New Committee Contemplates Turnpike Air-Rights Parcels

Seventeen months after developers announced the end of the long-planned never-built Columbus Center project, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is rekindling discussions about potential development above sections of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

On Wednesday, a newly appointed Citizens Advisory Committee met for the first time to discuss four air-rights parcels near the intersection of Boylston and Mass Ave. Development proposals for all four parcels were submitted to the BRA in 2008, and held until a committee could be formed to evaluate them. 

“All of the proposals we received incorporate civic vision,” said BRA Development Director, Peter O’Connor, “which is one of the reasons I’m really going to defer to the CAC for some very necessary input on which developers we end up choosing.”

Of the four parcels in question, only one (#15 on the map) is penciled in for a substantially taller structure. One proposal on the lot would loom 30 stories and include street-front retail, five levels of parking and automobile elevators.

Meanwhile, a proposal for Parcel 13 for an 11-story building complete with ground-floor retail, parking and 180 housing units is “ready to go,” according to Democratic Rep. Marty Walz. Trinity Financial is the only developer to submit a proposal for the parcel thus far.

Robust conversations to come

On Wednesday, discussion was slightly tentative but BRA Planner Jonathan Greeley said he anticipated some “really robust conversations” about specific development proposals at the committee’s next meeting in September.

The committee will be examining existing proposals from 2008.

“We could have reopened the whole process but chose not to,” O’Connor said on Wednesday. “The proposals still looked good and, as previously mentioned, were all very much in line with civic vision.”

When CAC member David Gamble of the Boston Society of Architects inquired if any community engagement efforts had been made regarding the existing proposals, O’Connor clarified that it's the CAC’s role to do just that.

“You are our means of engagement,” he said. “We need you to take these ideas back to your groups and communities and then share the results with us so we can make decisions that reflect the needs and wants of the people of Boston.” 

One of the factors in the Columbus Center’s demise (aside from the flailing economy) was the lack of neighborhood support for the project – a five building mega-complex that promised to provide a link between the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods.

Not everybody was in favor of uniting these areas, which have distinctly separate identities and flavors, though the idea of unifying districts is one of the key points outlined in the BRA's 2000 study of the 23 air-rights parcels and how they should be used.

The other bone of contention at the Columbus structure was the centerpiece—a 35-story tower—that left many residents in both locales concerned about destroying the look of two quintessential Boston neighborhoods.

In the end, $5 million was spent just to clean up the site, and that was after 13 years of planning, 130-some-odd community meetings and two years of sitting dormant amid financial struggles.