Dorchester Reporter
UMass defends dorms at Columbia-Savin Hill
January10, 2008
By Gintautas DumciusReporter Correspondent
In sharp exchanges with some local neighborhood activists, UMass Boston officials defended their plans to build dorms to house some 1,000 on-campus beds in the next ten years as part of the school's overhaul.
"We are a commuter school. We are going to continue to be a commuter school," Ellen O'Connor, the campus's vice chancellor for administration and finance, said to roughly 40 people assembled at Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association's Monday night meeting at the Little House.
The plan for on-campus housing, which will ultimately result in 2,000 beds by the end of the university's 25-year master plan, is coupled with hopes to build three new academic buildings and two 1,000-car parking garages, open up the campus by bringing down the plaza and relocate the university's utilities.
The civic association, which once had a UMass Committee to handle its opposition to dorms, did not take a vote after the brief presentation, saying they needed time to mull it over.
"I commend them for coming out," said Deirdre Habershaw, head of the association, who has voiced opposition to dorms in the past. "But I think I still have the same feelings as before."
Don Walsh, a member of the association, peppered O'Connor with questions, noting that little had changed since the university's first attempt at building dorms nearly four years ago.
Former Chancellor Michael Collins restarted the conversation during his tenure, with aides attempting reach out to community leaders and salve over the wounds inflicted by the previous administration. The current chancellor, Keith Motley, is also pushing for dorms.
Walsh pressed O'Connor, who acknowledged the UMass Board of Trustees had seen the plan, but had not signed off on any specific construction.
She stressed the current master plan is a "living document," subject to change.
"We have looked at what's been done in the past and we know this is a difficult topic," she said of dorms. "I don't have a construction plan on anything here."
O'Connor also said that while the school doesn't have much power in controlling who gets a shot at the construction jobs, having Dorchester residents work is "a reasonable thing for us to support."
Others had concerns over increased traffic. UMass officials hope to revamp the roadways, shifting the current "racetrack" structure deeper inland and creating roads going through the campus.
"Your plan perseveres over our well-being," said Roger Ramie, who also pointed to other development projects on Columbia Point. "That's going to add to [the traffic], too," he said.
O'Connor said the university is working with two agencies, the state's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the city's Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), to ensure traffic doesn't increase. O'Connor said 52 percent of students come by public transportation.
While Mayor Thomas Menino has voiced support for dorms and the overall plan, other local politicians have been more cautious. Some note dorms remain far down the road, with old buildings coming down and new buildings going up a higher priority for the campus.
"I'm going to wait and see what happens," said state Rep. Martin Walsh. "Dorms is a question for another day."
Rep. Walsh also voiced support for one of the new UMass administration officials, Arthur Bernard. Bernard joined UMass Boston as its vice chancellor for government relations and public affairs in November after six months as general counsel to the UMass Building Authority. Bernard is also former chief of staff to Senate President Robert Travaglini, and knows the district and area.
"He does understand all that stuff," Walsh said.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
More on Dorms - 2
Developers of Student Housing Hope Less Ends Up Being More
By Thomas GrilloReporter
In response to strong opposition, the Phoenix Property Co. and Lincoln Property Co. will file revised plans for GrandMarc, a private, $170 million residence hall for students. Banker & Tradesman first reported the story Wednesday on its Web site, www.bankerandtradesman.com. The Texas-based developers proposed a pair of towers, totaling 34 stories and 12 stories, to be built near the YMCA on Huntington Avenue. The complex would have featured 1,140 beds as well as a café, recreation room and lounge on the ground floor.
But neighbors said the multiplex was too big and that the concentration of more than a 1,000 additional students would overwhelm the close-knit neighborhood. Residents said the skyscraper would rise above the Fenway and be out of scale with the neighborhood’s 5- and 6-story walkup apartment buildings. In addition, neighbors worried that GrandMarc, coupled with Northeastern University’s plans to build more than 2,000 dorms nearby, would concentrate too many students in one section of the city.
“We heard the [Boston Redevelopment Authority] and the neighborhood’s concerns, and devised a plan that is significantly less than what we proposed,” said Jason P. Runnels, Phoenix’s executive vice president. “We were happy to build more than 1,000 beds in that location to meet the demand, but the community and BRA said it was way too much.”
In a series of public hearings last spring, the developers faced questions about the number of dorm rooms, security, parking and traffic. In a letter to the developers from the BRA, questions also were raised about how alcohol use and underage drinking would be controlled, whether the dorm would provide police details on weekends, what consequences would result for students who misbehaved and how the building would handle disposal of party-related trash. The developer’s history of selling its properties after a few years also was flagged as a concern.
In response, Runnels said he would reduce the size of the tallest tower to about 24 stories and increase the other building to about 15 stories. He also has hired a security company and promised to resolve questions about how to keep the students and the area safe. While Runnels acknowledged that his company keeps its buildings for seven years before selling them, a development partner, Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investment Trust, typically keeps properties for the long term.
“We can’t promise that the building will never be sold, but we can say that it will be institutionally owned and professional managed like all the other institutional assets in Boston,” Runnels said.
‘Too Many Students’
Jane Hartmann, a member of the Impact Advisory Group, an eight-member panel appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to advise the city on the development, said she has not heard from the developer about the revised plans.
“Aside from the building’s height, many of the concerns centered around governance and security,” she said. “We didn’t like the idea that this is a firm that wants to build something and sell it in five years. The neighborhood has spent two years negotiating with Northeastern University and we already offered to support student housing on two sites. Neighbors are concerned that this new project would put too many students in a small section of the Fenway,”
If approved, GrandMarc would offer a first-of-a-kind private student housing, complete with resident assistants. While colleges and universities typically operate dorms, the project would be novel in Boston, where the for-profit company would lease the one- to four-bedroom units directly to students.
