--------- oh and I see we are just joined by David perfect timing David we just let everyone in and um I'm about to start with the the Preamble so uh good evening everyone and thank you for joining us uh for a design subcomittee of the Boston
Civic design commission today's date is Tuesday February 18th and this session B of the bcdc design subcommittee the planning department continues hosting public meetings in a virtual setting for the health safety and accessibility of Boston residents I'm Christina Rico
executive director of the Boston Civic design commission and Senior Urban designer at the city of Boston planning department before we proceed with the agenda the open meeting Law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is being recorded therefore Please be aware that the commission
staff is making an audio and video record ing of this meeting please turn off your camera and microphone if you do not wish to be recorded and for the purposes of the record um Commissioners eastley Gillies Smith manf Freddy and
Ron join us this evening for the discussion tonight's agenda will include a presentation for phase two of the L Street station Redevelopment uh also known as 776 Summer Street South Boston tonight's meeting proceedings will follow the typical BC CDC design
subcommittee meeting format beginning with a brief presentation from the proponent comments from bcdc Commissioners and public testimony and before I turn it over to the proponent team to give a presentation I'm just going to read a really brief description here a very dry
description of the project which is that a proposed project known as phase two of the L Street station R development at 776 Summer Street South Boston seeking article 80b entitlement contemplates the development of approximately 1,
25,500 ft of residential Hotel office and Retail uses and approximately 1,214 off street parking spaces in four buildings on an approximately 6.8 acre portion of the 15.2 Acre Site in accordance with the previously approved
PDA master plan and development plan this will be the first presentation of the proposed project to the design subcommittee following an introduction at the monthly meeting just two weeks ago on February 4 2025 it is my understanding that there are no Commissioners present who intend to
recuse themselves from deliberations in a quick reminder to the proponent team that presentations will be limited to 15 minutes although this evening uh this proponent is the only thing on the agenda so um I'm going to be Loosey with the timing planning department staff
will give presenters a two-minute warning and uh with that I would invite the proponent team to begin presenting however you first have to promote everyone to co-host and want to invite our co-chair Linda eastley um to give any additional instruction to the proponent
team thanks Christina I think many of us have had a chance to look at the packet so thank you for that we had one suggestion we really appreciate you digging into a lot of the elevation um slides and those are part
of the deck we are hoping we can have you reverse the order and begin with some of those long sections first and this is you know very workshopy tonight so it doesn't need to be um very polished so if we can jump to those as
you're getting into the discussion of the kind of grade changes across the site do the sections first and then we can go back to the spot elevation drawings I think that would be really
helpful to us good thing we can do that um I am still elevating this is a long list of folks but I think I've got Katherine and Melissa and kst and John I'm still working on elevating Victor Colin Tim Jason and Devin but you guys can get started if um if you're ready
Sure Fit helps Colin and um Jared and Victor are three that'll be presenting so you can Elevate them first and as you fit through the scene so thank you Christina and team um good good evening everyone for those of you who know it may not be familiar my
name is currence Pier Lou and I'm with the mixed use development team here at hrp and on behalf of the entire 776 project team we want to thank you for your time today as we go through our phase two project updates next slide quick glance at our project team um who Christine is trying to feverishly
onboard today the focus will just be with fo and gendler um as we'll be going through the agenda in terms of public Roam and urban form but just as a note we do have all of the project team members here in the event there any building specific questions next
slide for tonight we understand we're the only um item on the agenda thank you for that um and we want to be able to talk you through our material here Our intention is that we take about 25 minutes to present so that we can open up more than enough conver time for conversation and discussion as we look
to move forward and before we get to that I wanted to and get out of your here I wanted to uh go over the design items that will go through the agenda right we're going to start with what we heard which will be peppered in throughout the rest of the uh discussion for tonight um we're then going to go through just a recap of what was
approved in phase one to help build the bridge the gap to the phase two master plan we'll talk through the public realm vision and in that Linda we'll take note of flip-flopping and putting the sections first and then we'll walk through the urban form considerations there so with that I'll turn it over to
Colin and I colleagues at fo great thanks current thank Commissioners um Colin curlyy I'm a senior associate with field operations we the Landscape Architects um for the project um so just uh wanted to begin here with a bit of what we heard um from our meeting with you a couple weeks ago um we're here
this evening um to discuss um mostly the public realm um an urban form composition um and our understanding from our previous discussion was that our path forward um is another double session um focused on blocks a b and e um followed by a follow-up session um
focused on Block C um with regard to the public realm um I I think what we heard a lot was um you know trying to help elucidate um and make more clear um the kind of comprehensive picture of site grading understanding how buildings and streets and public realm um all um all
relate to one another um as well as circulation um and location of service um understanding as well the corridors around the site Summer Street Eats East First Street um and Thomas Edison way um knowing the kind of uh the experience um of those corridors and we have some um
three-dimensional drawings and animations um later that will um that will kind of speak to that um how Thomas Edison way transitions the service Drive um to make clear that the path is turning um towards M Street um and also
um kind of the overall rationale behind um our our retail strategy sitewide um for urban form um looking at kind of our overall composition particularly as it relates um between a b and e um given that they're all kind of this um you know composition with
block F at that corner of Thomas Edison way um understanding the kind of more rectilinear edges that are at the site's perimeter versus the kind of more open and um kind of deconstructed um um interior of the site um understanding the undulation of the street wall on
East First Street um and uh we are working now um on producing a physical model um uh but then for this evening um we do have some 3D walkthroughs um prepared to share with you um to go to the next slide please um just to kind of
reorient folks um to the um phase one and phase two master plan um to go to the next slide this is phase one here um so the two lab research buildings blocks d and f um and turbine Halls 1 2 and three at the center of the site um with
most of the public realm concentrated on the waterfront um if you go to the next slide um now uh looking at the phase two um uh development um blocks A and B as residential buildings Block C another lab office building um and block e in
the 1898 building together um hotel and residential building um public realm really being the spaces around these buildings streetscapes um and the Edison Plaza between blocks e and f um and the next slide here um just shows um both phases together um and kind of the
overall full build Vision um moving on to the next slide um so we'll start kind of by going through through um public realm um and I think uh I'll start just here with this kind of overall context slide here um situating our um public open space um
within the context of South Boston um so Medal of Honor Park Christopher Lee playground the dog park um and Thomas Butler um Memorial Park that green dashed line um indicating that we're kind of really filling in a missing link um within the harbor walk um so really
working to connect our site both to Open Spaces within South Boston um as well as the city more broadly um and next slide um maybe I can just speak to this one and then we can jump to the sections just to kind of give a little bit of an overall orientation here um so our site High
Point is up at block a um at elevation 36 um and then the the site kind of is like a table um sloping down towards Summer Street um so we're at elevation 21 at the freight Corridor In Summer Street we're also at elevation 21 at the
inter section of East First Street in Summer Street we have a local high point in Summer Street at 22 where Thomas Edison way comes out um and then importantly we're at elevation 30 um where M Street and East First Street meet um so those are kind of um setting
a lot of the elevations that we're meeting at the edges um as well as um what we're able to do in terms of taking up those grades on the interior of the site so two other quick spot elevations I'd draw your attention to are the 28.7 5 at Thomas Edison way we're meeting
East 1 Street and then we need to come down and meet the turbine Halls down at elevation 22.2 so there's some stress on on that portion of Thomas Edison way um if we could maybe Kate jump to the sections um we can then kind of set um a
little bit what's going on across the site so here um this site section is cutting through block F and the lower Waterfront um we have a tiered Waterfront strategy um for resilience um so you can see kind of to the left hand side of the section um there's some
Terrace Lawns that are making their way down and then the lower Waterfront there is down at an elevation of 18.5 um if you go to the next section this one's cut up a little bit further so this is now cutting through the upper waterfront that's at around
elevation 22 um and then again what you're seeing on the leftand side there are um a series of kind of sloping Lawns and Pathways that are making their way from the Edison Plaza down to the upper Waterfront going to the next section um you can see here kind of these pockets
of open space now you've got the Edison Plaza on the left um linking blocks F and E at elevations around 31 um the next kind of pocket of open space that you see between turbine Hall and block D um is turbine alley and then to the um f
far right hand side um you can see the the street Frontage on Summer Street jumping to the next section slice um you can see now on the left hand side Thomas Edison way between blocks A and B um the next little chunk of open space
as you're coming down is the kind of loading zone between um blocks Block B and turbine Hall 3 the next one down being turbine alley as it's making its way to East First Street um and then again um the frontage there along Summer
Street next section um so this is turbine alley um this is fairly level um we're keeping this all around 22 and2 so it's consistent with the Waterfront however it's very tiny blip here we'll see it in 3D later um but we do need to make a grade transition to meet East
First Street um on the on the left hand side of the page there um as it's climbing up um next slide um this is through the Edison Plaza um looking towards blocks F and a um here again the grade's pretty level um staying kind of
at around elevation 30 or 31 um but you do see a retaining wall and a dip on the left hand side there um for the um connection down to the dedicated Freight Corridor the next section is just mirrored um so now you're looking back
towards blocks uh b and e um but again um grades here holding pretty steady um and then sloping down towards the towards the Waterfront um on the right hand side there I think that's it for sections so maybe we can jump back up to the grading
plan um I think we don't need to really dwell on the um can you just s go to slide 12 real quick thanks Kate um I w't DW on it because we we did send it in advance and thank you for for
taking a look um happy to come back to any one of these um to talk through any grades in more detail um but here again just wanting to point out the um the grades around the perimeter um so 25 at turbine alley 30 at M Street 36 at a um
