0 A Seaport Gondola Remains a Possibility

view from Gondola over city

Credit: Boston Globe

Would you ride it if they built it? Now that is the question. To tell you the truth, I personally don’t have an answer. If it was efficient and saved time, absolutely.

From the Boston Globe:

The Boston Planning and Development Agency “is planning to spend $400,000 studying transit options in a neck of Boston that has become so difficult to access that some are suggesting sailing over clogged streets…The study will likely take more than a year, and consider whether additional bus, rail, ferries, bike-share, and ride-hailing services can help. And it will also look at the polarizing proposal to run cable cars far above Summer Street as part of an aerial gondola system…The gondola proposal might sound fanciful, but a major development firm is willing to cough up $100 million for it.”

0 How Stable is Boston’s Flourishing Seaport?

Boston’s Seaport will continue to be on the forefront by planning ahead as construction and development continues. Lower-Level and 1st-floor space is no longer used for utility infrastructure, developers and landlords. New projects house these systems on the 2nd floor or the roof, where appropriate.

Seaport Square Boston

Credit: The Architect’s Newspaper

290 Congress Street, owned by Boston Properties, utilizes a water fence that gets installed should it be necessary. To-date this has only been used once in March of 2018.

From the Financial Post:

in this old city’s booming Seaport District, General Electric is building its new world headquarters, Amazon is bringing in thousands of new workers, and Reebok’s red delta symbol sits atop the new office it opened last year. Three businesses are testing self-driving cars, other dynamic companies are planting their flag, and trendy restaurants and apartments have gone up virtually overnight. But after bad flooding during a storm this past winter, critics wonder whether it was a bright idea to invest so much in a man-made peninsula that sits barely above sea level.

Environmental activists warn much of the district, transformed from a wasteland of surface parking lots, rotting piers and abandoned rail yards into an economic engine and one of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods in a matter of years, simply isn’t prepared for the long haul.

 

0 The MidTown Hotel on Huntington Ave Slated for Residential Tower

Former Hotel on Huntington Ave site of new Tower

Credit: Curbed Boston

Could the Midtown Hotel site be the home to the next office or residential tower in Boston Back Bay? Speculation says Back Bay would be most receptive to height.

A sale of the one-acre site would likely lead to a much larger building in the 159-room hotel’s place, per the Globe’s Tim Logan. And that sale would likelier be on the pricier side, reflecting the skyrocketing land values of prime development sites in downtown Boston in general.

For instance, the MidTown site’s lease could go for as much as $80 million—$15 million more than developer Carpenter & Co. paid in 2014 for the smaller site that became One Dalton, which is on its way to being one of the five tallest towers in New England.

Additional information is available on Curbed Boston.

0 Northern Avenue Bridge Renovation Billed as ‘Postcard for Boston’

Seaport Bridge on Northern Ave

Credit: Boston Globe

Boston Seaport continues to be a destination for those who want to live, work and play in Boston’s newest neighborhood. The result of this influx has been traffic and headache. The Northern Avenue Bridge rehab won’t reduce traffic, but it will add a vibrant pedestrian connection back to the Financial District.

According to the Boston Globe, “the City of Boston has come up with this concept: an elevated, steel-truss bridge with dedicated lanes for pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars. The fixed span could be covered, and piers could be built to extend over the water. Cafes, shops, and public art could also line the bridge.”

‘It has the potential of being one of those places that serves as a postcard for Boston,’ said Rick Dimino, the president of A Better City, a Boston business group, and chair of the city’s advisory task force on the bridge.

The full Globe article is available on its website, here.