Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

[datadyne007]

Replacing the shitty brick plaza with a smooth marble-floored mallway /winter garden works against accessibility?? Huh? These people make no sense.

Wait a sec this is in the wrong thread...

[MBTAddict]

This is absurd. How can you just completely ignore factual evidence? The only time there will be more shade is the winter. Who is sitting in the park when it's 15 degrees outside?

[HenryAlan]

Hey, the person who wrote that letter went to Copley Square and hung out for a bit observing shade patterns. Clearly he's an expert, pay no attention to the official scientific studies.

[dirtywater]

Originally Posted by RobKSU

You may or may not know that tomorrow we will have a hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals to allow the project to be designated as a Planned Development Area and to accept the approved Draft Project Impact Report as the basis for the new Zoning parameters.

Thanks for joining the discussion and congratulations on a great project. Just for clarification, today's hearing is before the Boston Zoning Commission, not the Board of Appeal. PDAs require the approval of the BRA and the BZC; Board of Appeal approval is not required.

P.S. - Good luck today. Given when I am posting this, hopefully you have received or are about to receive approval for this project.

[whighlander]

Originally Posted by HenryAlan

Hey, the person who wrote that letter went to Copley Square and hung out for a bit observing shade patterns. Clearly he's an expert, pay no attention to the official scientific studies.

Henry -- today is the perfect day --if you do your measurements == No sun at all in Copley Sq. and the tower isn't even built

I presume that there wpuld be negative hours of sun today if the tower was already standing -- sucking the light out of Copley Sq.

And of course 6 months from now when the sun is at an elevation of 71.5 degrees at noon -- the shadow extends a biit over 200 feet from the base of a 600 foot tower (due south of Copley Sq.)

I aso like the bit about the bricks near Copley Place and Simon and the ADA -- where is the meeting being held -- City Hall situated in the midst of the Vast Brick Desert of Government Center wth the bricks flowing insiide the building

[JohnAKeith]

Whoops. I made the same mistake - LOL!

I didn't go to the ZBA meeting because I didn't think I"d have the patience.

Re: the brick. When a resident of Tent City (who uses a wheelchair) mentioned its atrocious condition at the BRA meeting, in my head I went "Whoops, he's got them there." From memory, I thought it was in bad shape.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I was next walking through there (I often do) and saw that the vast majority of brick surface is very flat, certainly more so than just about any sidewalk in the South End.

So, he made it up. And, they continue to float this imaginary problem.

Even if it's not in tip-top shape, a couple days later I saw a crew working on the sidewalk in front of Neiman Marcus, so they were taking the criticism seriously, apparently.

[Shepard]

What happened at the meeting today?

[Mike]

It was approved.

http://backbay.patch.com/articles/co...y-zoning-board

[datadyne007]

There is a god!

[palindrome]

sooooo.....groundbreaking date, or anymore approvals needed?

[MBTAddict]

I'm willing to donate my labor to get this going as soon as possible. I figure if everyone on this board who supports the project chipped in, we could get this built before the New Year.

[RobKSU]

Thank you for the warm welcome, as noted by Mike and released online in the Back Bay Patch, the Copley PDA received a unanimous vote of approval from the Zoning Commission this afternoon. This is the final major milestone in the entitlements process and if all goes well we should have our building permits to break ground in the fall of 2012.


http://backbay.patch.com/articles/co...y-zoning-board

[tmac9wr]

Wow. I never, ever, ever would have thought this would be approved.

Something tells me the NIMBYs are going to pull out all stops to do what they can to delay this.

[BostonUrbEx]

Welcome, Rob. Your presence here is much appreciated I'm sure.



And congratulations on the approval. I, for one, am ecstatic that this went through. I really can't wait for this go into construction!

[statler]

Rob,

Has this already been through the value-engineering process? Do you expect the building to change much from the current rendering?

[stellarfun]

Originally Posted by tmac9wr

Wow. I never, ever, ever would have thought this would be approved.

Something tells me the NIMBYs are going to pull out all stops to do what they can to delay this.