The developers have entered into an agreement to purchase an acre of land from the YMCA, along with the Y building’s Hastings Wing, for an undisclosed price. Under the terms of the deal, the Y would keep about 25,000 square feet of land and maintain the branch. The developers have agreed to incorporate the portion of the Hastings Wing that faces Huntington Avenue into the design. Plans also include a renovated front portion of the building. Phoenix would raze the rear portion of Hastings.
Phoenix has built nearly 8,000 dorm beds on a several campuses nationwide, including the University of Virginia and Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C.
William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said the neighborhood made it clear to the developers last year that the project was too big considering the fact that the firm lacked a track record in Boston.
“There has never been a private dorm developed in the Boston area, as far as I know, and so we told them we couldn’t be comfortable with any kind of a project on this scale as a first project,” he said. “From a residents’ perspective, we are worried about a critical mass of students in East Fenway. We told the developers: ‘If you want to start discussion, you need to talk about a project of about half the size.’ ”
Runnels told Banker &Tradesman that his company is planning a presentation for the city and the neighborhood that would address the request for a smaller building, as well as explain how management and security will be handled.
In a prepared statement, BRA spokeswoman Jessica Shumaker said, “We’re happy to hear that the developers are responding to our concerns and the concerns from the community. Ultimately, the public review process results in a better project, and we look forward to reviewing their new submission with the community soon.”
By Thomas GrilloReporter
In response to strong opposition, the Phoenix Property Co. and Lincoln Property Co. will file revised plans for GrandMarc, a private, $170 million residence hall for students. Banker & Tradesman first reported the story Wednesday on its Web site, www.bankerandtradesman.com. The Texas-based developers proposed a pair of towers, totaling 34 stories and 12 stories, to be built near the YMCA on Huntington Avenue. The complex would have featured 1,140 beds as well as a café, recreation room and lounge on the ground floor.
But neighbors said the multiplex was too big and that the concentration of more than a 1,000 additional students would overwhelm the close-knit neighborhood. Residents said the skyscraper would rise above the Fenway and be out of scale with the neighborhood’s 5- and 6-story walkup apartment buildings. In addition, neighbors worried that GrandMarc, coupled with Northeastern University’s plans to build more than 2,000 dorms nearby, would concentrate too many students in one section of the city.
“We heard the [Boston Redevelopment Authority] and the neighborhood’s concerns, and devised a plan that is significantly less than what we proposed,” said Jason P. Runnels, Phoenix’s executive vice president. “We were happy to build more than 1,000 beds in that location to meet the demand, but the community and BRA said it was way too much.”
In a series of public hearings last spring, the developers faced questions about the number of dorm rooms, security, parking and traffic. In a letter to the developers from the BRA, questions also were raised about how alcohol use and underage drinking would be controlled, whether the dorm would provide police details on weekends, what consequences would result for students who misbehaved and how the building would handle disposal of party-related trash. The developer’s history of selling its properties after a few years also was flagged as a concern.
In response, Runnels said he would reduce the size of the tallest tower to about 24 stories and increase the other building to about 15 stories. He also has hired a security company and promised to resolve questions about how to keep the students and the area safe. While Runnels acknowledged that his company keeps its buildings for seven years before selling them, a development partner, Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investment Trust, typically keeps properties for the long term.
“We can’t promise that the building will never be sold, but we can say that it will be institutionally owned and professional managed like all the other institutional assets in Boston,” Runnels said.
‘Too Many Students’
Jane Hartmann, a member of the Impact Advisory Group, an eight-member panel appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to advise the city on the development, said she has not heard from the developer about the revised plans.
“Aside from the building’s height, many of the concerns centered around governance and security,” she said. “We didn’t like the idea that this is a firm that wants to build something and sell it in five years. The neighborhood has spent two years negotiating with Northeastern University and we already offered to support student housing on two sites. Neighbors are concerned that this new project would put too many students in a small section of the Fenway,”
If approved, GrandMarc would offer a first-of-a-kind private student housing, complete with resident assistants. While colleges and universities typically operate dorms, the project would be novel in Boston, where the for-profit company would lease the one- to four-bedroom units directly to students.
The developers have entered into an agreement to purchase an acre of land from the YMCA, along with the Y building’s Hastings Wing, for an undisclosed price. Under the terms of the deal, the Y would keep about 25,000 square feet of land and maintain the branch. The developers have agreed to incorporate the portion of the Hastings Wing that faces Huntington Avenue into the design. Plans also include a renovated front portion of the building. Phoenix would raze the rear portion of Hastings.
Phoenix has built nearly 8,000 dorm beds on a several campuses nationwide, including the University of Virginia and Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C.
William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said the neighborhood made it clear to the developers last year that the project was too big considering the fact that the firm lacked a track record in Boston.
“There has never been a private dorm developed in the Boston area, as far as I know, and so we told them we couldn’t be comfortable with any kind of a project on this scale as a first project,” he said. “From a residents’ perspective, we are worried about a critical mass of students in East Fenway. We told the developers: ‘If you want to start discussion, you need to talk about a project of about half the size.’ ”
Runnels told Banker &Tradesman that his company is planning a presentation for the city and the neighborhood that would address the request for a smaller building, as well as explain how management and security will be handled.
In a prepared statement, BRA spokeswoman Jessica Shumaker said, “We’re happy to hear that the developers are responding to our concerns and the concerns from the community. Ultimately, the public review process results in a better project, and we look forward to reviewing their new submission with the community soon.”
On Campus Housing vs. Off Campus Housing
Academic sprawl
Boston Globe
January 7, 2008
LIKE OLD dance partners, Boston planners and university officials pride themselves on anticipating each other's next move. And right now the city's higher-education scene is whirling with 2,901 dormitory beds under construction and roughly 2,000 more under review or proposed. Residents of neighborhoods where colleges are expanding are understandably dizzy from all of the activity.