and so then working internally um to try to set these elevations to really maximize um the amount of Street Frontage that each one of these blocks is able to have um to strengthen um the connectivity to the public realm um and surrounding streets um the next two
slides here are just um enlarged grading plans that we can come back to um if we need to um and if you go to the next slide here um so this um is we have a series of 3D drawings um to kind of help walk through some of the grade change
here this is related back to the kind of overall open space precincts um so you can see the Edison Plaza as I was mentioning in the sections um hovering largely at around elevation 31 um at the center of the site um the turbine Precinct predominantly at about
elevation 22 that's turbine alley um so we're really trying to meet that elevation though it does climb as you make your way up to Thomas Edison way to around 20 7 the lower Waterfront as that first section indicated is a bit lower at 18.5 um the upper Waterfront generally
at 22 so again trying to keep that consistent with all of those buildings as well as turbine alley um but it does climb up again to meet Edison Plaza um and then the Summer Street Gateway um really looking at you know meeting the grades um of Summer Street um and then
also looking at um areas where we are taking up some grade to meet resilient finished floor elevations for blocks d and c um if you go to the next slide um we'll just kind of walk through um some some 3D views here so this is looking um Southwest at the waterfront you can see
that kind of tiered Waterfront strategy upper Waterfront around elevation 22 lower water front at 18.5 with accessible slopes um mitigating the grade transition there um and block D and turbine Hall at 222 1898 being up at
elevation 30 so when we turn and look the other way on the next slide you can see um 1898 at elevation 30 um together with block e um kind of relating to that elevated public realm um Associated more with the Edison Plaza
and then those Lawns and sloped walks that are making that grade change happen um from elevations in the 30s um down to 22 at the upper Waterfront if we go to the next slide um this is now just turning and looking back towards the Waterfront with that kind of Overlook
lawn in front of you block F would be behind you um and so you can see here holding their um kind of an elevated public space um at block e in 1898 at around elevation 30 and The Lawns and sloped walks making their way down um to the upper and lower
waterfronts uh Beyond next slide turns um and looks down um the Edison Plaza towards Thomas Edison way um between blocks E and F this is a relatively level Plaza um so we've got seamless grade transition across um and into to
into um excuse me um you know build building finished floor elevations e being at 30 and F being at 31.75 we go to the next slide um now we're moving into the intersection of Thomas Edison way I apologize please
disregard the 24 and 22.7 those are errors and should not be there um that is nowhere near where we are we're up at 29 and 30 um at this intersection um you can see the 31 off to the left um that's near theend of Block B so that's what's setting our finished floor elevation
there um we're continuing to study this corner from a design standpoint um but here we're looking at kind of a split strategy of an elevation 31 um area associated with the building and a more public space down at 29 um but I mentioned before um the stretch of
Thomas Edison way that's got some stress on it you can see that really from that intersection going down we're we're maxing out our sidewalk slopes um to get down to the turbine Halls um so if you go to the next slide this is now turning
and looking at block e um so again um the kind of maxed out um accessible slopes um along the sidewalk um so that you can make your way down to turbine Halls um but then also creating that kind of flush um hotel and residential
drop off Zone meeting block e finished floor at 30 um so we have a 4.9% slope coming up to it we've also introduced um a stair and switch back path um in front of the drop off there that provides direct entry in line with the hotel um
so bringing you up to that kind of flush um pickup drop off Zone um and then you can see in the background there um that driveway diving down um to meet the the loading elevation and then the plaza again um hovering it around elevation 30 so the
next slide um just switches around looks from the turbine huls back up um so you can see um really the sidewalk being that accessible path of travel coming from the turbine Halls up to the Edison Plaza um that switch back um near where Kate's
cursor is right now being the kind of accessible path um taking you back up in a more direct route to the hotel entrance um and that 9 a half% slope there um being for vehicles coming back down headed either to Thomas Edison way or to parking next slide Colin while
you're on that one slide 22 yeah yes so I know that we chatted a little bit two weeks ago about the service drive and is that kind of what's in the um front of that slide I guess I can yes so that's yeah
that's coming off of Thomas Edison way kind correct so there would be a curb cut there and it kind of crosses the bike lane it crosses the sidewalk there and then is that also the parking access so service and parking are the same
that's correct yeah service and parking are the same there the model is a little rough so I think we don't have the Nuance of that in here um so where it's kind of that darker tan that's parking and loading for um e in 1898 then you
can see there's a green planted strip um in between um and then um further towards the foreground is loading for um the switch house and the turbine Halls so where we can we're looking to kind of break up the monotony of that sort of
you know paved apron um with with planting and and other um other Design Elements so this this is service and this is parking um the sorry the tan is both service and parking for 1898 and the
hotel okay okay y they're just separated by that planting strip got it um so then next slide this is um turbine alley so um I mentioned the East First Street elevations are kind of coming down um where turbine alley meets
East First Street it's around elevation 25 um that was already accounted for in the design of the turbine Halls so the turbine Hall elevation at that corner is 25 A2 um Block C um on the ground floor um we're looking at an elevation of 23
and a half to sort of split the difference between turbine alley and Summer Street so that's creating this condition at the corner here where we have these tiered seat walls um that are providing that kind of continuous flush um accessible entry into the ground floor of Block C um and also
facilitating the grade change from East first into turbine alley where you see the 22 and A2 tag um that's the finished floor of the um of that entrance into the turbine halls and the remainder of the turbine Halls as they make their way to the Waterfront so the next slide just
kind of takes that same view and turns around um so you can see the seat walls there that are mitigating that transition from the 225 of turbine alley and the rest of the turbine Halls um and then up to Block C at 235 and up back to
um East First Street at 25 in the distance next slide um those are the sections and then um to your to your question Linda um we'll just talk through quickly here the kind of overall
circulation parking loading um across the site here so um um the red lines you see here are the vehicular circulation Along Thomas Edison way um as well as that Loop um for the hotel pickup drop off at block e the brown lines um are
the service access um so for many of the buildings that's coming from Thomas Edison way or the service Drive um via either Thomas Edison way or the or the freight Corridor um the dark gray green lines are the bike circulation and then
you can see the kind of Dash blue um being The Pedestrian movement um the next slide illustrates the um parking and loading entries um so that one at 1898 is a combined parking and loading entry um since we we don't
have um parking or loading from either East First Street or Summer Street Thomas Edison way is kind of our Workhorse here um so we're doing what we can to try to consolidate um and as I mentioned either through landscaping and through building articulation um work to kind of you know minimize the visual
impact of the loading as best we can um and ensure a pleasant public realm experience for folks walking up and down um Thomas Edison way and I think with that I'll pass it over to the gendler team thanks
Colin so just as as Kate flips I'm Jared creger I'm with the Gensler team we're working on the master plan as well as uh Block C and I'm joined with by my colleague Victor pasotti so we're circling back to what we heard in this series of diagrams we're just going to walk through some of the
questions about the orthagonal geometry along the exterior of the site as compared to the more Dynamic geometry on the interior of the site like many master plan projects there are forces that influence the series of open spaces and Street grids and ultimately the building geometry uh so these are forces
are what what has driven the planning and we're going to walk through some of that um we believe that this has led to just a proactive idea that enhances is the public realm and letting the urban forces lead to a creative approach that ultimately shapes the buildings and the blocks uh and that's what we're circling
back to address um so first showing the axonometric view which is basically the end result of the few full buildout as a reminder the grade out buildings are part of phase one and we're talking about uh phase two today which are the buildings shown in in the colors um and
then next slide is the kind of full buildout plan at the ground floor uh this is just showing as Colin just mentioned Thomas Edon way is kind of the Workhorse street that circulates through the site because we didn't want to have and and didn't uh land with any curb
Cuts aside from the road cutting going through on Summer Street and and First Avenue ultimately what we're calling just a really hardworking Street um as well as orienting active uses both on the outside of the site and the inside of the site so next slide just starting
with the Progressive build of the site um the rectilinear edges obviously create the perimeter of the site with East First Street and Summer Street ultimately coming together at at an right angle and then the dedicated Freight Corridor which is cut at an angle through the site um basically set
up the boundaries of the site and then 1898 building and the turbine Halls are obviously historic uh rectilinear and really unique assets uh that the site has then as we started with the planning and you know other other groups
collaborated on this with uh with the team um elen Street and and M Street you you want to cut those through at 90 degree angles keep it orthagonal like the site um but there are certain site constraints that kind of prevented that from happening and
ultimately um when you looked at trying to get a road through the existing turbine Halls you know we jog the road to the South to the right on the plan to coordinate with specific structural Bays you know ultimately trying to coordinate
lentils removal of structure um while also balancing how close we were to the 1898 building so trying to fit a roadway the sidewalks the bike paths through appropriately and give a buffer to the
1898 building ultimately led to the geometry being a little bit more Dynamic and jogging to the South as you get through but the benefit was uh leading to certain things that could enhance The Pedestrian realm as well as some other forces were about to show you but we
really want to celebrate the turbine Halls by giving this buffer and stepping back from especially the 1898 building because if the roadway ran directly through from on the elen street axis um it basically wouldn't have enough room for a road and a side walk it would be
right up against the building so this creates pretty unique geometry that activates uh and differentiates what's happening on the inside of the site versus what's happening on the outside of the site um another big component um was um I'm sorry so this basically just
shows you the the setbacks and all the different energy that's basically created through with Edison way coming through in the site rather than being at orthagonal Angles then another big component of how the plan was devised was thinking through how we can connect from the existing Metal of Honor Park so
Colin was showing you a little bit wider of a view of the multiple green spaces that are being connected and for a long time this site basically sat as a as a disconnecting um potential pedestrian and future pedestrian Pathways so this is walking through and connecting the
