North Station Tower

[LeTaureau]

ame plan for Garden site

By Scott Van Voorhis

Thursday, April 7, 2005 - Updated: 04:07 AM EST

An ambitious and long-delayed plan to redevelop the vacant lots that surround the Celtics and Bruins North Station home is poised to take a major stride forward today.

City Hall's development arm is expected to give the green light to a proposed 37-story condo and apartment tower on a site near the newly renamed TD BankNorth Garden.

The tower will soar more than 400 feet into the Hub's skyline, featuring a mix of upscale condos and rentals.

With that key city approval in hand, BankNorth Garden owner Delaware North hopes to begin work on the residential tower by early next year, if not sooner, said arena executive Charlie Jacobs.

But that's just for starters.

With plans for the residential tower moving forward, Jacobs - whose family owns Delaware North - said new attention will be paid to long-dormant plans to build out a large site near the arena that was once home to the old Boston Garden.

While that rickety sports hall was demolished a decade ago, efforts to develop the site have languished.

But Jacobs said he expects planning for that project to accelerate now. A plan laid out years ago calls for two towers in the 40-story range, filled with offices, entertainment and retail uses.

He declined to comment extensively, citing today's pending city decision on his project.

But Jacobs acknowledged that the timing may be right for new development, given the changes that are helping transform the area near his family's sports complex.

A series of parks are slated to take shape near the North Station sports complex on land freed up by demolition of the old Central Artery.

In addition, the elevated rail tracks that for years darkened the street in front of the sports arena have been torn down.

``It is very attractive, especially for us,'' Jacobs said of the changes.

Still, any plan to build a large amount of office space will hardly be a slam dunk.

Even as the economy has rebounded, corporate suites in towers across downtown Boston sit empty, with the city's office-vacancy rate hovering near 20 percent. [continue]

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessN...articleid=76913

Finally some good news for Boston... though I think the building could be much higher, its in the perfect spot for a showcase building, right in front of I-93. Also, the design seems rather insipid, juding from images posted on other forums.

[ezcheese]

This looks like an interesting project.

[Benhamin]

The rendering of the new tower is pretty ugly, imo. This was taken off the boards at the archboston forums:

Very disappointing, considering this was the original propsal for the site:

[BostonFaker]

I'd say.

[LeTaureau]

I agree. The new design is boring, and its hard to tell how large the building is going to be. It might just be the angle, or that its a bad rendering, but its difficult to get a sense of the overall footprint. I'll wait until better renderings are released to form my final opinion on this, but as of now, the design is dissappointing. BTW, I thought all new high rise buildings in Boston were not allowed to have flat roofs, by decree of Lord Mayor Menino?

I'd much prefer the original designs, even though they make me laugh. A little cartoonish, but they would be interesting in that area..

[paperback]

you can kinda get an estimated feel for the size... there are cars at the foot of the building in that rendering

[pdxstreetcar]

That little 3-4 story brick building standing all alone isnt on that site, is it?

[BostonFaker]

That little 3-4 story brick building standing all alone isnt on that site, is it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Old State House? Nope.

[Cotuit]

That little 3-4 story brick building standing all alone isnt on that site, is it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The lone tenement? No.

[pdxstreetcar]

The lone tenement is what I was refering to. Its gotta stay considering it survived multiple demolition threats from all directions.

[Cotuit]

Expansion to double size of North Station by November. Owners of Garden will foot the bill. [Boston.com]