An influx of institutional master plans will soon land on the desks of city planners at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The documents, which colleges are required to file, project development goals from five to 20 years into the future. With city approval for a new science complex in hand, Harvard University is expected to file its long-range plan in the fall for a campus expansion in Allston that could exceed 5 million square feet. Suffolk University, which hungers for dorm space, is expected to deliver its plan this month. BRA officials, who are examining the latest Boston College master plan, are also anticipating an offering from Berklee College of Music.
It's unlikely that these and other colleges will reach deep consensus with neighbors who are wary of disruption from construction, traffic, and student behavior. But at the least, colleges will need to reach a state of detente with neighbors if they hope to see building and occupancy permits from the city.
The city's 36 institutions of higher education are indisputable leaders of the local economy. In 2004, Boston's colleges added $5.4 billion to the state's economy, according to the BRA. Higher ed in Boston directly employs 44,000 people. But that kind of clout can also breed a sense of entitlement.
Whether they mean to be or not, colleges are the most powerful development force in Boston. As Harvard, for instance, pushes forward with its science center in Allston, neighbors worry about Barry's Corner, an area whose fate is almost entirely in the university's hands. For city officials, the greatest challenge is to find the right balance when the needs of universities conflict with those of their neighbors.
Wrangling over dorms
Colleges could fill tomes with their volunteer and community service efforts. But the quality of town-gown relations usually depends upon student behavior.
Loud, late-night parties do not make for good student ambassadors. And families often resent even the best behaved students, because their presence often drives up housing costs, especially in modest neighborhoods such as Allston and Mission Hill. The Boston City Council recently passed a zoning change that would cap at four the number of students who could live in a single apartment.
The Menino administration has pushed consistently for colleges to house their students in residence halls on campus. The policy is succeeding. According to the BRA, about 46,000 undergraduates at private colleges live in Boston, of whom more than 70 percent call a dorm room home. (The agency does not compile data on public colleges, which do not fall under its planning authority.) But while the policy of getting students out of the neighborhoods is sound and clear, the implementation is inconsistent from college to college and neighborhood to neighborhood. "It's an art, not a science," says BRA planner Linda Kowalcky, who specializes in town-gown relations.
Boston College is a case in point. As part of an ambitious 10-year, $1.6 billion master plan, BC is proposing to house 500 students on land formerly owned by the Archdiocese of Boston north of Commonwealth Avenue.
But while BC leads the city in its success at housing undergraduates, its expansion plans are tricky in a way that 1,000 dorm beds proposed for the University of Massachusetts at Boston are not. Located on a peninsula, UMass-Boston is largely isolated from residential areas. But the proposed BC dorms are meeting with stiff resistance from neighbors in the Lake Street area, who want to see the student housing built on the main campus - further from their own homes.
Last week, opponents of the BC plan appeared to pick up an ally in Mayor Menino, who also said he wants to see the new dorms "all on one location" south of Commonwealth Avenue. BC is eager to build new academic centers, an arts district, recreation center, and other keys to a great future. But it must also build political support.
No rules apply
In general, more dorms are the right answer for Boston. College officials are skilled at using resident advisers, alcohol policies, and campus police to control student behavior. But no hard and fast rules for dorm construction apply. Neighbors of Berklee College of Music in the Back Bay, for example, recently resisted a high-rise dormitory proposal at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. But they seem more open to a subsequent plan for two smaller Berklee buildings on a nearby parcel. At BC, however, neighbors would prefer taller dorms, provided they remain set back on the traditional campus. The path of least resistance would seem to be the one that houses students, whenever possible, on the existing campus.
But some universities, like Suffolk, don't have traditional campuses. In 2006, Suffolk officials found themselves at war with the neighborhood when they purchased a building on the edge of Beacon Hill to build a high-rise dorm. The Menino administration initially blessed the project. But it walked away as neighborhood opposition escalated. Happy endings, however, are still possible. Suffolk is now housing students in less thickly settled sections of Downtown Crossing, bringing new energy to the area.
Mayor Menino, meanwhile, is using the colleges' desire to expand as his leverage to increase their civic commitments. He wants colleges to create major initiatives in public education, sports, and job training - initiatives far broader than the limited community programs that universities now offer. "I'm out of the pilot program business," Menino says.
Since Boston has long been a center of higher education, neighborhood residents need to have realistic expectations. But universities in turn need to recognize that their planning decisions don't just affect their students - and that, to neighbors, accommodation means more than a comfortable dorm room.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Boston Globe
January 7, 2008
LIKE OLD dance partners, Boston planners and university officials pride themselves on anticipating each other's next move. And right now the city's higher-education scene is whirling with 2,901 dormitory beds under construction and roughly 2,000 more under review or proposed. Residents of neighborhoods where colleges are expanding are understandably dizzy from all of the activity.
An influx of institutional master plans will soon land on the desks of city planners at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The documents, which colleges are required to file, project development goals from five to 20 years into the future. With city approval for a new science complex in hand, Harvard University is expected to file its long-range plan in the fall for a campus expansion in Allston that could exceed 5 million square feet. Suffolk University, which hungers for dorm space, is expected to deliver its plan this month. BRA officials, who are examining the latest Boston College master plan, are also anticipating an offering from Berklee College of Music.
It's unlikely that these and other colleges will reach deep consensus with neighbors who are wary of disruption from construction, traffic, and student behavior. But at the least, colleges will need to reach a state of detente with neighbors if they hope to see building and occupancy permits from the city.
The city's 36 institutions of higher education are indisputable leaders of the local economy. In 2004, Boston's colleges added $5.4 billion to the state's economy, according to the BRA. Higher ed in Boston directly employs 44,000 people. But that kind of clout can also breed a sense of entitlement.
Whether they mean to be or not, colleges are the most powerful development force in Boston. As Harvard, for instance, pushes forward with its science center in Allston, neighbors worry about Barry's Corner, an area whose fate is almost entirely in the university's hands. For city officials, the greatest challenge is to find the right balance when the needs of universities conflict with those of their neighbors.