Midel of Honor Park through the site not just focus on the vehicle but also focusing on The Pedestrian the pretty significant Waterfront open space the Coles showed also connecting with um the newly open Waterfront uh along the water over there on the north side of the site
just on the other side of Summer Street next slide ultimately it created something really dynamic in the middle of the site um you know the commission noted last time that we discussed this that the circulation patterns kind of meet at the intersection of Thomas Edison way there and we feel that that's
creating something unique and something special there as the vehicles turn one way or another but the pedestrians and potentially opening up to the Views uh towards the open space in the Waterfront so next slides now if we start to lay on some of the form so this is basically
showing on phase two what the simple buildable parcel geometries could be and then we start to layer in uh certain angles and pedestrians and view corridors to give visibility to 1898 you know Alo was brought up the potential
signature piece that is blocky at the center of the site and as The Pedestrian gets further into the site from these critical Vantage points that starts to indicate some of the carving back uh for the buildings and driving some of the building geometries so as you can see as
you get to Thomas Edison way and into the plaza space it continues to open up the views into the plaza and Beyond and when you're on the higher topography there as you come around there's just incredible views uh of the skyline and
Beyond so then same on Block C using that to our advantage the angular roadway gives you an excellent view of the turbine halls but it also gives us the advantage on Block C where we can articulate the architecture to screen some of the back of a house functions uh
like the loading dock area on Block C layering it all together it kind of creates a really Dynamic uh space uh right as you're entering the site at the bend of Tomas edtis way um that's where we really have a unique moment and the architecture of the buildings is
starting to address that we're going to show this a little bit more in some three-dimensional views then lastly on the outside of the site think along East First Street it's one of the constraints that we've had from the beginning is that the turbine Hall 3 basically sits
right on the edge of East First Street there aren't there isn't any room for a sidewalk there so that cated created a pretty unique opportunity that's special to this site um advancing to uh to bring an advantage to The Pedestrian experience to actually be able to
circulate through the turbine Halls so as you've seen in some of the earlier presentations that's basically a connection through way wal meanwhile we can Preserve ve the turbine Hall and there's a little bit of an image inlaid in the top right where you can see that pedestrian sidewalk cutting through but
what we've done with the architecture on blocks B and C in particular is you start to angle the buildings in especially at The Pedestrian scale to give more visibility to the old historic facades that are being um preserved and restored um as part of the development
so that you can pass through and have better sight lines to those facades and then on block a there's some been some specific gestures to push the building in and setting back along East First Street really enables the blue bike stations which is adjacent to the actual
program program bike storage spaces within the building to create some synergies of what's happening on the inside building versus what's happening the outside of building and then similarly along Summer Street uh I know you remembered block D from phase one where there's some push into the
building the notch which denotes the entrance we're making a similar gesture on block moving it in a little bit more basically also making room for the bike station the bus stop the you know pedestrian circulation uh that's out there you know ultimately and the lastly
this is kind of the full build of the geometry of the master plan which we think you know using some of the unique forces that uh Drive the master plan uh whether it's under our control or not uh to really create something Dynamic uh in the
site all right Victor good evening Commissioners great to be with you again the remainder of the presentation will focus almost entirely on the 3D pedestrian level experiences throughout the site so we're going to take you through four diagrams and four
animations which will which will take us to the finish line so um thank you for your patience in in um this thorough presentation uh this first view is focused on the experience looking into the heart of the site from Medal of
Honor Park the building forms that you see um are based on the zoning defined envelopes and if I can call your attention to the dark outlines on blocks B to the left and a to the right those
are the areas that you'll see uh begin to get modified based on the criteria uh shared by Jared so next slide Kate um this is the proposed view that indicates on Block B the upper four levels have been re assessed to separate an upper
portion of the building with a base along block a block a has been subdivided into three different massing forms the form in the foreground has been rotated to um help open the view
and frame the view um Beyond uh Block B uh has taken on a small angle which will be viewed better in the diagrams to come next slide Kate um this slide just takes us a step closer as we're entering the site once
again beginning with the massing um as defined by the zoning envelope the next slide showing some of the changes um here you see that on Block B the building length has been made to feel
shorter by chamfering the inside face and stepping it um and therefore opening up views to the historic 1898 building earlier upon arrival into the site and along the edge of block a um where that
cans you can see the development of a linear Plaza um both of these buildings bookending together frame a view of Block e which when we were with you last time was discussed as something that could really be a showpiece or a Center
Point anchoring that inner portion of the site next slide um so we'll do next is show you four slides that will preface the four animation paths that we will take through the site and Kate you can
go to the first one basically two of the animations are going to focus on the primary site perimeters and two of them will go right through the site the first animation will walk along Summer Street beginning at the North and moving along
the blocks towards the South the next animation with will um take us all the way along East First Street following going from west to east um passing through the turban Hall 3 arcade and the
buildings on either side of it the next PATH uh will take us uh from uh Medal of Honor Park um along between blocks A and B and has chosen a path to navigate through um Edison Plaza and along the
Waterfront experience and lastly um we'll enter the site at the intersection of Summer Street and Thomas Edison way follow Thomas and Thomas Edison way the entire way through the site to the point
where it makes a right turn in Block e and reconnects to East First Street so uh if technology cooperates well Kate let's go ahead and kick off the first animation thank you um so so here we're going to
cross over Summer Street um looking Eastward as we turn to go south we're going to walk by um a dog park and an outdoor recreational sort of half court basketball court to our left as we pass
by that we will turn towards the east to to get a quick overview onto the Waterfront prominade you can see some of the historical artifacts that will be preserved um from the the Edison power plant now as we walk along the facade of
block D this is the inset portion of the mass that frames and signals the building main entrance and then the remainder of Block B at the at the sidewalk level is set 5 ft back from the setback to help provide some better
indooroutdoor relationships here we're arriving at the Summer Street um Thomas Edison way intersection with the four story uh base of block SE um beyond that we're passing by
now the West face of Block C folds inward from both intersections again to Signal architecturally where the building entrance is create an Alco for the blue bike stations as well as a linear Plaza that will welcome Transit
riders that are getting off the bus on Summer Street okay Kate whenever you're ready uh we can go to the East First Street animation thank you so this is um this one's a better view of the four story tall Podium at
Block C which helps bring down the scale of the 10-story building the first level of Block C folds away away from the setback line here we see it folding Tor turban alley in deference to the new
arcade that passes through turban Hall 3 on the other side of the pass through Block B also has a recess at the base to ease the transition from the arcade as we move along the first level of Block B we haven't coordinated doors and access
yet but those are all storefront retail openings here we're crossing over Thomas Edison way and to our left this provides a good view of the plaza created by the rotation in the block a mass and we can
see the view towards block E Beyond finishing the journey along East First Street you'll see block a pull back from East first um it's a something Jared mentioned in the plan to create a generous Al Cove to host the blue bike
stations the storefront behind those providing some of the bike amenities for residents in the building okay Kate whenever you're ready we can jump to the Waterfront um experience so we're beginning with Medal of Honor Park to our back here and we're
walking northward along block a the block a plaza um extends to the block a residential main entrance um which was just off to our right as we continue to move north we're going to turn briefly
down Thomas Edison way to show the portal through the the turban halls in the distance as we cross over and move a little bit to the west it'll bring us closer to see the port coare drop off
that serves the block e hotel and residential and now once again and looking towards the north will pass through the Edison Plaza as we make our way towards the Waterfront the inflection point on block
e folds back away um really allowing a wide open view of the Waterfront from Thomas Edison Plaza here we'll turn left back towards the west and walk down The Terraces of
the waterfront prominade um as we negotiate the elevations and the various Terraces that Colin had shared earlier as we get to a lower elevation um we're going to flip the camera back and you will see some of the new large
openings that are proposed for the 1898 building to really open that up to the Bosque of trees that we are walking through right now I forgot to mention something very important these dark gray masses um uh
focus on the phase one buildings and the lighter gray or phase two that was something you requested and I apologize I didn't mention that earlier here we're going to turn all the way around and in our foreground um will be a proposed water
feature that's part of the front Plaza of the 1898 building and we'll stop seeing um the turban Hall one facade in our foreground and 1898 directly adjacent to it okay one more to go um Thomas Edison
way here we're crossing Summer Street um and we follow Thomas and Edison way throughout the site you can see the entrance into the site bookended by the four-story um prow on Block C as well as the mass of block e we'll follow the
sidewalk along the serpentine jog in the street that um frames the approach into this portal through uh the turbine Halls the portal is designed such that um oh okay may I ask you to go back a
little bit of jump for me just a bit just a little bit of a glitch there thank you so here we get a peak down turban alley towards the waterfront and then through the portal um it has a nice separation between a pedestrian
only experience as well as a vehicular experience this movement provides a good view and experience of walking up the graay to the higher point of the site with the port coare to the hotel um framed in the view now you can see the
car as if it's um exiting the hotel drop off as we arrive at the higher point of the site uh we'll take a quick look to the left um which looks out onto the Waterfront and then we will turn and
walk towards down Thomas Edison way towards M Street where we'll see both the base of block a and Block B both blocks are lined at the base um with transparent storefront that is all
active program one of three programs either retail um building amenities or building lobbies so all this entire experience and Along Thomas Edison way is highly activated and we're stopping here looking West on East First Street thank
