0 Shorter (and less shadowy) Winthrop Square Tower Announced

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

What does the shorter Winthrop Square tower now look like?

According to the Boston Business Journal, the refined Winthrop Square tower will include the following:

500 residential units;
750,000 square feet of office space;
21,000 square feet of publicly accessible meeting space;
21,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space;
115,000 square feet of affordable housing that could be built in Chinatown in collaboration with the
Asian Community Development Corp.;
Two exterior green roof spaces; and
Capacity for 550 vehicles in five levels of underground parking.

The update follows an ongoing discussion around the impact of the shadows cast onto the Boston Common given the tower’s height, orientation, and location.

0 Winthrop Square Deal Proposed by Mayor Walsh

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bisnow

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is pushing for the Winthrop Square Tower and is offering tighter restrictions on future tower developments as a concession.

From Bisnow:

Mayor Marty Walsh’s proposal would bar future developments (except Millennium’s) from casting a shadow over the Common, Public Garden and Back Bay’s Copley Square. The plan would also call for new zoning in the Financial District and Downtown Crossing. The shadow change also needs state approval by Gov. Charlie Baker and the state legislature due to the changes it would bring to the Massachusetts’ 1990 shadow law.

0 Darkness Looms over Winthrop Square Tower Project

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Wil Catlin

The shadows that will be cast from Millennium Partners proposed Winthrop Square project might darken this development. Who knew, or who should have known, that shadow effect on the Common and Public Garden existed?

Credit: Boston Globe

From the Boston Globe:

Millennium’s proposal, according to the developer’s analysis, would be out of compliance on average about 36 minutes a day over the course of a year on the Common and on average about five minutes a day over the course of a year on the Garden.

“You can correct for water with irrigation. You can correct for nutrients with fertilizer,” said Liz Vizza, executive director of the Friends of the Public Garden. “You cannot correct when you lose light.”