Wrangling over dorms
Colleges could fill tomes with their volunteer and community service efforts. But the quality of town-gown relations usually depends upon student behavior.
Loud, late-night parties do not make for good student ambassadors. And families often resent even the best behaved students, because their presence often drives up housing costs, especially in modest neighborhoods such as Allston and Mission Hill. The Boston City Council recently passed a zoning change that would cap at four the number of students who could live in a single apartment.
The Menino administration has pushed consistently for colleges to house their students in residence halls on campus. The policy is succeeding. According to the BRA, about 46,000 undergraduates at private colleges live in Boston, of whom more than 70 percent call a dorm room home. (The agency does not compile data on public colleges, which do not fall under its planning authority.) But while the policy of getting students out of the neighborhoods is sound and clear, the implementation is inconsistent from college to college and neighborhood to neighborhood. "It's an art, not a science," says BRA planner Linda Kowalcky, who specializes in town-gown relations.
Boston College is a case in point. As part of an ambitious 10-year, $1.6 billion master plan, BC is proposing to house 500 students on land formerly owned by the Archdiocese of Boston north of Commonwealth Avenue.
But while BC leads the city in its success at housing undergraduates, its expansion plans are tricky in a way that 1,000 dorm beds proposed for the University of Massachusetts at Boston are not. Located on a peninsula, UMass-Boston is largely isolated from residential areas. But the proposed BC dorms are meeting with stiff resistance from neighbors in the Lake Street area, who want to see the student housing built on the main campus - further from their own homes.
Last week, opponents of the BC plan appeared to pick up an ally in Mayor Menino, who also said he wants to see the new dorms "all on one location" south of Commonwealth Avenue. BC is eager to build new academic centers, an arts district, recreation center, and other keys to a great future. But it must also build political support.
No rules apply
In general, more dorms are the right answer for Boston. College officials are skilled at using resident advisers, alcohol policies, and campus police to control student behavior. But no hard and fast rules for dorm construction apply. Neighbors of Berklee College of Music in the Back Bay, for example, recently resisted a high-rise dormitory proposal at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. But they seem more open to a subsequent plan for two smaller Berklee buildings on a nearby parcel. At BC, however, neighbors would prefer taller dorms, provided they remain set back on the traditional campus. The path of least resistance would seem to be the one that houses students, whenever possible, on the existing campus.
But some universities, like Suffolk, don't have traditional campuses. In 2006, Suffolk officials found themselves at war with the neighborhood when they purchased a building on the edge of Beacon Hill to build a high-rise dorm. The Menino administration initially blessed the project. But it walked away as neighborhood opposition escalated. Happy endings, however, are still possible. Suffolk is now housing students in less thickly settled sections of Downtown Crossing, bringing new energy to the area.
Mayor Menino, meanwhile, is using the colleges' desire to expand as his leverage to increase their civic commitments. He wants colleges to create major initiatives in public education, sports, and job training - initiatives far broader than the limited community programs that universities now offer. "I'm out of the pilot program business," Menino says.
Since Boston has long been a center of higher education, neighborhood residents need to have realistic expectations. But universities in turn need to recognize that their planning decisions don't just affect their students - and that, to neighbors, accommodation means more than a comfortable dorm room.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
Going green=tall buildings!
Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Tall Order
Boston Globe
Tom Keane
January 6, 2008
PERSPECTIVE
If Boston is serious about going green, it needs to join other major cities and embrace the skyscraper.
Sixteen Boston buildings rise 500 feet or more above the city. These are our skyscrapers - a respectable number, but we haven't been keeping pace. All but three were built in the 1980s or earlier. The tallest, the John Hancock, no longer impresses; it now ranks just 46th in the country. Meanwhile, the destruction of the World Trade Center notwithstanding, other cities race ahead. San Francisco has 14 skyscrapers either approved or in planning. New York has 39, Chicago has 30, and Toronto (Toronto!) 19.
Boston is looking to build - maybe - two. That's right: two.
Carol Willis, executive director of the Skyscraper Museum in (where else?) New York, theorizes that skyscrapers are potentially about three things: sex, power, and money. I think this a profound observation until it occurs to me that pretty much everything is about sex, power, and money. Still, stay with her formulation and one can begin to understand why we lag. A lot of us New Englanders are embarrassed about sex, don't like to brag about power, and cringe at ostentatious displays of wealth. Add to that our never-ending love affair with five-story 19th-century town houses and brownstones and a near pathological fear about the "Manhattanization" of Boston (all a consequence, argues Northeastern architecture dean George Thrush, of the way we have made a fetish of our Colonial origins), and one can begin to understand why Boston is so averse to making its skyline bigger and taller. I know. It sounds as if I have some sort of edifice complex myself. Boston's beauty is its small scale, its human-sized buildings. Real cities don't have to have skyscrapers, do they?
Yes, they do. It's not that I don't like those cute town houses - I live in one. But density is what cities are all about, skyscrapers are the ultimate form of density, and - here's the kicker - they are flat-out the greenest way to build. If we care about Boston, if we care about the environment, we should build up and build tall. A skyline is nothing to be ashamed of. Indeed, it may save us all.
Smirking analogies aside, skyscrapers aren't really about sex or power, says the museum's Willis. What they are about is money. The first skyscrapers were built because they were an extraordinarily efficient way to add square footage to a parcel of land. When land is expensive, it is far cheaper to build upward. The taller you go (at least until you hit 80 stories), the less the cost per square foot.
Yet today, the most compelling argument for skyscrapers is ecological. Newer skyscrapers are being designed in ways that dramatically minimize their impact on the environment, allowing them to achieve the highest rank possible ("platinum") under the LEED Green Building rating system. Water and heat are recycled. Solar panels reduce the need for outside energy. The entire life cycle of the building is managed, from construction to obsolescence, with some of the original materials getting reused to build other structures. This is all possible because of the building's size, which makes it economically feasible to do things that in a smaller structure would be far too costly.