you for for listening to that marathon of of narration um Melissa I'll pass it back to you for I believe our closing slide or current I'm sorry nope oh appreciate that Victor so that's appreciate the patience I I'll go
Victor's comments there uh Commissioners I'll appreciate the patience do that but we do hope that we're able to kind of provide a lot of the the views and thoughts and ideas that You' presented prior with that Christina and team will turn it over for any questions and answers sure and I'm happy to give this straight to the Commissioners for
deliberation I just want to acknowledge that um commissioner Mimi Love joins us this evening but is recused from the project and will not be participating in deliberations I'm sorry that I failed to mentioned that earlier at the top so Linda and Commissioners the floor is
yours thanks Christina and um I just want to say thank you to this team that was an incredibly clear presentation the diagrams were amazing and it was great to have all of those walkthroughs so I know it took us a little longer to get
through all of those slides but I think it was um really worth it and we we didn't get to meet you Kate but um thank you for driving of course all right you're a lot on camera too Kate she's doing all yeah I didn't
see Kate's face on camera but we wanted to acknowledge uh your good work as well could we put up a site plan you can choose what slide makes the most sense and that'll help us have a jumping off point for commissioner
comments so Commissioners um if you have any comments for the team feel free to raise your Zoom hand and if your Zoom hand isn't working I'll kind of keep my eyes peeled for a
for a regular hand as well I don't see any hands just yet so um Oh sha I see yours go ahead go ahead Lindy you can go ahead if you want so I can add just a few comments as uh Commissioners are teeing up and you know I'm really excited for
this project I think it's uh terrific it's been great to see it emerge as we've gone through the phase one projects and now the phase two projects and these days you never know if phase one's going to get built first or phase two is going to get built first so it'll
be interesting to see how that all comes about um I wanted to focus really on on two things and maybe we could go to slide 10 yes this is great so one of the things that really
intrigues me is turbine alley and I was expecting it actually to show up here in green as one of The Pedestrian corridors that helps to stitch the site together and I imagine
myself as a pedestrian Maybe coming from the West coming along East First Street and wanting to enter the site and I you know certainly could do that by making a left on summer and then a right but the other way that we could do it is to kind
of come in between turbine Hall 3 and Block C and so I'd love to kind of understand that one of the things that I was watching for in the presentation I didn't see it but but I might have missed it is really what the
the architectural expression is on the east side of block Sea and the reason I'm asking is that I think that there is a really handsome kind of um facade along the west side of turbine Hall
three and as it continues both from that kind of green color all the way and then and then over to turbine the other turbine Hall um on the North and I I think that this could be A really lovely passageway and um so I'd love to see it
developed like that and and again love to understand a little bit more about the treatment of bloxy and how you would experience that as a pedestrian so that's one piece and then um the second kind of comment that I I didn't hear a lot about in the
presentation today is really the relationship of the I want to call it the service Drive spr and its relationship to block a block A's geometry and its
relationship to the site and to East First Street um and one of the things that I was was looking at was actually on slide
47 if you don't mind going there so in slide 47 we actually see a much simplified geometry of block a and in some ways it's more in keeping with the geometries of B and C because
you've got more sides that are parallel to one another and I know one of the things we talked about two weeks ago is you know why we have the twist in block a and the reason that this is coming up for me now and that I wanted to look at this diagram again
is that um I'm not really sure how to think about service drive that one spur it either wants to be a pedestrian realm or it doesn't want to be a pedestrian realm and I think having
block a kind of twist and and offer a pedestrian realm there is a bit confusing um because I think it really isn't uh a block that you're welcoming pedestrians into and so I think it all gets connected and um and I wonder if
the team could think a little bit about you know how we change the primary kind of um nature of Thomas Edison way and the way that it makes that 90° turn out to East First Street and
how we think about that service Drive spur and can there be some kind of uh visual cues that a pedestrian has that they know that that kind of block really terminates at a dead end um and maybe
has a different streetscape character that comes with it so that we are continuing to focus on the kind of primary nature of Thomas Edison way so for me um having a simpler block
a and having a different kind of Street section for the service drive go hand inand into providing a Clarity for um the primary kind of Thomas Edison way the footnote to that also is that I
actually really like the geometry of BL in this slide for another reason and that is that I think that it makes a lot of sense to have this wedge the way it's being shown here because it really does capture that sight line from midle of
Honor Park all the way into the site and then beyond even to the kind of that magenta View Corridor so those were the two things I'd love to hear more about the the turbine alley and then also all
of these different ingredients that go into the kind of Street Experience and the experience of block a in general we we do have members of the block a team here I do think a couple things do that Linda and we could definitely go to the rest of the
commission on that end we could probably dig those are great comments those are probably things we could probably dig in more as we focus on the Block specific areas but those service drives whether it be the surface treatment um some of the notching at a actually does a very similar thing to see where it actually
tries to cach where the um Service uh parking entry is is long service Drive I think in those future meetings it'll be much more clear how we're treating service drive and trying to termine at or at least delineate that it is separate from the Thomas Edison way
there but the points are very well taken there right right now it reads very similar I don't really see a different character there Urban Design character there as it makes that transition and I think there should be um and just kind of an understanding of of how you want
that to be experienced and maybe if you have time at the end of all the comments we can go back to the ground floor plan of a which was part of the site plan and we can at least get that conversation started but I know there's lots of other Commissioners that have comments yeah and I think that was slide 36 maybe Tim
at least that's what I jotted down um yeah so again the street section looks really similar to me um further down Thomas Edison there and then any comments on the turbine alley yes we would at gansler also be
pleased to speak to that that's sort of the realm we're working on between Block C and turban Hall 3 um we could start that conversation now but I I am noting that other Commissioners have comments so thought um should we hear those first and come back to
it um well I guess at the most Elemental level you know even if you look at this illustrative there's there's really nothing there's nothing interesting that's being shown here in terms of the urban experience along turbine alley and
so I'm just curious about that curious why it's not part of that open space diagram we looked at a second ago and kind of what your thoughts are yeah and I could I could jump in Victor is you know from the diagram's perspective it was kind of linking some of the major Open Spaces we you know actually Linda
what you had said earlier we totally agree that it's it's an important space for the for connecting and especially if you're coming from uh west of the site along East First Street uh actually think it's going to be an a very impressive alternative to going down Summer Street and then turning right
into the site you probably saw it in some of the 3D views better than kind of the diagramming just we actually agree that it's going to be a very special experience I think the facade of Block C needs a little bit more development and study uh and the west facades of the
turbine Hall is going to be porous there's going to be uh connectivity there active activity and you know we're you know showing graphically potentially some lights connecting between and more of an urban scape rather than having like lot like planting and lots of green
there but basically we agree and I think in future meetings we can show you a little bit more about what's happening between the spaces yeah I I I would just add quickly on that as well um you know in terms of um you know it is it's kind
of this this the center of the turbine Precinct in some ways so we we we do love it and the idea of being able to kind of pass along and really celebrate that facade that's never been exposed it's you know if you've been by the site today it's like it's an amazing texture it'll be really cool to see it um I
think as far as the the stretch between um you know Thomas Edison Wayne East first that ground floor of turbine Hall 3 is Civic open is Civic space and the bloxy retail is kind of more towards East first in terms of like real Center of activity retail spill out that kind
of vibrancy of program that's happening a little bit further towards the Waterfront um and so it's you know I think we we've been trying to think about it sort of in its entirety of you know where is the D destination where do you want to stop and where are you kind
of passing through um but uh definitely comments are heard um you know getting into more of what the character of that of that space really wants to be along that stretch all right great I mean your graphics may just not have caught up to kind of some of the ideas that are bubbling so look forward to seeing that
in the future um shaa I saw your hand up earlier but I don't see it anymore no no it was it I took it down just because I thought it was time for for me to start talking and I usually forget to take it down so so thank you and I I think the
presentation was extremely exciting there was a lot of information was very um a little hard to follow just because there was so much information um but and I think it's an extremely exciting project I um I might as well start with
turbine Hall I was actually going to end up that direct no actually I'm going to start with the other spaces and then come back to turbine Hall um um I think that one first of all as I said it's a very
exciting project I um when moving through the green spaces the what what's called the Thomas Edison Plaza but is primarily green um and a lot of the other spaces it may just be the focus on
grading and representation but a lot of it felt more like passage spaces and green spaces and it it could possibly be just the level of development that the project probably is the level of development that the project is in but getting a sense of more how these spaces
are subtly differentiated from each other and what actually takes place in those spaces so so and because there's so many angles and directions there ends up with a lot of triangular pieces that are somewhat similar I I don't have a problem with that in principle I just
want to understand what what the overall character and spatial occupation is um just not not just at the edges but in you know in the middle how do you create differentiation even when I'm coming down the all of the the terorist slopes
I think in development to give it a more more um I wouldn't say sort of um consistent character but a more character that feels um derived from the occupation more so than the movement and again this may just be
representation I was wondering about you know at the end of the the sort of sloping down spaces is this a place where you actually do want to create a somewhat of a performance space so activities can take place and it becomes more of an Amphitheater um and and so
with with all of the and and I don't know if it's the right balance of sort of complex angles in different directions or not yet I think that's that's a you know for me that's an open open um question I think that when there is sort of a level of
