City pushing megatowers: BRA chief briefs execs on change
By Brett Arends
Boston Herald Business Columnist
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Goodbye Beantown ... hello Bean-hattan?
Downtown Boston could be on the brink of a new era of New York-style skyscraper construction following a policy shift by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Seven months after he grabbed headlines with proposals for a 1,000-foot tower in the Financial District, the mayor tells me he is looking at proposals for similar major skyscrapers in the neighborhood.
And that could mark the biggest change in policy toward the Hub’s skyline in more than two decades.
“Height is appropriate at certain places in the city, and we will take these case by case,” the mayor said. “Some will move forward, and some won’t. We’re just looking at this, and entertaining ideas.”
We spoke after I learned that Mark Maloney, chairman of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, had disclosed the new policy at a private downtown luncheon with Boston executives earlier this week.
According to some present, Maloney essentially told attendees that if companies wanted their own 1,000-foot tower, “Just ask us. Maybe we’ll say no, but maybe we won’t.”
The city is trying to be friendlier to the big employers that have chosen to stay here, he explained.
It was in February that the mayor unveiled plans to build the tallest building in New England, a skyscraper that could rise 80 stories in the Financial District’s historic Winthrop Square.
Menino says that, soon afterwards, other property developers then approached him to see if they could build higher on their plots as well.
What is astonishing is that this new development comes just five years after 9/11. People at the time thought the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers would mark the end of the new super-skyscraper.
Perhaps even more astonishing: that the development could happen in Boston.
“It is fascinating that height is back on the table in Boston,” says David Luberoff, executive director of Harvard’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. “It was really off the table for more than 20 years. There was really a conscious decision in the city in the ‘80s that there was a limit to height.”
What happened?
Boston is fighting to keep businesses from moving to cheaper locations in North Carolina and elsewhere.
And office rents have been recovering steadily for two years.
Some experts say as little as 5 percent of the best space is still vacant.
“What it shows is that office space in the city is a hot item right now,” Menino says.
New buildings would help “create some more vitality” in the city, he added.
But are more skyscrapers a good thing for Boston?
Hub conservationist Henry Lee, of the Friends of the Boston Public Gardens, said the city’s new enthusiasm for high rises “is a cause of some concern.”
While he agreed that the city needed to grow, he urged the mayor to keep new skyscrapers to appropriate places. The tallest buildings cast long shadows and create wind tunnels, he observed.
Lee also urged the mayor to preserve Boston’s distinctive character. “We certainly could build ourselves into becoming another ordinary city, and lose the historic distinction that we have,” he said.
Amen to that. Cities don’t have to choose between 1960s construction eyesores and turning themselves into museums. The Hancock Tower is one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the world.
If the mayor is looking for a prime site that should be knocked down, and redeveloped into something tall and elegant, he could start with the ugly building he has his office in.
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