The South Boston waterfront’s master-planned Seaport Square development is half completed, and the development firm responsible for building out the remaining 12.5 acres has heard the reviews of what’s been built so far – and it’s not all positive.
Streets were laid out for cars and 18-wheelers, not pedestrians or cyclists. Piecemeal development on a parcel-by-parcel basis. Forgettable architecture and modest pocket parks, but no signature civic space to serve as a community magnet.
“We take to heart there needs to be a larger vision that stitches together the disparate parts,” said Yanni Tsipis, a vice president at Newton-based W/S Development.
Much has changed since city regulators approved a 2010 master plan laying out 6.3 million square feet of commercial and residential development spanning 23 acres of parking lots from Northern Avenue to Summer Street.
During the recession, Fan Pier developer Joseph Fallon gave free office space to the MassChallenge incubator after his speculative One Marina Park Drive office tower sat vacant. Since then, rents have spiraled in new office towers that have been largely leased prior to completion, and the brick-and-beam warehouses in Fort Point have attracted tech startups and established corporate tenants alike.
With only two major office availabilities left in the neighborhood at 121 Seaport and Pier 4, W/S is seeking to amend the master plan and increase its office component from 1.2 million to 2.9 million square feet. Multifamily housing units would rise from 2,500 to 3,200. Lower floors of every building would contain a total of 1.1 million square feet of retail, unchanged from the previous plan, and hotel space would remain 500,000 square feet. The changes require approval from the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
Elimination of 200,000 square feet set aside for a performing arts center has prompted questions from cultural organizations about W/S’s commitment to cultural venues. The new plan does not specify how much cultural space would be set aside in Seaport Square, but calls for a request for proposals to determine needs for a variety of facilities that could include a single performing arts center or a variety of smaller performance and rehearsal spaces. Those could be located on the lower floors of the planned office and residential buildings, Tsipis said at a BPDA forum last week.
Linking the converted warehouse rows of Fort Point with the newly built towers closer to the harbor is a priority for W/S. The firm chose a trio of architects to develop a master plan for the nine parcels it acquired last year for $359 million: Sasaki Assoc. of Watertown, New York-based James Corner Field Operations and landscape architects NADAAA of Boston. Individual building architects would be selected following BDPA approval of the revised master plan.
Completing A ‘Harbor Loop’ Sans Vehicles
The new development plan has the potential to link the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center and the waterfront, Tsipis said. Only a pair of staircases connects Summer Street to A Street and the rest of the neighborhood, and conventioneers who are unfamiliar with Boston’s geography often bypass the Seaport and head straight back toward South Station, Tsipis noted.
Buildings on two parcels bordering Summer Street would contain street-level storefronts meeting the sidewalk. A broad staircase would descend to Harbor Way, a one-third-mile pedestrian and bicycle promenade through the heart of the W/S parcels connecting to the waterfront next to the Institute of Contemporary Art. Wood fragments, driftwood benches and stacked stone slab benches would reflect a nautical theme, said Keith O’Connor, a principal with James Corner Field Operations.
The promenade would complete a new Harbor Loop optimizing pedestrian patterns encircling the neighborhood, from the Fan Pier to the boardwalk next to the Boston Children’s Museum, Tsipis said.
“This could be like the walk around Castle Island or Jamaica Pond, one of the quintessentially Bostonian rambles,” he said.
Kathy Abbott, CEO of the Boston Harbor Now environmental group, said the plan addresses shortcomings in the district’s existing layout.
“Our interest in this project is its role in connecting people to the harbor and the waterfront,” Abbott said. “That is something that we are very supportive of: that Summer Street to the waterfront connection. You really need lines of sight to be able to find your way.”
Another interested nonprofit is the Boston-based Barr Foundation, which has donated $210,000 to the BPDA to encourage more comprehensive waterfront planning.
“Any one of us who walks the Seaport today knows there’s much more that could be done, not only along the water but within this neighborhood district itself,” President James Canales said. “It’s encouraging to see the developer trying to be thoughtful about how to make investments in a public realm that a world-class city like Boston is worthy of.”
The BPDA is accepting public comments on the proposed changes through March 27.