relief it also might have been the Victor's videos where you know we we moved around a lot in the animation so so it may just be sort of spatial disorientation but when we got down to the area the lower and the upper Waterfront it was absolutely lovely just
having a little bit of calm in in those spaces and and really exciting and wonderful that of what what those spaces are going to going to become and you know and be and you can Envision yourself in it um and so on a more subtle level with a couple of other
places I I have um have questions one of them is turbine Hall with me the question is really about the grade difference between Block C and the seating steps because the seating steps are somewhat challenging and that you're looking into the side of the building um
so I I'm wondering if there I know that the Florida floor height doesn't look that high for the first floor in Block C but is there a possibility of exploring split floor in some way so that there's given that that side of block SE so much
of it is back of house if there was a more direct relationship to um to the to the turbine Hall passage or the alley um the connector space I think from a level change on that on the Block Seaside just
as it's bracketing the entrance and then of course also also directing it to to the to the street I think you know you've done a really impressive job of all of the you know the the great connections to all of the the floors throughout um I think there's there's
other things block is it I'm not sure which it was if it was Block B where you were walking along the street and it was um there was kind of a balcony that was raised up above the street level I think that that you know
I think in development just the character of that should should go a level further I think that's probably more of an architectural than than a um than a landscape question and then just going through my notes um ultimate a
shade study probably the next time to understand the the shade of the the Sun and shade conditions then the other thing that I thought was first of all these the The Passage through turbine alley or or through
through the turbine building is pretty spectacular in both locations both both in the end and in the middle what I was disappointed with in looking through the mid block connector is is The View on the other side they didn't the view of
the the parking um the parking drop off area from looking from sort of plan South through that passage to to the parking drop off so I think other people may have comments on that that drop off area um and again many of my comments
are are I believe are arily just a the level with respect to the level of development that the project is at um I think I think that's that's enough for now thank you thanks sha um
Bill thank you Linda thank you to the team uh I let me just compliment you on the presentation which I think was unbelievably clear and um uh and done at a pace that we could
all understand it and yet keep going through a very complex project so I compliment you on that I I have long liked this project um certainly two and I would say two or three years ago when it was first
presented to us I felt that the turbine Hall was a powerful way to kind of keep this rooted in its site and um uh and there were certain buildings particularly building D which I was
quite excited about uh I notice now in the comments from uh Community folks uh there one of the comments said they thought the buildings seem
humongous uh an interesting word for a technical setting um uh but but there is a question of heaviness and I Know It heaviness is architectural not
uh about the landscape but since we're going to see some more of the architecture I think it's good to at least raise the question can you show me a view uh looking from the north down Summer Street to the edges of block D
and Block C and this would be an elevation or perspective Kate I'm almost thinking that if we go to our animation and pause it that might probably uh be the best that what uh commissioner Ron's looking for perfect
Victor okay let's stop right there and then we'll let now you youve can you back up a little okay okay let's let's we can stop there and then we'll go down the block a little
more I am troubled by what seems to be a pattern of architectural moves here of having the upper floors uh extend over the sidewalks uh in a way that makes those upper floors feel bigger and
heavier so you see that I'll call it the third floor over overlap uh here and then the fourth floor overlap uh then go down the street a little farther
Kate uh here it comes again at the second level and then keep going please oh all the way why don't we go to Building C okay and right here is fine so these are three or four examples of where the
upper floors extend out over the open space and i' I'm feeling these these buildings are big uh we grant you that but at the same time they're potentially uh uh
very quite handsome and uh I don't remember that building C two years ago had that much of an oper lab over the spaces below but I I could be wrong but I'm finding this repetition along Summer
Street of of extension of upper floors to be disconcerting if one's trying to uh Master the question of heaviness and mass and girth of the project and so I
would love someone to say slightly why that these overlaps are necessary architecturally and whether they can be reviewed uh thank you commissioner on I think I can speak to bloy uh maybe maybe
just before yeah I'm sorry commissioner M Melissa Tru just um to be clear black d was part of phase one and that has been reviewed and you're correct as it relates to Black C that we
didn't have that overhang previously on black SE because it was a residential tower that was set there was a like a t-shaped sort of Podium um and then there was a 200 foot tall uh tower on
black C but when we did the youed swap between C and A that got brought down the building is now a commercial building so it's is bulkier but it but it is lower and how about building PL site c d d is in David block
D is within the footprint and the mass uh that we have been looking at for many years uh in fact it's under the square footage that was originally approved in the master plan we went through the phase one approval with payet the architect of this building they're not
they're not here tonight um because we've been through the BCD a pro process and through bpda board um with them already so those those insets that you're uh referring to were actually um design moves that we worked on largely
with you guys but then also with bpda staff uh in order to create um a little bit larger public realm and also to denote things like where the entries are where the corner is as you're coming up to the street um so those were uh
specific design moves that were worked through quite some time ago well I apologize for bringing up something that it's okay one can say we reviewed and approved but I must say if you're look if we're looking at these buildings
again uh I'm I'm just finding the building seem much heavier than I remembered and uh and uh so I was trying to figure out why and maybe I'm wrong on how I assess that but I do find there's
a there's a heaviness and there's not a lightness uh to these buildings whatsoever along Summer Street and I'm worried about that I I I I we we hear your comment I I would just hope that we're not going to
relitigate black d uh because it's in CDs at this point um and Victor though I think you could probably address some of the the commentary on block on BL c yeah so just a quick summary of where we are here on Block C um we began we
have a series of diagrams that I'm sure will come back to uh when we talk architecture but we essentially began with the zoning envelope and then carved away at it um in in multiple areas um through this folding morphology
um and on the Summer Street facade there are essentially two intersecting moves so what we can see here is the outermost Point okay can you go back the outermost point on what we call the upper mass is the only point along that facade that
actually touches the 30ft setback from Summer Street and in order to address some of the comments on heaviness we created this crease in the center and then fold folded the facade away from that crease so whether you're looking at the building from the North or from the
south you're you're really perceiving only half of that facade on your side of the of the crease um and then at the lower portion which then creates the overhang um none of that base actually
um comes all the way to the 30 foot setback it is all pulled back from the setback and then further folds inward um to architecturally communicate where the building entrance is and as I mentioned
to create this linear Plaza along Summer Street um both to give that pedestrian space a little Breathing Room accommodate the bikes and some outdoor programming for retail now the resultant of those folds is that a portion of the
upper Mass hangs over the lower Mass which we think provides an inherent canopy and shelter for um for the entrance so obviously all arguable points but these folds all pull away from the zoning massing and fold in way
to mitigate um the mass and the sense of heaviness that's the intent well I I I'm certainly cognizant that if all these buildings had just flat facades that started the sidewalk and went to the um
perits uh that th those could be deadly dull so I fully understand that just pardon this noise um I just I'm a little worried that the
um party is and I hear you Victor uh very well and you've answered my question to some degree but I'm just uh a tad worried that this heaviness uh is going to get us into trouble
so that's my comment for and I know I know Victor and others we'll we'll be taking a closer look at this building in um future subcommittee so realized and so I'm hoping Bill we might maybe even just see the Genesis of
some of the the crease and the setbacks and things like that as well good to start the discussion though thank you for those comments thank you David oh thanks Linda um can we first of all I I've got a I've got to join the
course um this was really an excellent presentation uh and from the the diagrams um that explained your process uh and the animations I'm thinking that when we have multi building multi-block
projects we should make that if we can't have models and we can't be together then we should make mandatory that kind of walk around the site at its perimeter and through its major Pathways uh as a
pedestrian exactly what you did uh and I Echo B uh you did it at a pace that um most times when I see animations I just want to tell you to stop it's too fast I I carck you get car sick I haven't
absorbed it yet but yet the pace was really good the thoroughness of walking around I really do feel I understand it so much better um two or three things um number one if you could go to 47 which is the same one Linda asked you to go
to th this I I found this to be a very um powerful uh is that 47 I'm sorry then I got the wrong one um but I can use this one uh that yeah that's fine that's maybe I have the I
have the right one I have the right one um this made me think that um I I like this diagram a lot uh it it makes me think that there's um this kind of
industrial um assemblage of buildings of different types um uh that were all contained uh at one point in time by a fence um and happened in the happened in the
sort of middle of a city that had a very regular grid of streets you can find this replicated in in power plant sites like this and Steel Yard steel mill kind of sites like this uh shipyards because the buildings kind
of came um not you know one at a time and sometimes it was organized and sometimes it was it was a little bit halfhazard and what this diagram explains to me is
um there is this hard edged summer and uh in East First Street and even against the the the channel uh and then to the North and then in the middle there's there's this irregularity as if you're driving you're not only driving through buildings you're driving around
buildings you know in a way that when you know you get a tour of these kinds of sites you you almost get a little bit disoriented because um you you're you're driving around in the middle and and um there's Alleyways and all of that I find
very fascinating and I think that the inter your interior pathway of Thomas Edison uh the explanation that Jared gave was really good I mean I it it um it it really crystallized for me the
this kind of Distinction of the edge to City and the interior path that was once part of a hole meaning this giant this giant um Energy power plant um but that now is not now is made up of these
disparate Parts um and and I think as a diagram that's that's really very powerful um I I I stole a little strug I struggled a little bit and Bill Bill hit on uh and shaa hit on a couple things