But even if a skyscraper isn't LEED certified, it is the way the building is used that makes it so profoundly green. When people are packed together, the services needed to support those people are easier and cheaper to provide. Less travel is required. Everything can be provided in bulk. That's why, as David Owen argued in a seminal New Yorker piece in 2004, Manhattan on a per-capita basis may well be the most energy-efficient place in the country. The reason largely boils down to the fact that it is also the densest.
Building tall is building smart. Yet here in Boston, we're unmoved. Catcalls greeted Mayor Tom Menino's push to build a 1,000-foot tower at 115 Winthrop Square. Scorned for its hubris, it was mockingly dubbed "Tommy's Tower," making for an amusing but wrongheaded cheap shot. The very thing that makes cities vital - the proximity of everyone and everything - is what skyscrapers do best. In a world where environmental issues loom ever larger, "the heart of the question is how we build sustainably," says Diane Georgopulos, president-elect of the Boston Society of Architects. Skyscrapers are the answer.
Plus, they do look cool.
Tom Keane, a Boston-based freelance writer, contributes regularly to the Globe Magazine. E-mail him at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.
©
Tall Order
Boston Globe
Tom Keane
January 6, 2008
PERSPECTIVE
If Boston is serious about going green, it needs to join other major cities and embrace the skyscraper.
Sixteen Boston buildings rise 500 feet or more above the city. These are our skyscrapers - a respectable number, but we haven't been keeping pace. All but three were built in the 1980s or earlier. The tallest, the John Hancock, no longer impresses; it now ranks just 46th in the country. Meanwhile, the destruction of the World Trade Center notwithstanding, other cities race ahead. San Francisco has 14 skyscrapers either approved or in planning. New York has 39, Chicago has 30, and Toronto (Toronto!) 19.
Boston is looking to build - maybe - two. That's right: two.
Carol Willis, executive director of the Skyscraper Museum in (where else?) New York, theorizes that skyscrapers are potentially about three things: sex, power, and money. I think this a profound observation until it occurs to me that pretty much everything is about sex, power, and money. Still, stay with her formulation and one can begin to understand why we lag. A lot of us New Englanders are embarrassed about sex, don't like to brag about power, and cringe at ostentatious displays of wealth. Add to that our never-ending love affair with five-story 19th-century town houses and brownstones and a near pathological fear about the "Manhattanization" of Boston (all a consequence, argues Northeastern architecture dean George Thrush, of the way we have made a fetish of our Colonial origins), and one can begin to understand why Boston is so averse to making its skyline bigger and taller. I know. It sounds as if I have some sort of edifice complex myself. Boston's beauty is its small scale, its human-sized buildings. Real cities don't have to have skyscrapers, do they?
Yes, they do. It's not that I don't like those cute town houses - I live in one. But density is what cities are all about, skyscrapers are the ultimate form of density, and - here's the kicker - they are flat-out the greenest way to build. If we care about Boston, if we care about the environment, we should build up and build tall. A skyline is nothing to be ashamed of. Indeed, it may save us all.
Smirking analogies aside, skyscrapers aren't really about sex or power, says the museum's Willis. What they are about is money. The first skyscrapers were built because they were an extraordinarily efficient way to add square footage to a parcel of land. When land is expensive, it is far cheaper to build upward. The taller you go (at least until you hit 80 stories), the less the cost per square foot.
Yet today, the most compelling argument for skyscrapers is ecological. Newer skyscrapers are being designed in ways that dramatically minimize their impact on the environment, allowing them to achieve the highest rank possible ("platinum") under the LEED Green Building rating system. Water and heat are recycled. Solar panels reduce the need for outside energy. The entire life cycle of the building is managed, from construction to obsolescence, with some of the original materials getting reused to build other structures. This is all possible because of the building's size, which makes it economically feasible to do things that in a smaller structure would be far too costly.
But even if a skyscraper isn't LEED certified, it is the way the building is used that makes it so profoundly green. When people are packed together, the services needed to support those people are easier and cheaper to provide. Less travel is required. Everything can be provided in bulk. That's why, as David Owen argued in a seminal New Yorker piece in 2004, Manhattan on a per-capita basis may well be the most energy-efficient place in the country. The reason largely boils down to the fact that it is also the densest.
Building tall is building smart. Yet here in Boston, we're unmoved. Catcalls greeted Mayor Tom Menino's push to build a 1,000-foot tower at 115 Winthrop Square. Scorned for its hubris, it was mockingly dubbed "Tommy's Tower," making for an amusing but wrongheaded cheap shot. The very thing that makes cities vital - the proximity of everyone and everything - is what skyscrapers do best. In a world where environmental issues loom ever larger, "the heart of the question is how we build sustainably," says Diane Georgopulos, president-elect of the Boston Society of Architects. Skyscrapers are the answer.
Plus, they do look cool.
Tom Keane, a Boston-based freelance writer, contributes regularly to the Globe Magazine. E-mail him at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.
©
Friday, January 4, 2008
Complaints About 9-stories Too?
Banker & Tradesman
BRA Gets Chance to Consider Druker’s Plan for Shreve SiteBy Thomas GrilloReporter
As Back Bay residents battle construction of a pair of towers at the Prudential Center, a developer has filed plans to replace a former jewelry store overlooking the Boston Public Garden with a 9-story building.
Ronald Druker, president of The Druker Co., hopes to build a 221,230-square-foot building at Boylston and Arlington streets. If approved, it would include eight floors of Class A offices, 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 6,000-square-foot health spa and below-grade parking. Banker & Tradesman was the first to report the proposal last fall.
