Proposed stairway at Ipswich Street.
The Boston City Council yesterday approved a change in a regulation designed to protect the Emerald Necklace from being overwhelmed by tall buildings so that a developer can build a 28-story, 400-unit apartment building at 2 Charlesgate West, next to a little used portion of the Emerald Necklace along the Bowker Overpass. Read more.
The Boston City Council this week agreed to consider a proposal by Councilor Sharon Durkan (Fenway, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill) to amend an ordinance aimed at preventing some city parks and parkways from being overwhelmed by tall buildings next to them to allow a tall residential building next to the Charlesgate section of the Emerald Necklace. Read more.
Rendering of proposed building and its location, by Utile.
Scape, now nearing completion on an apartment building on Boylston Street in the Fenway, wants to increase the size of its proposed 2 Charlesgate, near the Bowker Overpass and the turnpike, from 23 to 30 floors - and to eliminate the 75 parking spaces it once planned there. Read more.
Proposed route of new steam pipe across Charlesgate, from Vicinity filing.
Vicinity Energy is planning a half-mile pipe from the Back Bay to the Fenway Park area to provide steam heat to all the new buildings going up or planned on and near Brookline Avenue. Read more.
Scape, a British company whose contractors are now busy erecting a 477-unit apartment on Boylston Street, where Machine and Ramrod used to be, says it will soon file plans for a 400-unit residential building at 2 Charlesgate West - currently home to a a nondescript office building at the corner of Ipswich, where the previous owner once proposed a 29-story luxury tower fought by everybody from nearby residents to the Red Sox. Read more.
The Boston Sun reports plans for revitalizing the dreary Charlesgate under and around the Bowker Overpass that connects Storrow Drive to the Fenway now include a half-acre dog park that would have separate areas for both canine introverts and extroverts.
Around 9:40 p.m. Boston firefighters found the driver on top of her car and got her out of the water.
Architect's rendering of Boylston building.
Scape, a British company that initially wanted to build a 533-bed private dorm building on Boylston Street, has filed new plans with the BPDA that now call for a Boylston Street building with 477 market-rate apartments - and for 445 apartments in a new Audubon Circle building and another 220 apartments in a new building on Charlesgate West. Read more.
The Boston Sun reports residents living near Charlesgate and the Bowker Overpass are reporting more homeless people setting up camp there following the city's "Clean Sweep" along Methadone Mile.
State Police report the man who managed to carjack a Kia on the Bowker Overpass, drive against traffic and then flip the vehicle at the start of rush hour on Friday was arrested at the scene. Read more.
The Esplanade Association reports that sometime late last night or earlier this morning somebody spray painted over " Patterned Behavior," a series of three murals painted last year by Silvia Lopez Chavez on three supports and a wall under the Bowker Overpass. Read more.
Aline Kaplan introduces us to the architecture and possibly haunted history of the Charlesgate, a hotel turned dorm turned rooming house turned dorm again turned condos at Beacon Street and Charlesgate on the edge of the Back Bay.
The glowing spirits of horses that died in a flood have been seen on the ground floor where a stable was supposedly located. The building’s original plans show no stable on the premises, although you can have night-mares without real horses.
The Boston Sun reports on the nascent Charlesgate Alliance, which aims to restore what grandeur it can to Charlesgate, once a tree-lined pond where the Muddy River entered the Charles but now a dumping ground where homeless people drown.
Gray Monster: Rendering by the Red Sox of proposed building
The Red Sox, the Fenway Civic Association, volunteer groups that look out for the Muddy River and the Emerald Necklace and Berklee College are all raising questions about shadows and winds that could be generated by Trans National Properties' proposed 29-story tower at Charlesgate. Read more.
The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters recovered a body from the river near where it enters the Charles around 2:45 p.m.
Penny Cherubino went for a walk on the normally green grass along the normally brown Muddy River the other day.
Oops. Or as Rob Colonna writes, you might want to avoid the area for a bit.
Architect's rendering.
Trans National Properties is looking to replace a small office building it owns, where Charlesgate turns from the Bowker overpass onto Boylston Street, with a $250-million apartment and condo tower overlooking the Fens, the Muddy River and Fenway Park. Read more.
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