that um trouble me a little bit and and and um one of them is and they're related to each other one of them is I think Shauna said I don't know yet what to think about the triangular pieces and
I'm not sure I know yet what to think about those triangular pieces which are mostly site related a little bit building related and is there is there too many of them and what Bill what I
um not that we well I'll I'll speak for myself block D is very strong I think that um there's no desire to go back and and reexamine it but I wonder if it's a
if it's a theme used too often uh and that's one of the things of the of the walkth through that uh I thought of Bill said it very well he talked about the heaviness I thought I was thinking about as I as you walked us around all the
perimeters that there was a lot of places where things were over my head and I I wondered about if that was comfortable as as pedestrian ways um and and and it seems to be it seems to be a
theme it seems I don't I don't I don't think it is but it just seems to be a repeated um strategy um that maybe is repeated once or twice too often um
uh um that was and then there was there was oh I know there's one there's a third point I wanted to make and that was this probably the thing that I I'm still unconvinced of is at the very center which is so important that where Thomas
Edison um turns you know whichever direction you're coming from um the the there's an awful lot of vehicular intersection going on there the drop off of the hotel the access to
parking and the service and I and and I get it your service has got to come off Thomas Edison um you want to get to the front door of the hotel and I was starting to resolve all that in my mind and then when I got to the animation I
guess I never realized and I should have because you gave us all those all that grading information that that at that point the car is actually elevated the at the drop off which made it even more of a tangle for me and I I I wonder
about that as a pedestrian if I'm really going to be comfortable on that edge of let's see the on the west I'm sorry on the north side of Thomas Edison as a pedestrian with all everything that's going on my relationship as a pedestrian
to the cars um crossing a driveway a service drive another driveway um and I'm not sure whe in parkings in in here somewhere uh I'm not sure that and and then the grades troubled me there when I realized that
car was up I'm not sure how much but sidewalk when I was on the sidewalk and the car was up felt like almost eye level I'm sure it's not that high but um I'm I'm not convinced of what's happening on the east side of Blocky is
part of public realm and and um I don't want to ask you to go through the the animation again but um I would ask you to go through the animation again uh to see all those grades but and I I'll I'll repeat what
others have said this this is a wonderful project um and um it there's so many good things here about what you're doing um and I think we're we're we're focused on a few more things to look
at thank you David and I know you know we've got two subcommittees to come one of them's a double oh yeah there it is there it is yeah and there's where you kind of have to actually realign yourself as a pedestrian and get back on the sidewalk over the service and
parking access which is tricky it's actually it's not about the the reason the view shifts to the right uh commissioner eastley is actually about where The Pedestrian only opening
through the turbine Halls is happening understood yeah but when you come through that opening you then have to kind of turn right and then align yourself left because you're you're um you're you're dumped out really in the service Drive yeah yeah because for the
the main pass through we only have enough width and we're taking down a bay right so so we're occupying like two bays and putting in a new lentil there but we only have enough width to fit in V vehicular Pathways with the cycle
track so we don't enough space to get through um on the one side the pedestrians right and I think that the the way you come out of that is perfectly solvable um yeah just um a if you could put that view back up this is
a little bit of an aside but the shaping of uh you know we we studied this View for the slight rotation of block a and the carving of block a too that this is this is a place where that prominent corner of block a
starts to terminate the street and one of the one of the advantages of slightly rotating that North Face of a is it closes down that new Corridor to no will otherwise that that zooms off into MBTA and substation land so it it made
the minous of Thomas Edison much more satisfying than having that be orthogonal and also just add it's it's obviously not the answer everywhere um but you know the that U we did bias the drop off and the drive a little bit
closer to the buildings in order to widen that planting zone um in between the sidewalk um and the and the drive um the idea being that there we could really work with a plant pallet um you know to to help SC screen or to really
kind of you know make the the sidewalk feel um a little bit more welcoming but then also you know perhaps mitigate some of that visual impact of of of the cars there and and and and U answering commissioner Easley's very early
comments um there's a a a scrim of trees down service Drive about halfway down that separate the active pedestrian edge of block a from the service area behind which isn't quite clear in the diagram you can see the row trees that and then
behind it is really like a service plaza and that's because there's active edges along that edge of block a but when we get into the building by building subcommittee meetings we can watch each other yeah that would be great I mean at that point I feel like at the inflection of that road I almost want the service
drive to to disappear or become kind of narrower for that use so that it doesn't necessarily be become a primary pedestrian Zone but the triangle I liked what David said you know triangles triangles everywhere but that triangle encourages as The Pedestrian to kind of
hang out there and I'm just not sure that those are in concert with each other um but thank you all for the presentation and um for the Commissioners for your comments I know we want to shift to public comment now I
actually have another commitment at 6:30 so Christina I'm going going to um shift the public comment over to you if I can and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in in the next two
subcommittees so thank you so much commissioner thank you thank you thank you thank you at this time we'd like to invite any members of the public in attendance who may wish to contribute public testimony to raise your digital hand and staff will call on you if
you're calling in by phone dial Star to activate the raise hand function and star 6 to mute and unmute yourself please state your name and any relevant project affiliation information and please keep your comments to two minutes just giving a couple seconds for
anyone to raise their hands we wish to provide public testimony okay commissioner I have no raised hands at this time oh Christina I have a raised hand as a commissioner oh you do yes well please go
ahead and let me just I I just want to thank David manfredy for his comment about this being a a wonderful template for future presentations we might have of complex projects like this and I just
would uh suggest to us Commissioners but also the staff to encourage uh following the the uh the clarity of this presentation and trying to replicate that on other similar
complex projects we would be happy to commissioner Ron I'm worried though that if you said you had a hand raised and I did not see it that maybe others from the public had a hand raised I did not see is there anybody who wishes to provide public
testimony uh well I learned I learned today how how to raise my hand and there I have a ra do you see it raised no no actually I do not okay
which is concerning to me so is there anyone is there anyone who would like to provide public testimony who can put something in the chat oh I see shaa I see yes I see some it was it was just a test excellent much appreciated it gives me
anxiety that I can't see anybody's hands raised okay and we saw bills too yes so we will close public testimony um thank you Commissioners for your time no votes needed since this is subcommittee and I think we're all clear on that the
team will be coming back to a future subcommittee session so um with that I thank members of the public and the Commissioners and the presenters for their time this evening I think we can call this meeting adjourned thank you than you thank you Commissioners thank you everyone thank
you thank you good night Part: 2
the recording okay good evening everybody and thank you all for joining us for a design subcommittee meeting of the Boston Civic design commission today's date is Tuesday February 18th and this is session a of the bcdc design subcommittee the
planning department continues to host public meetings in a virtual setting for the health safety and accessibility of Boston residents I am Seth Risman deputy director of design review at the city of Boston planning department before we proceed with the agenda the open meeting law requires that I notify the public
that this meeting is being recorded therefore Please be aware that the commission staff is making an audio and video recording of this meeting please turn off your camera and microphone if you do not wish to be recorded uh for purposes of the record uh the following Commissioners are
present uh commissioner karus commissioner lenau commissioner moris and commission Solano Katherine Morris I saw that you just joined I'm going to be elevating you to co-host now okay tonight's agenda will include a
presentation for 262 St Bal Street Fenway also known as the multi-purpose athletic center associated with the nor Eastern University 10year imp tonight's meeting procedures uh will follow the typical bcdc sub committee meeting
format beginning with a brief presentation from the proponent comments from bcdc Commissioners and public testimony a proposed project at this location is seeking article 80b large project entitlement associated with the application for article 80d imp
entitlement for the 10-year institutional master plan for nor Eastern University and contemplates the demolition of the existing Matthews Arena and development of approximately 290,000 sare ft of University use in a single building on an approximately 2.25
Acre Site this will be the third presentation of the proposed project to the subcommittee following an introduction on June 25th monthly meeting and subsequent design subcommittee meetings on August 20th and October 22nd it is my understanding that
there are no Commissioners present who intend to recuse themselves a reminder to proponent teams that presentations will be limited to 15 minutes and I will give presenters a halftime and two-minute warning and with that I invite the proponent team to begin presenting whenever
ready uh I'll just take less than a minute because I haven't been at the previous meetings I just want to make sure I'm introducing myself Kathy spiegelman uh I'm the vice president for planning real estate and facilities at North Eastern and um it is my team that
is supporting this project and we'll use the 15 minutes for Brian and the the Perkinson will team to share where we are an update from the previous meetings and then we're all here to answer questions so thank
you thank you all this is uh I'm Brian shael I'm a design director at Perkins of will happy to be part of this and as again this is our third meeting with the subcommittee and I want to start by acknowledging that the comments that have been made have really led to a lot of progress that we the design team and the client have really found to be
improvements in the process and the design so we'll address a series of these comments and suggestions by showing progress on the primary campus entries in addition to the more thorough representation of the design in a greater context as was requested as well as some open space
updates first as a brief reminder of the program this is an arena for events including hockey basketball and convocation combined with the significant Recreation elements of uh basketball Fitness and a large flexible roof Turf area as well as men's and
basket uh men's and women's uh basketball uh uh Team spaces to fit in the site we have stacked the many these many elements in a unique way including in the some long spans on top of each other we've shifted the masses where appropriate and achievable to enliven the masses massing and relate to the
adjacent contexts and maximize public outdoor space the outdoor space creates covered queuing spaces for the events winter sports as a focus as well as expanded public realm with integrated seating and Landscape Elements which we will go through later this is a really interesting