According to a filing with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city planning agency that must approve the mixed-use development, Druker would raze the former Shreve Crump & Low building at 330 Boylston St. and three other structures – his company owns all four – to make way for the new block.
“The project will improve retail vitality and provide first-class office space in a highly visible and accessible location,” states the document filed with the BRA. “The area will be enhanced by the urban design and architectural character provided by a new signature building designed by world-class architects who are sensitive to its architectural neighbors, including the Arlington Street Church and the Public Garden.”
In addition, the project summary said the building’s proposed design will “capitalize” on the unique site. “A corner location provides a unique opportunity … With diagonal views and frontage on the Public Garden is a singular opportunity that the design addresses by placing a unique, rounded glazed bay, which emphasizes and reinforces the importance of this prime location,” the document states.
The ground level will feature a granite facade with wooden storefronts and a lobby entry. Sidewalk improvements along Boylston Street will be consistent with the city’s standards for the neighborhood, the document said. The new development is expected to generate $1.8 million in annual property taxes and $1.1 million in linkage funds to the city.
The BRA has established an Impact Advisory Group to review the proposal. The 13-member panel appointed by officials will consider mitigation impacts caused by the development. A public meeting on the plan is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Boston Public Library.
Mark Slater, an IAG member, said he was not impressed by the rendering of the proposed building. “It looks like a rectangular brick building and I have no idea whether the project has
merit or not,” he said. Slater, a former president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, said he also is concerned about the construction of another large building on Boylston Street.
“We are worried that the BRA is effectively allowing the larger boulevards in Boston to be turned into concrete canyons,” he said. “I worry that’s what the Druker building will do to lower Boylston Street. I am not opposed to new construction and I realize that some will have to be tall. But the scale and intimacy in Boston are being thrown out the window for the sake of real estate taxes.”
Jessica Shumaker, a BRA spokeswoman, declined to answer Slater’s charges. Instead she said, “We look forward to meeting with the community and hearing their thoughts and concerns on the project.”
‘A Real Plus’
John Shope, another IAG member, noted that the former jewelry store is vacant and he favors active retail on the ground floor at the site.
“This will be a prominent building in a prominent location,” he said. “I like the idea of having an attractive building with lots of people coming and going, and lots of retail. It could be a real plus for the city.”
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he likes what he’s seen so far, but like any project it will require community review.
“It has a ways to go before the BRA approves it, but it certainly looks like something that will meet the muster of the neighborhoods,” Menino said.
Druker’s Boston-based real estate company is best known for its large, urban mixed-use developments. One of its most recent projects is Atelier505, a mixed-use development adjacent to the Boston Center for the Arts, at Tremont and Berkeley streets. It opened two years ago with 103 units of luxury condominiums, shops and restaurants.
In addition, the company has completed the Heritage on the Garden, an upscale complex on Boylston Street that features residential, retail and office suites across from the Public Garden. In 1971, the firm built the Colonnade Hotel on Huntington Avenue.
Druker’s proposal comes as several projects are in the works for the Back Bay and the Prudential Center. The Clarendon, a luxury condominium and apartment tower, is under construction near the John Hancock Tower. In addition, the 13-story Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel is scheduled to open this summer next to Lord & Taylor on Boylston Street. The $230 million project will add 168 guestrooms and the property will be part of a mixed-use complex with first-floor retail and condominiums on the upper floors.
Another proposal that has not yet been filed with the BRA is a new tower at Copley Place. The Simon Property Group is considering a mix of condominiums and retail uses in front of the Neiman Marcus store at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets. At the other end of the Back Bay, Berklee College of Music is considering plans for a dormitory.
Earlier this year, Boston Properties and Avalon Bay Communities filed plans for a $192 million proposal that calls for a 35-story residential high-rise on Exeter Street across from the Boston Public Library and construction of a 19-story office building at 888 Boylston St., adjacent to the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention. The plan has faced fierce opposition from neighbors who say the buildings are out of scale in the historic neighborhood.
BRA Gets Chance to Consider Druker’s Plan for Shreve SiteBy Thomas GrilloReporter
As Back Bay residents battle construction of a pair of towers at the Prudential Center, a developer has filed plans to replace a former jewelry store overlooking the Boston Public Garden with a 9-story building.
Ronald Druker, president of The Druker Co., hopes to build a 221,230-square-foot building at Boylston and Arlington streets. If approved, it would include eight floors of Class A offices, 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 6,000-square-foot health spa and below-grade parking. Banker & Tradesman was the first to report the proposal last fall.
According to a filing with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city planning agency that must approve the mixed-use development, Druker would raze the former Shreve Crump & Low building at 330 Boylston St. and three other structures – his company owns all four – to make way for the new block.
“The project will improve retail vitality and provide first-class office space in a highly visible and accessible location,” states the document filed with the BRA. “The area will be enhanced by the urban design and architectural character provided by a new signature building designed by world-class architects who are sensitive to its architectural neighbors, including the Arlington Street Church and the Public Garden.”
In addition, the project summary said the building’s proposed design will “capitalize” on the unique site. “A corner location provides a unique opportunity … With diagonal views and frontage on the Public Garden is a singular opportunity that the design addresses by placing a unique, rounded glazed bay, which emphasizes and reinforces the importance of this prime location,” the document states.
The ground level will feature a granite facade with wooden storefronts and a lobby entry. Sidewalk improvements along Boylston Street will be consistent with the city’s standards for the neighborhood, the document said. The new development is expected to generate $1.8 million in annual property taxes and $1.1 million in linkage funds to the city.
The BRA has established an Impact Advisory Group to review the proposal. The 13-member panel appointed by officials will consider mitigation impacts caused by the development. A public meeting on the plan is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Boston Public Library.
Mark Slater, an IAG member, said he was not impressed by the rendering of the proposed building. “It looks like a rectangular brick building and I have no idea whether the project has
merit or not,” he said. Slater, a former president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, said he also is concerned about the construction of another large building on Boylston Street.
