Boston's New Hood - The Seaport
The Seaport in Boston is striking because so much of it is new (built in the last 10-15 years), under construction, or not yet developed. It's also prime waterfront land in a historic city extremely close to Downtown and the Airport. Long a desolate stretch of surface parking, the area has transformed into a major growth center, particularly for labs/offices and hospitality uses. It's home to the headquarters for Vertex and Allexion Pharmaceuticals, Reebok, and General Electric, and Amazon and PriceWaterHouseCoopers have large presences here.
The Seaport exists as it is today largely because of several massive infrastructure investments many years ago. The cleanup of Boston Harbor, which started in the late 1980s and cost billions of dollars, helped transform the waterway from “the dirtiest harbor in America” to an asset that nobody can seem to get enough of today. The 'Big Dig' (at a cost of about $21.5 billion) extended Interstate 90 mostly underground through the neighborhood connecting it directly to the airport across the harbor.
Opinions of the Seaport can be extremely divisive. For some, it's "a spectacular achievement of modern urban planning and the centerpiece of Boston’s new waterfront" (
https://www.fanpierboston.com/) while for others it's a soulless playground for the rich (
"A brand new Boston even whiter than the old" - Boston Globe ) that is tone deaf in an era of rising sea levels associated with Climate Change (
"Boston Built a New Waterfront Just in Time for the Apocalypse" ).
The Seaport lies within the flight paths of Logan Airport, so building heights are limited to approximately 15-20 stories. The aerials below, captured by HelloBostonHi of Archboston, give a sense of how dramatically the area has changed in the last 10 years. These photos were taken in 2020-2021 and capture some of the architecture but also a lot of people-watching.
2011
2021
Seaport Boulevard
The Echelon Development
THE HARBORWALK
The waterfront in the Seaport is anchored by the Harborwalk, which provides continuous public access to the water. It is surrounder by several small but heavily utilized parks. The Harborwalk has proven enormously popular with the public.
The Institute of Contemporary Art - when this building opened in 2006, it was surrounded by surface parking on all sides except the water.
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Looking east toward the Atlantic and the Boston Harbor Islands
The Public Green at Fan Pier
Lookout Terrace at Fan Pier
FORT POINT
There is a historic district even in the Seaport. Known as Fort Point, it includes several turn-of-the-century warehouses clustered near the Channel. This area has gentrified significantly as the area around it has grown. Expat captured it well in a photo thread from 2011 -
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=189392
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St Regis building under construction
Fan Pier
Pier 4
Many prime lots have been not been developed yet and are currently used for temporary/pop-up uses --
Streetscapes
The Seaport has a rapid transit service that looks a lot like a subway - headhouses and mostly underground stations - but it's actually a bus service dubbed the 'Silver Line.'
As you head east from the Seaport, the landscape changes to mostly warehouses with mostly seafood or maritime uses, though some new lab buildings have already cropped up. It's pretty clear that the life sciences uses that are dominant in the Seaport now are likely to take over this area pretty soon.
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