combination of programs and one that're really aware of uh we're not really aware of a precedent on an urban site like this so we're really excited to highlight this combination and are intentionally wrapping the building with a continuous ribbon of masonry we have broken down the facade with fenestration
that allows light and Views at strategic locations while maintaining our strong sustainable goals we're shooting towards net zero energy as well as living building core challenge we've added additional detailing in the masonry with the so uh with solar fins and key locations as well as pops of warmth in
the window detailing and other elements to further break down and the mass curved corners and details as well as some new developments highlighting the anti anticipated High use stairways relate to an echo the movement and activity within the project so to start with we'd like to
show the design in a bit more context and in different lighting and weather conditions to address some of the comments we heard this is a view that you've seen before slightly tweaked uh from the St Bal and Gainesboro corner and really the main entry the Deep cuts are very evident here in the massing to
break down the scale and here you can also see we've added warmer elements and enlarged the height of some of the fenestration to give you a slightly more open scale while we still prefer the manganese iron spot that we presented we have done a lot to make the building lighter and more welcoming in other ways
more transparency were relevant more playful compositions which you can see throughout the presentation and more warmth and accents as well as playing with the Sheen and reflectivity of the materials uh here you can see a night view uh that really highlights the
transparencies of the lobbies the fitness spaces and of the main Concourse which you'll see actually in other images that really will pop at night when most of the events actually occur so we think this is a great benefit and really warm and inviting as well in a gray or even snowy weather we
are still confident in the mass and the sheen of the brick allows for an interesting dynamism in all conditions it will be bright sometimes it will be dark in other times and which we feel this adds interest throughout the day and throughout the season uh that that you'll experience the building in we've added some images from
further out uh to see the in a larger context that suggested as well here is a view from Huntington and Gainesboro and you can see in many of these images we have dashed in the anticipated Mass being suggested in the institutional master plan uh over the existing conditions so you can see the what's
anticipated right now I'm going through the city in this process here's a view from farther west on Gainesboro basically coming from the campus so again you can see future uh uh uh plann development here and the scale of our project in its
context again from uh AC cross massav over the massav uh t- stop you can see we're actually coincidentally I would say picking up some of the curves on the building but I would also say that we're picking up some of the curves of the the Boston Fabric and the the bow Windows
which I think is important and has been part of our discussions from the beginning so the design is uh evolved throughout in detail but we have addressed a few key locations that you've commented on in a larger scale the first is the South facade and in particular the southwest corner this is
what we showed you last time and there was a quest to break this down more and add a bit bit more scale to the elements there's a little bit of a consistency I think we could be worked upon this demonstrates our suggested uh uh um uh progress and updates we have
added a lot more variety to the fenestration on this side and additionally we have looked for more ways to highlight and actually encourage the movement through the building we replan the core in this corner to uh allow for added glazing within a stair that really we see as the main um
vertical circulation for the wreck components throughout the building as they walk up it adds a very different scale to the building than what we saw previous slide and encourages and highlights the movement throughout the building we anticipate this corner stairway being a popular means to navigate the wck spaces additionally at
the base of the building we've added a dark base and separated that from a strip of glazing to give more scale at The Pedestrian uh experience but also bring light into the hockey lounges and locker rooms which would obviously be
obscured next slide is a sort of a a raised elevational view demonstrating the variety of scale scales of openings as the strategy to enlarge the perception of the openings with uh directional uh curving masonry jams leads into the opening so you can see in
this side and also on the St patal side we're sort of sliding in as we've shown in the past to extend the dimension of these of these apertures and I want to add here that the planning for the arena uh really fits in a way that uh sort of
the restrooms and and uh U uh many concessions are on this side to allow for the saol transparency on the main con you'll see that later as well as the upper con which has some uh some windows into the hospitality areas this slide is from Carter fields that
you're looking at here again addressing uh how this scale move uh uh U makes a difference from from afar as well and then finally a view uh from the t- stop as best we can uh This Is A View From the t- stop looking towards that South
facade uh again the variety of scale of the windows as well as uh the stairway which is being coordinated to better it will be better aligned with this opening but really enlivening providing views out as you walk up and daylight in so we think these differences have been substantial and we hope you're you're
liking those uh to further oops sorry to further demonstrate the scale of the building in the context here are some views of a model which we've actually been utilizing in our studies leading up throughout the whole design shown here in the dash lines is again
the Imp masses as well as the planned residential high-rise uh on Huntington to the north this demonstrates the scale and relationship the spaces between uh the buildings as well as uh indicating a green roof on the west and North sides which was deal which will'll add a
little detail in this conversation as we move uh forward through the presentation should also be noted here that we are planning for a full PV array covering the majority of the upper roof as well as a series of skylights to bring daylight to the core of the large uh long span
spaces Lynn you want to take it from here about halftime y thank you um I'm Lyn principal of Studio 2112 landscape architecture and I just wanted to talk about how we've related the landscape concept to the building itself so we
really see this as an echo of not only the form language coming off of the building but what the program of the building is doing and how it begins to deploy in the landscape the landscape is very programmatically driven um and as
we start to look at this we understand that there is a core of activity right that relates inside the building we're taking that program and pulling it to the outside so that first lamination of landscape which is under the overhang on a day-to-day basis it's really movement
and occupation both on the Gainesboro side and on the St Bal side where the column line fits on the gainsboro side and then that edge of the public realm that's our porous Edge and then we move out to the greater public realm context so what really pivots for us is when we
go to an event day that first lamination that first Echo there really needs to become queuing and movement so that's been a big programmatic driver and what we can and can't do in this space in the landscape so if we go
forward what we're really doing here is you start to see in the landscape how the pavement patterns um fixed benches other elements really take a a hint from the form language of the building and it starts to deploy out in different Fashions um and so the pavement also
really helps guide you to the various doors but what's happening is that between the column line and the face of the building on Gainesboro that needs to be our queuing zone for major events so we need to really provide a lot of
flexibility in that space so that we can have those queuing events happen but on a day-to-day basis there's still fixed benches and Furnishings in there but they work with that flow of the queuing so that's really been a big driver for us um and then we look at the St Bal
side if you go back one Brian for one second please um if we go to the St Bal side we also have queuing at that auxiliary entry and the East entry so you'll see where the landscape elements begin to deploy they support the queuing movement but they still have activity on
a day-to-day basis so now if we go forward we start to see what this looks like in three dimensions we've really tried to pull the dynamic aspects of you know movement and and athleticism that are happening in the building to be these kind of ribbons of granite benches
that pull push and pull we've worked to add warm materials um to make it a little more friendly and inviting so we have wood Tops on the granite benches and then we also have age friendly Universal seating types in our pods that we've created they have backs they're
wood they have armrest also um so this really starts to show you between the column line here and the face of the building that T support queuing we've tested it so on a day-to-day basis you still have um fixed areas in there so
movement and occupation can happen but when we have major events those pavement patterns actually help Define the lines of queuing areas this is just another view I know Brian's going to talk a little bit about how the massing relates to what's going
to happen in the future with the Imp but this is looking back towards the te and you start to see this kind of layered condition we have the ballards here um security has been safety of the people in the plaza has been something that we've all been paying quite a lot of attention to but you see the main entry
and the main door here in the Dynamics of the of those kind of flowing benches good um and then this is the view our back is to the tea here we are able to have one raised planter we'd get good nice South light here and so we're working with the team on what's the most
appropriate aspect but we can get some small trees in there we're working with um nor Eastern on the idea of a crevice Garden but you start to see where the pods start to Define um the end of those queuing lines between the column and the face of the building so the wreck entry
always has clear access then we have our porous Edge and our um access to the public realm on the left hand side oops this is a closer view you start to see how there the LAN anguage of the
wood tops from the granite benches relate to our seating pods and that'll pull around to the north side too of um when we start to look at St Bal but you get a great view into the lobby and still provide active seating on a day-to-day basis but that queuing area
is really protected between the column line and the face of the building when that happens but there's a lot of fun things that are out here in the landscape um every day the one thing I want to add here is this line if you'll follow my cursor is really the the line where the curtain wall meets the ceiling
so we have had this warm mirrored ceiling that we've talked about before but we've really triy to uh enhance this have sort of a knife edge at the perimeter so it is an abstraction but really trying to have something that that fully engages uh uh the uh the public as the entrance about two minutes
left okay we got a cruise okay so on this side um Brian we'll be showing a little bit more studies about what our branding element is here but we have the wood so there's a lot of materiality consistency between what's happening on St Bal and Gainesboro but they kind of deploy in a little bit of a different
fashion yeah again one thing I want to talked about before is the transparency of the main Concourse so this curtain wall up above is really the main Concourse will have a lot of activity uh uh on the uh on the interior so we do have a green roof on level five um the roof Terrace we can
talk about briefly here if you go forward Brian this is really meant to be used by by Northeastern for um you know we see this as a as a breakout space for you know yoga and other other types of activities there but there is a green
roof so there's occupiable space and then there's also extensive green roof around the edge we have four more slides on one more topic uh finally we want to show the improvements we've made to the northeast corner which faces massav so though it's not really the primary entry and not intended to be the primary and
