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Don Chiofaro's shadowy proposal for his aquarium garage
By adamg on Fri, 09/12/2014 - 10:02pm
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on the results of a BRA-hired consultant's report on the shadows Chiofaro's proposed two towers would cast on the Greenway - and the issue of whether the project would have any of the required "open space."
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Comments
Ah, the week of September 11th....
Where we remember the fallen twin towers yet the residents of Boston's twin towers just drone on and on. Every time we hear about Chiofaro's reasonable fiscal, design, and job benefits plans for that hideous pieces of 1960's planning; the Harbor Garage, we get the Michael Palinesque sputterings from the top of the castle in The Holy Grail from the residents of the Harbor Towers.
Has anyone ever been in a Harbor Tower's unit? They are low ceiling rat warrens with dull lighting along the access corridors and all the internal ambiance of a Hampton Inn. The views are great for most, but that is it. No wonder they just keep spouting along. I would be depressed if I had to live there.
We, that's you and me, have spent billions to clean the harbor and take down the Artery. The Greenway is great, but it belongs to them and us. We have a say on its development too, not just the Anti Cape Winders of the North. Boston is a city, not a suburban office park. Shadows happen. The world will not be destroyed if thee blades of grass placed on a site which has been built upon since 1840 doesnt get enough morning sun in January.
Zoning Guidelines
John - I don't have a direct dog in this hunt as I live on the other side of town - but drove down Atlantic/Commercial just yesterday and a thought occurred to me how nice it was that the shorter buildings gave the space such an open feel. The sole mistake - as you point out - is Harbor Towers. Building this - at twice the height - would be doubling down on that mistake. The harborfront is very nice (except for that area) exactly because the buildings are human scale and don't loom over you. The Greenway - for all the criticism is very nice to walk along on a sunny day when they have some events out there.
The ONLY reason Don wants to build this big is because he overpaid for the garage on the assumption that if he stomped his feet enough, we would cave in to his demands. I agree - the garage is hideous. But the ruling factor in approving what eventually goes there is not "big enough so Chioffaro can make money". For once, I thought the BRA made a reasonable ruling - with the sole exception of Harbor Towers, 10-15, maybe 20 stories is appropriate height along the waterfront. Developers pulled this all the time and it's just one more reason land/housing is so expensive around here - everyone massively overpays for a piece of land and then the city's decision-making comes down to which developers support what politicians who approve what the developer needs to make money. That's no way to run a city. Unless you are an incumbent politician.
Short buildings are YOUR
Short buildings are YOUR preference because of YOUR subjective opinion. If we're all going to get together and only build things that fit all of our opinions, we'll never build anything. Zoning is supposed to protect us from the truly harmful, not be a tool for the public to fight about their opinions.
Huh what?
The public expressing, through laws and regulations, how development is allowed to affect the resources the public owns (i.e., the streets, public lands, and air rights), is exactly what zoning is for.
At the end of the day, all opinions, even whether or not murder is OK or should be illegal, are entirely subjective.
I didn't write the zoning guidelines
I just agree w them (and they were approved through proper and public process)
Haha! Good one
Zoning approved through proper and public process? On what planet?
Oh, I'm sure they had some "public meetings". You know, of the sort that anyone with a real job could never attend. And anyone with a life certainly would not have enough time to follow all the politics and insider dealing.
Zoning regulations are ultimately written by a small cabal of highly influential and connected people, primarily for self-benefit. There is nothing about zoning that reflects the will of the majority of people who are affected by it. That's the point of it, really.
Why do the Harbor Towers feel
Why do the Harbor Towers feel they should be special exceptions to the height? Does their building cast any shadows? The debate on making the greenway great was during the Celluci/Swift/Romney days, and people decided great was too much (all the planned museums were cancelled, and the greenway was split up into sections and chopped up by highway ramps). The politicians in those days, and the public by not fighting, decided the greenway was not important and to just plant some grass in a median strip where land was not needed for on ramps. So, its a place for people with dogs to use as a toilet and nearby workers to eat lunch, but not much else. To pretend its this great park that will be ruined by shade is crazy. The Charles River Parks are great parks that are being ruined by Storrow Highway, fight that fight to reclaim that great park from the sometimes 8 line highway. The battle for the greenway was lost when no one wanted to pay to make it a great park or prioritize it over highway ramps.
Hulking buildings
I do have a dog in this discussion since I work downtown and use the Greenway to travel from South Station to Haymarket. But anyone who uses the Greenway at any time has a dog in this fight.
I think the issue of shadows is symptom of what Stevil identifies: proportion. 600 and 500 foot buildings that hover over the Greenway will dominate the area. I can see them as hulks. Consider that the building rising from Filene's will be 600 feet tall. Is that and a 500 foot sibling building next door standing adjacent to the Greenway and waterfront appropriate to the area as evolves toward a people centered region? A better building to replace the garage is a building that is similar in height to the garage. It doesn't make Chiofaro as much money but that is his problem and not a problem belonging to the city.
Super tall buildings can be great and exciting. But I believe structures that are between the Greenway and the waterfront need to not dominate these areas. Further development of this area should place the use of the area by individuals rather than the use of businesses as the highest concern.
I can't see the harbor through the garage
The idea that a shorter building would somehow make the waterfront more accessible doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The garage puts a concrete wall between people and the harbor. A building of similar stature would do just the same.
And I'm not terrified of occasional shadows. The Greenway is often shadeless and not the best place to be on a hot day. In winter, it doesn't matter either way. It's just damn cold no matter what. Welcome to New England.
Kill the city
So now you want the whole area between the greenwaste and the harbor to be a no build zone?
Greed Does Not Equal Growth
There is a huge difference between "no build" and a reasonable height and style. If the proposed building was something like was done with Rowes Wharf nobody would bat an eye. And while you might be dismissive of the Greenway it's a rather nice alternative to just more buildings and certainly to what preceded it. Sure it would have been nicer still if the proposals for sited museum(s) and botanical gardens had not fizzled out. But any parkland you can squeeze out of an urban center is not to be sneered at.
It's also future capacity, and non motorist infrastructure.
Those botanical gardens and sited museums could always show up later. The 2007 recession put a damper on a lot of things.
If the developer made a bonehead decision and overpaid for something, it shouldn't be the up to the public to rewrite its rules to bail him out. That is why it's speculation, just like blackjack or a crap shoot. He rolled boxcars.
CHIOFARA
I am geeting a distict odor of BAGJOB.
It's that disturbing hybrid.
Capitalist profits with socialist risk. A kind of back alley bail out.