Archive for year: 2015

You are here: Home / You Want Citywide Planning? The BRA crowdsources ideas for a better Boston. By Mark Pasnik / 2015

Will Don Chiofaro’s Harbor Garage Exceed Area Height Requirements?

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Nick DeLuca – BostInno Staff Writer
06/24/15 @11:51am

On Wednesday evening, June 24, the Boston Redevelopment Authority will welcome the general public to a community hearing on the Municipal Harbor Planning process. The goal of this congregation, as has been with similar ones held prior and surely more to come, is to hammer out details for waterfront development proposals – the most notable being Don Chiofaro’s attempt to re-imagine the Harbor Garage.

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Aquarium says tower plan could threaten sea animals, finances

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Boston Globe,  June 23, 2015
By Jon Chesto and Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent

The New England Aquarium on Monday came out in opposition to developer Don Chiofaro’s plan to build a 600-foot tower on its doorstep, declaring that the aquarium would face “substantial financial risks” if the massive project goes forward.

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Really? You Want Citywide Planning?

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Boston Magazine
The BRA crowdsources ideas for a better Boston.
by Mark Pasnik
May 13, 2015

Every 50 years seems like a rare enough occurrence to warrant a 24-hour celebration. And sure enough, to honor the launch of Boston’s first comprehensive planning in two generations, the BRA held the Innovative Design Alternatives Summit (IDeAS for short) on May 6 and 7.

The last time Boston invested in citywide planning, Bill Russell was playing for the Celtics, John Collins was mayor, Quincy Market was crumbling, and City Hall was only partway through construction. For the better part of a half century since then, Boston has been spot-planning rather than working with a single coordinated vision.

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Waterfront Residents Show Solidarity to Fight Lewis Wharf Hotel Development

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By Matt Conti
NorthEndWaterfront.com
June 17 2015

Waterfront residents packed into the Pilot House for a standing-room only meeting with State Representative Aaron Michlewitz to express their concerns about the proposed Lewis Wharf Hotel plan filed earlier this month by JW Capital Partners. Several North End / Waterfront buildings were represented at the meeting by condominium residents from Lewis Wharf, Prince Building, Commercial Wharf, the Mariner, Union Wharf, Lincoln Wharf, Battery Wharf and Harbor Towers.

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Hook Lobster Redevelopment Gets Boost

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By Steve Adams
Banker & Tradesman Staff
June 11, 2015

Plans to redevelop Boston’s Hook Lobster pound property into a luxury residential tower got a boost as officials released a new set of guidelines for waterfront development.  The family that owns the half-acre property at Atlantic and Northern avenues wants to build a 285-foot-tall residential tower with a 9,000-square-foot ground-floor restaurant.

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City paves way for 600-foot tower on Harbor Garage site

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By Jon Chesto GLOBE STAFF  

After eight years of trying, developer Don Chiofaro is about to receive preliminary approval from Boston officials to build one of the city’s tallest towers, a megaproject that would redefine one of the most prominent stretches of the waterfront.

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Chiofaro’s Plan to Replace Garage with Towers Faces Test

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Boston Globe – By Jon Chesto Globe Staff    May 07, 2015

For years, Mayor Thomas M. Menino stood as the biggest hurdle in Don Chiofaro’s quest to build two skyscrapers where his Boston Harbor Garage now stands.

Chiofaro has found a more receptive audience in City Hall with Menino’s successor: Mayor Martin J. Walsh wants to see a bold development replace the aging concrete bunker now on the site. Read more

Boston Globe Editorial: Waterfront Plan Should Preserve Tunnel for Future North-South Rail Link

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Two decades ago, state transportation planners were looking ahead when they plotted out a rail-tunnel route about 130 feet beneath Boston. Even though the state couldn’t afford to include the rail tunnel as part of the Big Dig, the designers left a space where they could add one later. The state still doesn’t have money to build the North-South Rail Link, the white whale of New England transportation. But a Boston zoning panel studying land-use rules for the waterfront should show the same kind of foresight as Big Dig planners by recommending protections for the underground route from encroachment. Someday, when the financial and political stars align to build the tunnel, efforts today to keep the route viable will pay off.

Click the link to view the entire editorial.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2015/03/02/waterfront-plan-should-preserve-tunnel-for-future-north-south-rail-link/9sUL8Z71iaNiFl9FP090kO/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline

A New Age for an Old Town – Boston Globe Article

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By Casey Ross  – Globe Staff  

There have been three great ages of development in modern Boston. The first began after the Back Bay was filled in the late 19th century, a radical change that triggered a historic construction boom. The second came in the 1960s and ’70s, when a “high spine” of office towers — stretching from the financial district to the Pru — began to rise over an old town.

The third is now… Read more (click the link below)

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/01/boston-historic-building-boom-redefining-skyline/Mxay21sRwTfylN29GYLYjM/story.html

 

What’s Wrong with Chiofaro/Prudential Plan to Re-develop the Harbor Garage?

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Harbor Towers One and Two, and the 1400 car harbor garage were built in the late 1960s as a single developments at a time when the waterfront was walled off from the city by the Central Artery. This was a blighted area consisting of unused dilapidated warehouses and was a dangerous neighborhood that had fallen into disrepair…

Read the entire article here.