They have weak arguments, and I doubt they have the financial means to engage in what would be expensive litigation, and which would most likely ultimately fail.

And with Simon giving substantial sums of money to the Public Garden and Copley Square non-profits, that likely means they won't join in.

Ken Kruckemeyer, quoted in the Patch article, takes some/much of the credit for creating Tent City.

[RobKSU]

The Back Bay Patch got the Public Garden part wrong, Simon is donating up to $1M for public art, not to the Public Garden. We are now rebuilding the park area from Dartmouth Street to Harcourt Street. The intent is to make this park along with the addition of the art installation a significant public space that celebrates the gateway entry to the Southwest Corridor Park.

As for the VE process, we will start the construction documents phase next but we have already developed several clever details to ensure the construction and cost of the curvalinear tower is efficient. The majority of the curves in the tower are based on the same radius with different arc lengths so that the rolling process is consistant. The linear perimeter of each floor is equally divisible by 5' so that we can use standard unitized window units all the way up the tower and maintain a consistant look. Of course we are still at the very early stages of design development but the goal is to produce a world class building.

[stellarfun]

RobKSU, thanks for the good news.

I thought there was at least one typo in the Patch report, when one 'donation' was given as $250.

[statler]

Thanks Rob.

I also want to invite you to stick around after this gets fully approved and U/C to give some insights/answer questions as to what we are seeing as it goes up.

Also, if you would like/have time, you are welcome to poke around the board and give some inside-the-beltway type info on other projects going up in the city.

[tmac9wr]

Originally Posted by stellarfun

They have weak arguments, and I doubt they have the financial means to engage in what would be expensive litigation, and which would most likely ultimately fail.

And with Simon giving substantial sums of money to the Public Garden and Copley Square non-profits, that likely means they won't join in.

Ken Kruckemeyer, quoted in the Patch article, takes some/much of the credit for creating Tent City.

Solid points. I guess I'm just waiting for the "gotcha!" moment. This is a tall, beautiful building trying to be built in Boston, after all. Who would have thought there would be a chance of it actually being built? I wonder how the next NIMBY meeting is going to go...

Leader Nimby: Well everyone, in regards to the Neiman Marcus tower...it appears they've decided to approve the project

Nimby1: Hey all right! Another one in the books! Three cheers! Hip-hip-hoor---wait, WHAT?!

LN: Yea, I, uhhh...I guess they didn't find what we said credible enough to warrant delaying or canceling the project.

N1: Sweet mother of shadows...well, what kind of height reduction did we get?

LN: Ummm....uhhh...hmmmm....*uncomfortably clears throat* zero stories

N1: Still seems pretty tall, but I guess zero stories is better than the 40-something they were talking about before.

LN: No, the reduction is zero. The building is still 626 ft and 47 stories tall.

N1: *instantly goes catatonic*

Nimby2: *leaping out of seat* B-b-b-but the shadows! The solar glare! The possibility of the curved glass catching the wind just right and creating a tornado?! WHAT ABOUT DUCKS FLYING INTO THE GLASS! EVERYONE KNOWS DUCKS CAN'T SEE CURVES AND NOW ALL THESE WALL STREET FAT CATS ARE GONNA KILL OUR DUCKS

LN: Settle down N2, settle down. They haven't seen the last of us. I've got an ace up my sleeve. I've got one word for you: Occupy.

N2: I love it. What is it?

LN: Well it's a movement that started out protesting big business, taxes, unemployment, stuff, things, and an assortment of other problems in today's society.

N2: I see. So what happened?

LN: Well I stopped paying attention a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure they won.

N2: Fantastic! How do we get them on our side?

LN: That's the beauty of it. They'll protest ANYTHING that involves money! On top of that, these lovable youths are adored by all. Absolutely no one thinks of them as whiny, entitled douche bags.

N2: I could kiss you LN! You're a genius!

LN: Well not just anyone can get tenure at Gudger College! Now let's whip up some tye-dye shirts, bake some organic muffins, and go sway some college kids into fighting this thing for us! Hoooooooooooooooooo