“We are worried that the BRA is effectively allowing the larger boulevards in Boston to be turned into concrete canyons,” he said. “I worry that’s what the Druker building will do to lower Boylston Street. I am not opposed to new construction and I realize that some will have to be tall. But the scale and intimacy in Boston are being thrown out the window for the sake of real estate taxes.”
Jessica Shumaker, a BRA spokeswoman, declined to answer Slater’s charges. Instead she said, “We look forward to meeting with the community and hearing their thoughts and concerns on the project.”
‘A Real Plus’
John Shope, another IAG member, noted that the former jewelry store is vacant and he favors active retail on the ground floor at the site.
“This will be a prominent building in a prominent location,” he said. “I like the idea of having an attractive building with lots of people coming and going, and lots of retail. It could be a real plus for the city.”
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he likes what he’s seen so far, but like any project it will require community review.
“It has a ways to go before the BRA approves it, but it certainly looks like something that will meet the muster of the neighborhoods,” Menino said.
Druker’s Boston-based real estate company is best known for its large, urban mixed-use developments. One of its most recent projects is Atelier505, a mixed-use development adjacent to the Boston Center for the Arts, at Tremont and Berkeley streets. It opened two years ago with 103 units of luxury condominiums, shops and restaurants.
In addition, the company has completed the Heritage on the Garden, an upscale complex on Boylston Street that features residential, retail and office suites across from the Public Garden. In 1971, the firm built the Colonnade Hotel on Huntington Avenue.
Druker’s proposal comes as several projects are in the works for the Back Bay and the Prudential Center. The Clarendon, a luxury condominium and apartment tower, is under construction near the John Hancock Tower. In addition, the 13-story Mandarin Oriental Boston hotel is scheduled to open this summer next to Lord & Taylor on Boylston Street. The $230 million project will add 168 guestrooms and the property will be part of a mixed-use complex with first-floor retail and condominiums on the upper floors.
Another proposal that has not yet been filed with the BRA is a new tower at Copley Place. The Simon Property Group is considering a mix of condominiums and retail uses in front of the Neiman Marcus store at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets. At the other end of the Back Bay, Berklee College of Music is considering plans for a dormitory.
Earlier this year, Boston Properties and Avalon Bay Communities filed plans for a $192 million proposal that calls for a 35-story residential high-rise on Exeter Street across from the Boston Public Library and construction of a 19-story office building at 888 Boylston St., adjacent to the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention. The plan has faced fierce opposition from neighbors who say the buildings are out of scale in the historic neighborhood.
More on Dorms
Banker & Tradesman
Developers Scale Back Fenway Dorm Plan
By Thomas GrilloReporter
Developers of a dormitory in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood will downsize their proposed 34-story tower by 10 floors to win neighborhood approval, Banker & Tradesman has learned.
In response to community opposition, the Phoenix Property Co. and Lincoln Property Co. expect to file revised plans next month with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for GrandMarc. The private, $170 million residence hall will offer about 800 beds for students to be built near the YMCA on Huntington Avenue.
The project would be the first of its kind in Boston, where dorms typically are operated by colleges and universities. In the case of GrandMarc, the company would lease the one- to four-bedroom units directly to students. But the firm is willing to consider a provision that would guarantee a certain number of beds to schools based in the Fenway.
“We heard the [Boston Redevelopment Authority] and the neighborhood’s concerns and devised a plan that is significantly less than what we proposed,” Jason P. Runnels, Phoenix’s executive vice president, told B&T on Wednesday. “We were happy to build more than 1,000 beds in that location to meet the demand, but the community and BRA said it was way too much for the neighborhood and we heard them.”
Last year, the pair of Dallas-based real estate developers proposed a building that would have reached 34 stories in one section and 12 stories in another. The original plan would have included 1,140 beds as well as a cafe, recreation room and lounge on the ground floor.
But neighbors said the complex was too big and the concentration of more than a 1,000 students would overwhelm the neighborhood. Residents argued the skyscraper would be the largest building in the Fenway and would not fit the scale of the other properties. In addition, neighbors worried that GrandMarc, coupled with Northeastern University’s plans to build more than 3,000 units of student housing, would concentrate too many students in the area.
Questions were also raised about how alcohol use and underage drinking would be controlled, whether the dorm would provide police details on weekends, what consequences would result for students who misbehave and how the building will handle disposal of party-related trash. The developer’s history of selling its properties after a few years also was flagged as a concern.
In response, Runnels said he will reduce the size of the tallest tower to about 24 stories and increase the other section of the building to about 15 stories. He also has hired a local company and a consulting firm that will help resolve security questions. In addition, while Runnels acknowledged that his company holds its buildings for about seven years, he said Phoenix has a partner, Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investment Trust, which typically keeps properties for the long-term.
Jane Hartmann, a member of the Impact Advisory Group, an eight-member panel appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to advise the city on the development, said she has not heard from the developer about the revised plans.
“We haven’t received any notice for a redesign,” she said. “But many of the concerns are around the governance and the security and we didn’t like the idea that this is a firm that wants to build something and sell it in five years. The neighborhood has spent two years negotiating with Northeastern University and we already have said we will support student housing on two sites, so neighbors are concerned that this new project would put too many students in a small section of the Fenway.”
In a prepared statement, Jessica Shumaker, a spokeswoman for the BRA, said, “We’re happy to hear that the developers are responding to our concerns and the concerns from the community. Ultimately, the public review process results in a better project, and we look forward to reviewing their new submission with the community soon.”
Developers Scale Back Fenway Dorm Plan
By Thomas GrilloReporter
Developers of a dormitory in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood will downsize their proposed 34-story tower by 10 floors to win neighborhood approval, Banker & Tradesman has learned.
