0 Shadow Exemption Requested for Winthrop Sq. Tower

Winthrop Square office building

Credit: Boston Globe

Winthrop Square tower is being positioned as the last development to cast a shadow.

According to the Boston Globe, “the Walsh administration is willing to write tougher rules restricting the size of shadows that new buildings can cast on Boston Common, as long as there’s an exemption for Winthrop Square, said Brian Golden, director of the Boston Planning & Development Agency. That could effectively cap the height of future buildings in parts of Downtown Crossing.”

Additional details on the proposed skyscraper in Winthrop Square are available on the Boston Globe.

0 1 Federal Street Goes up for Sale

Financial district office building at 1 Federal st.

1 Federal Street in Boston’s Financial District

1 Federal Street is headed for the sales block by Eastdil Secured. The building is expected to trade in excess of $682 per square foot.

According to Realert, “the 38-story tower is 98% occupied, with a weighted average remaining lease term of almost seven years. The largest tenant, law firm Morgan Lewis, occupies 301,000 sf on a lease that runs until 2023. Records-management company Iron Mountain is leasing 133,000 sf until 2024. Others tenants include Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Oppenheimer & Co. and U.S. Bank.”

Additional information is available on realert.

0 Boston Towers Still Short of Manhattan’s Scale

Boston office towers

Credit: The Real Reporter

Boston won’t be scaling up to the development heights of projects underway in NYC.  Boston’s newest tower comes in at nearly half the height of New York’s Nordstrom Tower.

From The Real Reporter:

When comparing to New York’s major projects under development, Boston comes up very short with Millennium Tower as its tallest, versus Nordstrom Tower, by more than double its size.  Nordstrom Tower (when complete) is set to be crowned the World’s tallest, towering in at 1,775 Feet, while Millennium will top off at 685 feet.

0 Boston Office Tower Construction Surging

back bay south end gateway

Credit: Banker&Tradesman

They all won’t happen in this cycle, but it will be interesting to watch the Boston skyline evolve as projects come out of the ground.

From Banker & Tradesman:

Three office towers totaling 113 stories and nearly 2.5 million square feet, already bearing the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s stamp of approval, are to be built near the MBTA’s Haymarket, North and South stations.

The transit tower trend ratchets up with Boston Properties’ latest vision of a 1.3-million-square-foot development at Back Bay station, including a 26-story office tower. And the BRA is getting into the high-rise act as it seeks an “iconic” redevelopment up to 700 feet for its defunct Financial District garage at 115 Federal St.

0 Downtown Crossing Office Tower would Trump Millennium

One Bromfield office tower in Downtown crossing

Credit: BBJ

Midwood is on the move with a 59-story office tower in Downtown Crossing (DTX) which would surpass Millennium in height. The building would be a combination of residential and retail space.

According to an article on the BBJ, “Midwood originally proposed a 28-story tower on the site in 2008, but the project stalled due to the economic crash…The current iteration of the project is substantially larger than the original proposal. An architectural presentation Midwood will give at the city this week presents plans for a 419-unit, 59-story residential building spanning 605,000 square feet.”

You can more on the DTX tower on the BBJ.

0 BRA Wants the Lights Dimmed on Boston’s Seaport

Fan Pier in Boston across the water

Credit: B&T

How bright is too bright for Boston’s Seaport?  It appears that what has been proposed in the design phase is significantly dimmer than post construction and the regulators are rethinking approvals going forward.

From Banker&Tradesman:

The Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters’ “eye-catching arrays have met with mixed reviews in a city that often views changes in the skyline with suspicion.”

“Personally, I loathe the lighting on those buildings,” said Michael Davis, co-chair of the Boston Civic Design Commission. “We like interesting, progressive architecture, but subtlety is important and the new lighting we’re getting on the Fan Pier, no one would call subtle or sophisticated.”

Now, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) officials are asking the developer to tone down the light show.

0 Boston Harbor Garage Towers Get The Red Light

As it stands now the city and state are at a no vote for the Harbor Garage development of 2 skyscrapers.

Boston Harbor garage plan

Credit: Bostino

From Banker and Tradesman:

A state official dealt a blow to Chiofaro Cos.’ plans to build two skyscrapers on Boston Harbor, siding with city officials in setting a maximum size of 900,000 square feet and height of 600 feet…Matthew Beaton, the secretary of energy and environmental affairs, backed the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s guidance for the maximum buildout on the 1.3-acre parcel currently occupied by an eight-story parking garage. Developer Donald Chiofaro has stated that his original proposal for two towers totaling 1.3 million square feet is the minimum for a financially viable project.

0 ‘First’ Boston Office Skyscraper gets New Owner

Ames building court street in Boston

Credit: Wikipedia

The Ames Building at 1 Court Street will be getting a new owner. The building is known as the Boston’s “first skyscraper”.

From Wikipedia:

The Ames Building is a skyscraper located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes ranked as the tallest building in Boston from its completion in 1893 until 1915, when the Custom House Tower was built. However, the building was never the tallest structure in Boston. The steeple of the Church of the Covenant, completed in 1867, was much taller than the Ames Building. Nevertheless, it is considered to be Boston’s first skyscraper.

Located at 1 Court Street and Washington Mall in downtown Boston, the Ames Building was designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge inRichardsonian Romanesque and paid for by Frederick L. Ames. It is the second tallest masonry load bearing-wall structure in the world, exceeded only by the Monadnock Building in Chicago, completed that same year.[2] It is thirteen stories high with a three-story granite base and sandstone and brick. The sandstone is from the Berea formation in Ohio and was supplied by Cleveland Quarries Company. Construction was completed in 1889, but interior work was not completed for occupancy until 1893. It became the corporate headquarters for the Ames families’ agricultural tool company.[3]

The Ames Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1974.

0 Millennium Tower Holds Topping Off Ceremony

view of Millennium Tower mid construction

Credit: BBJ

The city skyline continues to emerge in Downtown Crossing with Millennium having its topping off ceremony.

It seems that, anywhere and everywhere one looks in Boston proper, the canary-yellow construction scaffolding and accompanying crane atop Millennium Tower is visible — peeking out from behind a Financial District building in Post Office Square, rising up behind the Federal Reserve building as one crosses the Summer Street bridge or smack in the middle of the 36th-story view of the Boston College Club at 100 Federal St…The tower celebrates its “topping off” ceremony this Thursday, which marks the end of structural construction. Millennium Tower residents are slated to move in next summer.

You can read the full article and view additional images of Millennium Tower on the Bizjournals website.

0 Three New Seaport Office Towers Gain Approval

new office towers in Boston seaport

Credit: Boston Globe

The skyline in the Seaport continue to change with the approval of 3 more towers Boston Civic Design Commission.

According to a recent Boston Globe article, “the Boston Civic Design Commission gave its approval to the plans for three 22-story condo and apartment towers and retail along Seaport Boulevard. It’s the final city approval needed for the $700 million project, said Nick Martin, a spokesman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority…Unlike many developments in the Seaport, which have been criticized for being overly boxy, these buildings are designed with staggered heights and different shapes arrayed around an elevated podium with retail on the 3.5 acre site. It would include about 1,100 condos and apartments,- with the exact mix to be determined by market conditions – and 125,000 square feet of retail space. The buildings will be built on two blocks between Seaport Boulevard and Congress Street, between B Street and East Service Road.”

You can read the full article on the Globe’s website.