetom
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

It's a space penis. But I think Boston could use a space penis.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

What makes this rounded proposals different from last year's? Because I don't have much doubt that nothing is going to happen for a while, then there will be another submission of proposals next year.
 
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Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

How do you share images from the proposals on here?

The view of the accordia tower from Dewey Square looks really cool, and I don't think that particular render has been shown here.

After looking over the big post on the last page with all the renders, I think I might personally be in love with HYM's base. I'd definitely walk around there.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

I think Lendlease would make a great companion to 1Bromfield. Hym as a second choice.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

The Landlease tower needs a 111 Huntington esque spire. That would make it look much more like a beautiful penis. A bubble shaped lobby on both sides of the base would really help to give Boston it's much deserved manhood. The current street level interaction with the Landlease proposal sucks anyway.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

Hate to post an unpopular opinion as my second ever post, but:

To me, the Lendlease proposal looks gimmicky. The random ribbing looks like an afterthought, used to spice up a perfectly fine, but not outstanding massing. I think the similar design of the Bird's nest in Beijing works because the exterior steel beams are placed more densely and they are free standing, defining the entire facade.

I think the Millenium proposal is the strongest, and best fit contextually. If they wanted to transform it into an "iconic" tower, I think a curved top similar to the one SOM designed in Jakarta, albeit a less dramatic curve, would look very good here.
 
Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

type001 said:
What makes this rounded proposals different from last year's? Because I don't have much doubt that nothing is going to happen for a while, then there will be another submission of proposals next year.
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The first round were RFI (Request for Interest) responses. These are RFP (Request for Proposal) responses, marking the second phase. All developers really had to do in the RFI phase was just submit a small narrative of their interest/what they think they could build there (and those who did only this got undeservedly trashed for this on this board). Instead many went ham on renders, hiring architects and such. This RFP phase is the correct phase to be producing plans & renders. Though, what they're proposing in these RFPs probably won't get built as they currently stand anyway.

The RFP respondents will be meeting with the BRA on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 10:00 AM at a respondents’ pre-bid conference in the BRA Board Room on the 9th floor of Boston City Hall in Room 900.

Background on the process:
RFPS, RFQS, BIDS

The BRA and EDIC occasionally hires outside consultants or firms to provide commodities or services to assist the agency in its work. These outside teams are hired through competitive Requests for Qualifications (RFQs), Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and a public bidding process.

RFQs and RFPs are issued through a standard procedure which involves drafting, approval for distribution by the BRA Board, distribution through newspapers and the BRA website, the formation of proponent shortlists, interviews, selection of the most qualified proponent, and final approval of the selected proponent by the BRA board.

Bids are approved and drafted in a similar manner to RFPs and RFQs, however, contracts are awarded to the "lowest responsible and eligible bidder", based on competitive bids publicly opened and read in accordance with Massachusetts General Law (c.149 and c.30, s.39M).

http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/work-with-the-bra/rfps-rfqs-bids
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Re: 111 Federal St. | Formerly Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2

Lendlease is the Beijing olympics birdsnest in skyscraper form.
 
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