In response to community opposition, the Phoenix Property Co. and Lincoln Property Co. expect to file revised plans next month with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for GrandMarc. The private, $170 million residence hall will offer about 800 beds for students to be built near the YMCA on Huntington Avenue.
The project would be the first of its kind in Boston, where dorms typically are operated by colleges and universities. In the case of GrandMarc, the company would lease the one- to four-bedroom units directly to students. But the firm is willing to consider a provision that would guarantee a certain number of beds to schools based in the Fenway.
“We heard the [Boston Redevelopment Authority] and the neighborhood’s concerns and devised a plan that is significantly less than what we proposed,” Jason P. Runnels, Phoenix’s executive vice president, told B&T on Wednesday. “We were happy to build more than 1,000 beds in that location to meet the demand, but the community and BRA said it was way too much for the neighborhood and we heard them.”
Last year, the pair of Dallas-based real estate developers proposed a building that would have reached 34 stories in one section and 12 stories in another. The original plan would have included 1,140 beds as well as a cafe, recreation room and lounge on the ground floor.
But neighbors said the complex was too big and the concentration of more than a 1,000 students would overwhelm the neighborhood. Residents argued the skyscraper would be the largest building in the Fenway and would not fit the scale of the other properties. In addition, neighbors worried that GrandMarc, coupled with Northeastern University’s plans to build more than 3,000 units of student housing, would concentrate too many students in the area.
Questions were also raised about how alcohol use and underage drinking would be controlled, whether the dorm would provide police details on weekends, what consequences would result for students who misbehave and how the building will handle disposal of party-related trash. The developer’s history of selling its properties after a few years also was flagged as a concern.
In response, Runnels said he will reduce the size of the tallest tower to about 24 stories and increase the other section of the building to about 15 stories. He also has hired a local company and a consulting firm that will help resolve security questions. In addition, while Runnels acknowledged that his company holds its buildings for about seven years, he said Phoenix has a partner, Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investment Trust, which typically keeps properties for the long-term.
Jane Hartmann, a member of the Impact Advisory Group, an eight-member panel appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to advise the city on the development, said she has not heard from the developer about the revised plans.
“We haven’t received any notice for a redesign,” she said. “But many of the concerns are around the governance and the security and we didn’t like the idea that this is a firm that wants to build something and sell it in five years. The neighborhood has spent two years negotiating with Northeastern University and we already have said we will support student housing on two sites, so neighbors are concerned that this new project would put too many students in a small section of the Fenway.”
In a prepared statement, Jessica Shumaker, a spokeswoman for the BRA, said, “We’re happy to hear that the developers are responding to our concerns and the concerns from the community. Ultimately, the public review process results in a better project, and we look forward to reviewing their new submission with the community soon.”
Dorms vs. Apartments: The Herald Gets it Right!
Hub can’t afford to be Lease Police
By Boston Herald editorial staff Friday, January 4, 2008
City Councilor Michael Ross’ plan to regulate how many students can share an apartment in Boston is a classic case of treating the symptom instead of the underlying disease.
Ross wants to cap the number of students who can rent a single apartment in the Hub, part of an effort to crack down on unruly behavior as well as unscrupulous landlords who exploit students. But his time might be better spent reasoning with neighbors who scream bloody murder when a local college or university proposes plans for a new residence hall.
Yes, we understand the frustration of many of Ross’ constituents. But frankly, it doesn’t much matter whether there are two or 20 students living somewhere - real problems arise when 200 arrive for the big bash. Regulating the number of names on a lease will do nothing to address that.
And while it’s hardly our first instinct to leap to the defense of students’ civil rights (they have the ACLU for that) we have to wonder whether Ross would be so heavy-handed with non-students who pack apartments to share expenses. Room and board is costly (as is city living) and many students and non-students alike save by bunching up.
Make no mistake - we sympathize with the hard-working city residents who grow weary of beer cans piling up on their doorsteps and having to report loud parties at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday.
But we grow equally weary of residents like those in Brighton who are lining up against Boston College and its plans to build a new residence hall on the self-contained grounds of the former Boston archdiocese - or the folks on Beacon Hill who forced Suffolk University to abandon plans for a new high-rise dorm near its main campus.
There will always be town-gown tensions, particularly in a city as densely populated as Boston. But the solution is to encourage more schools to bring their students back onto campus where they can keep an eye on them - not in mobilizing the Lease Police.
By Boston Herald editorial staff Friday, January 4, 2008
City Councilor Michael Ross’ plan to regulate how many students can share an apartment in Boston is a classic case of treating the symptom instead of the underlying disease.
Ross wants to cap the number of students who can rent a single apartment in the Hub, part of an effort to crack down on unruly behavior as well as unscrupulous landlords who exploit students. But his time might be better spent reasoning with neighbors who scream bloody murder when a local college or university proposes plans for a new residence hall.
Yes, we understand the frustration of many of Ross’ constituents. But frankly, it doesn’t much matter whether there are two or 20 students living somewhere - real problems arise when 200 arrive for the big bash. Regulating the number of names on a lease will do nothing to address that.
And while it’s hardly our first instinct to leap to the defense of students’ civil rights (they have the ACLU for that) we have to wonder whether Ross would be so heavy-handed with non-students who pack apartments to share expenses. Room and board is costly (as is city living) and many students and non-students alike save by bunching up.
Make no mistake - we sympathize with the hard-working city residents who grow weary of beer cans piling up on their doorsteps and having to report loud parties at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday.
But we grow equally weary of residents like those in Brighton who are lining up against Boston College and its plans to build a new residence hall on the self-contained grounds of the former Boston archdiocese - or the folks on Beacon Hill who forced Suffolk University to abandon plans for a new high-rise dorm near its main campus.
There will always be town-gown tensions, particularly in a city as densely populated as Boston. But the solution is to encourage more schools to bring their students back onto campus where they can keep an eye on them - not in mobilizing the Lease Police.
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