BOSTON | Winthrop Square Tower | 691 FT / 211 M | 51 FLOORS

[BVictor1]

Has the FAA weighed in on the height?

They may just have to chop off 55' if the 710' threshold is non-negotiable.

[hotwheels]

Plans for Boston's Tallest Residential Tower in Jeopardy

There could be trouble in the skies for the Winthrop Square Tower proposal in Boston. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which operates Logan International Airport, has threatened to put the kibosh on current plans for the 775-foot tower, which would be the tallest residential building in New England. The development by Millennium Partners and Handel Architects would replace the Winthrop Square Garage with a soaring 55-storey tower.

[colemonkee]

710 ft. would still have a significant skyline impact.

[Urbannizer]

The tower's height has been trimmed to 702 ft to comply with FAA regulations.

Demolition underway at Boston’s crumbling Winthrop Square garage

Nov 9, 2017

Boston’s long-crumbling Winthrop Square garage is coming down.

Crews from Boston-based Suffolk Construction have erected construction fencing around the site, and demolition work is underway.

“The garage had deteriorated to a point where the engineer had concerns about its stability and it was determined that in the interest of public safety the garage should be demolished as soon as possible,” said Suffolk spokesperson Leah Pennino.

The garage’s demolition is a precursor to the construction of the planned 702-foot tower on the site, which has been proposed but not yet formally approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency. Real estate development firm Millennium Partners named Suffolk the tower’s construction manger in its original Winthrop Square bid. Suffolk has not yet been authorized to build the tower project, Pennino said.

[JMKeynes]

Great news!

Boston is one of the best cities in America. It's my favorite after NY (slightly edging out SF and DC).

I'm elated!

Also, more than any other city, Amazon is "prime" for Boston. Hopefully, it will go there, and more great towers will follow.

[MiamiSpartan]

Originally Posted by mfastx

I live in Boston and had a view of the airplanes approaching Boston Logan airport and I have never seen planes fly over downtown, or any part of central Boston for that matter. Planes coming from the south fly to the West of Boston, then turn East and make a loop all the way around Boston to approach from the south. Building a 1,000+ foot building would have NO impact on flight paths.

Yeah...we fly in to Logan all the time and have never flown over downtown.....

[Downburst]

Originally Posted by MiamiSpartan

Yeah...we fly in to Logan all the time and have never flown over downtown.....

Aircraft will take off over downtown occasionally if the wind is blowing from the right direction. They are- at best- 1,000 feet over the city at that point. It is infrequent, but it does happen.

[Urbannizer]

Down again, now at 691' with a new design.

Renderings Show New Design, Height for Boston's Winthrop Square Tower

Millennium Partners' proposal for a tower on the Winthrop Square Garage site in Downtown Boston has been hit with another height decrease after the release of a 1,801-page environmental impact review. The Handel Architects-designed tower comes back to the City with a new design and a lower zenith designed to assuage concerns related to potential flight and shadow impacts.

The development originally landed on City Hall desks at 775 feet, which would have been high enough to claim the title of tallest primarily residential building in New England. It also would have made the tower the second-tallest building in Boston. But persistent concerns lodged by the Federal Aviation Administration about flight paths at Logan Airport combined with local outcry directed at the building's shadowing on Boston Common and Public Garden pushed the developer to skim 73 feet off the plan.

The mixed-use proposal now stands at 691 feet and 53 floors. The newest iteration adds approximately 115,000 more square feet of office space to the blueprints. The building also includes 640,000 square feet of condominiums across the top 26 floors, a 12,000-square-foot Great Hall public space, and 31,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.

The environmental impact report essentially restarts the public review process, so the new proposal will have to face the community once again. Initial occupancy is targeted for the first quarter of 2022.

[colemonkee]

Oh dear god, did this design take a turn for the worse.

[DZH22]

They changed the design slightly. This is a PDF from 1/31/18. For one thing, the top isn't as bad. I am still not a fan, but I guess you can cut my overall vitriol in half from my initial reaction.

According to page 4 it looks like this is going 716'.

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattach...2-ccf47f5b1983

[colemonkee]

They totally changed the design. It went from two volumes joined by a singular design element (the diagonal fluctuations in the facade that went from top to bottom), with a really cool arched promenade to three separate volumes with different facade treatments with no real unifying them other than color, with a simple cut-out for the hall. It went from unique to "meh".

[DZH22]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

They totally changed the design. It went from two volumes joined by a singular design element (the diagonal fluctuations in the facade that went from top to bottom), with a really cool arched promenade to three separate volumes with different facade treatments with no real unifying them other than color, with a simple cut-out for the hall. It went from unique to "meh".

Well yeah, but I mean they (slightly) changed the design since Post 88. The top doesn't look like an 80's robot anymore.

[JMKeynes]

Welcome to your new office, Mr. Bezos!

[LMich]

Originally Posted by DZH22

They changed the design slightly. This is a PDF from 1/31/18. For one thing, the top isn't as bad. I am still not a fan, but I guess you can cut my overall vitriol in half from my initial reaction.

According to page 4 it looks like this is going 716'.

http://www.bostonplans.org/getattach...2-ccf47f5b1983

"BCB" apparently stands for "Boston City Base", which is an elevation at low-tide. I can't seem to find exactly what this elevation is, though, suffice it to say, it's a elevation point lower than whatever the average grade is at the site of this tower.

[DZH22]

Originally Posted by LMich

"BCB" apparently stands for "Boston City Base", which is an elevation at low-tide. I can't seem to find exactly what this elevation is, though, suffice it to say, it's a elevation point lower than whatever the average grade is at the site of this tower.

You're right. It looks like it's 691' after all. Here's a new render showing the changed top. More renders are in the PDF you quoted.

115 Fed by site builder, on Flickr

[JMKeynes]

Originally Posted by DZH22

You're right. It looks like it's 691' after all. Here's a new render showing the changed top. More renders are in the PDF you quoted.

115 Fed by site builder, on Flickr

This will be very nice!

[Citylover94]

The last design posted here was rejected by the design commission and a new design was just released by the developer. This is likely the final design of the building.

Originally Posted by datadyne007

The Great Hall is great again!!!

[Urbannizer]

Breaks ground tomorrow.

Winthrop Square tower will proceed after City Council approval

With the Boston City Council’s final vote, the more than decade-long debate over how to develop the former Winthrop Square garage ended last week. Just after the approval vote, developer Millennium Partners announced the Winthrop Square project will break ground on Oct. 24, concluding a dispute that extended through two mayoral administrations and the yearlong demolition of the original structure.

[JMKeynes]

I love Boston. This looks nice.

[Urbannizer]

http://www.bldup.com/projects/115-winthrop-square