Image courtesy of Kohn Pederson Fox Assoc.
Developers of the proposed Pinnacle skyscraper on Boston Harbor are being asked to consider a redesign of the 600-foot tower to occupy a smaller footprint and to include more housing.
A scoping document prepared by Boston Planning & Development Agency staff lays out the next steps in the review of the 865,000-square-foot office and residential project, which faces continuing opposition because of its size and potential effects on the downtown waterfront area.
Boston-based Chiofaro Cos. submitted plans in January 2020 for the project, including 538,000 square feet of office space, 42,000 square feet of retail and public amenity space and approximately 200 residential units.
The office-to-residential ratio was questioned by BPDA planning staff, which offered “strong encouragement” to add more housing that would enable smaller floorplates and a less bulky tower design than currently proposed.
“A higher percentage of residential use would allow the tower element to be more slender and appropriate for the planning area,” the comment letter states.
Members of the Boston Civic Design Commission also have objected to the current designs, suggesting a more slender footprint.
And state Rep. Aaron Michlewitz urged the developers to consider alternatives to the 538,000 square feet of proposed office space, suggesting that office space demand will not rebound following COVID-19.
The Chiofaro Cos. has cited public benefits including removal of the 8-story parking garage on the site, creating nearly 30,000 square feet of new open space on the 1.3-acre property following construction of the tower, and improvements to the surrounding area including a $10 million commitment toward a new public promenade between the Greenway and Central Wharf and $300,000 toward design of a new park on Long Wharf.
Those commitments are part of a trade-off for new zoning allowing taller and denser development on the downtown waterfront, which faces a pair of legal challenges.
BPDA planning staff also asked Chiofaro Cos. to provide a wind tunnel analysis of the tower’s effect on the pedestrian environment, along with details on how the project will minimize storm surges on neighboring properties.
And the downtown business group A Better City expressed skepticism that the stepped-back facade will mitigate wind tunnel effects, and asked the developers to provide more evidence that the strategy has worked elsewhere.
The prospects for a landmark new skyscraper on Boston Harbor cleared a major hurdle in 2018 when the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs approved new zoning allowing greater height and density along 42 acres of the downtown waterfront. Both the Conservation Law Foundation and trustees of the neighboring Harbor Towers II condos are challenging that decision in court, but developers have begun their local permitting process pending a decision in the case.