it's not on a primary Street I would say we agree that there's an opportunity here to add interest and become more welcoming so this is what you saw before and what we are proposing so we have replanned the area in this corner as well so that uh within this glass Mass it contains a sculptural stair that not
only leads to the main and upper Concourse including the student sections but also up the full height of the building to the top floor where the basketball team spaces are so we anticipate this being used all the way so in doing so in recognizing that reworking that we found an opportunity
to really open up a slot of glass all the way up the building uh which really highlights that space again makes it more welcoming and interesting we've also extended the iconography that you saw on the main entry where the black wall with The Branding element again leads to and provides a way finding uh
between the for the entry here's a view of it at night you can see this uh right now what we're showing is a red stair poking through and it will weave up the building uh within this volume uh that we again think is really enlivening the space and the the experience of going to a game or event after hours finally the
last view here's from massab showing this an overall uh context from this view again with the Imp mass in the background overall we think the design and the site are very unique and we've taken into account the comments and suggestions to make this facility really appreciate from afar in its massing from
the approach in its articulation and one adjacent in its details its pops of warmth reflectivity and the development of its public space so we want to thank you again for all the comments you've made and led to this better improvements of the design and we hope we're addressing them and that they're well received so uh that's it we'll open up
the discussion thank you team and I'll turn it over to the Commissioners now um we do not have one of the co-chairs uh on this evening so I guess i' I'd like to ask uh uh an Katherine an Marie Katherine Kathy and Laura um whoever
would like to dive in please do so I'm happy to jump in Could you um go back one slide yep um so again thank you for your for the additional um information I think I still am
interested I guess one of the challenges or one of the things I'm struggling with is I understand the program of the building um you've very clearly articulated the intent Your Design intent whether it's the architecture or the landscape what I do not understand
is how the building how how the project including the architecture and the landscape architecture relate and respond to the surrounding context and I I I asked you to go to this slide spec no previous
slide yes well actually both these slides um illustrate the diversity of the surrounding context uh including the materials the palletes and I really appreciate the attention to the design of the brick and the articulation of the
brick in your design I I think it's it's something I I really like the texture of it but I it is all very monotone in a lot of ways and has a very distinct attitude um that almost isolates itself
from the surrounding context and I one thing I don't recall seeing in this presentation or or the pre at least previous one I was involved in is just a you know kind of an analysis of the surrounding context you have some something like that
available we do and and you know could probably present for a long time on this so let me try to find out some of the slides that I think you're probably referring to and I need to switch screens and you could also discuss it but it's just something that you know as
a commissioner serving on this commission I just always like to think about you know as an architect an urban planner and designer how this relates and I think you you while it's you know not a you know it you're very close to the South End you are um there are other
there's other interesting architecture happening whether it's the New England Conservatory and um just think uh you know I just look for that richness of you know how you respond to that yeah
each and the and the campus the intent of the campus design as a whole right and I'll I'll start with this slide and and the campus has always been decidedly different think in the immediate context it has been it started with these uh and then continues even to this day to have
a very rich and diverse fabric that is established of architectural Styles and materiality um I will say that this is a very extremely diverse area for materiality and you can see that here and I think uh uh there is a uh
consistency of some materiality with when especially when you look at the south end but I would say there's a much more as soon as you pass through um uh massav into the campus along St Bal in particular or anywhere on the campus actually there's a they're decidedly different uh materiality that that we've
acknowledged and discussed in the past I also think that this view in particular I keep going back to is is this context is unique it's not uh it's not for for for for a space like this it's you know it's not a huge Arena so the site is very appropriate it's got great access
but it's not on St Bal or it's not on mass Aven it's not on huntingt it's it's one step removed so in our response it doesn't really want to just uh it wants to be a lot more subtle than maybe another Arena would in a different location because it doesn't really uh uh
have that uh um uh super public front I would say so that's one of the reasons that's led to that from a standpoint of the architecture I would say that we've sorry I'll climb back here I mean we picked up some of the softness of some of these Corners in an abstract way and
again I think there is some except for the the the Brick detailing uh throughout the south end we have picked up some of these with just subtle I would say abstract curves and as you go into it we've acknowledged some of the warmth this is not a great example of the view but we've acknowledged some of
the warmth through this sort of champagne color and the detailing and the sofits that happen throughout as well as the texture so I in my opinion there's a diverse set of of uh uh pallets to really relate to or not relate to but it's there there's a lot
going on in this area we're trying to actually purposefully wrap this in a more uh holistic or continuous ribbon and can you just clarify the public access I I thought I understood from previous presentations that this is
intended to have some Community benefit I just want to make sure I understand that absolutely will uh um this is a lot you know obviously it's holding events to the the community will use certainly the university community as well for the wreck but I think it's the
in in its program in itself it's going to be more of a public facing space for hockey games for basketball so what I meant by the public access is I think this would be an entirely different design challenge if it was on massab and or Huntington
Avenue it's one step removed I think I'd also just like to add that it's going to be a complete transformation along Gainesboro Street um if for the streetcape and all of that I mean there's nothing there now with respect to Street trees or anything along those lines so having a larger um overhang
covered space is an amenity that does not exist today in addition to any Street trees or streetcape along that side okay thank you I'm I'm seeing a little bit differently when I'm looking at Google Earth view but I'm going to let my fellow Commissioners um chime in
thank thank you well um I'll just add um because I agree with with those comments but um there's so much about this building that I like in in at a a closeup range on um
the articulation of the brick and and such I appreciate that you've toned down the color or you've you've warmed up the um that or created new tonal changes through some warmer um color
choices um and yet I I I think it can go further um and I'm particularly still concerned about the edge that you were just showing us um I think this view is is very lovely and faces into the campus
and um and suggests that that this is the um substantial point of entry this thank you for that um this still feels um
uh like a like a back door um and rather than an edge that is your first point of access when you're arriving um down um this this particular Street and while I appreciate what you've done with the ver
vertical element that you've installed I think it it continues to perpetuate um a a darkness that I think um this corner does not need any more of
I think that it I guess I wonder if this vertical element might be a point at which you might assert um a a complementary but a distinctive um color contrast or I mean I don't mean a big
color contrast but something uh either material or or something else that creates a little bit more um lightness and opportunity to welcome um or something that suggests a door opening
here and and please don't take me literally I mean um so it it just feels um I appreciate what you've done I think it helps I think it helps but I I think the
darkness takes away from the success of it yeah this is a this is something we've looked at a lot together and we're going to continue to uh uh discuss um but I liked your nighttime view with the
red stairs um uh standing out now I I don't know that it will ever be exactly like that but but I think that again this is during the day um this corner needs something to say you've arrived and you're welcome here
here and maybe commissioner karus if I could ask a question um maybe while we're on this corner Brian I'm wondering if you could take us a little bit through the logic of why you chose to put the sort of break where you did the vertical element
did you explore looking at it you know on the St Bal side where there is that sort of you know the existing threshold today and I know you're changing the access uh routes from what we have in the current Arena but you know a statement that's maybe a little bit more
frontal or visible on stal I mean there's a number of reasons one I would say just to clarify I think sounds like everybody understands this but just you're actually entering this it's a little weird because you want to walk around this sort of I'll call a vestibule or a Lobby and enter from the
other side which allows for the queuing as opposed to what is there right now you're basically queuing in the street right it's very difficult so we're trying to achieve that which is what Lynn was going after we have explored opening this corner more uh actually completely we've explored pulling this all the way back but what happens is it
it it it it compositionally it looked very strange we rendered that we modeled it uh it it lacks the continuity of the of the concept uh and it actually in my mind it it again hints that you're entering you know becomes basically a
very frontal entry off of uh uh St Bal as opposed to I mean right now we're sort of trying we're mediating between the East and the West Ends and trying to not want people to enter on the east or the North side so really trying to grab people on the other it's it's a
challenge I'm I'm not I'm not uh disagreeing and we've scrutinize this a lot probably the most since the last meeting trying to come up with many different options to consider so it in my opinion it looked very awkward when we pulled this back to that whole Lobby
I think this will be an amazing space in here and I think uh the desire uh we've discussed to try to maintain some curves is what's holding this uh this edge here uh but we've looked at several other options and we can uh we can I
appreciate the comments I do think again because of the challenge it kind of wants to be an entry and kind of doesn't want to be an entry from this view but you want to be hinted at the opportunity to enter and go up a Stairway that was What's led to this well you want to draw people
towards the building right yes I think that's kind what what Kathy your comment you know I think that's at least that's a comment that I raised in a a previous meeting was just how to because the because you've created such a
distinctive object with your architecture um and you've been very consistent in the way you've approached it I'm looking for you know that that's you know again it's distinctive it's memorable but I'm just looking for those
cues you know from a a planning perspective from a pedestrian perspective that signal ah this is where that entrance is and in part because the landscape I would agree the the context is um there's a there is a lot of
variation within the existing context which I think is something that makes it you know which can create a lot of visual interest but then it also can also it can also be disruptive or confusing yep think all the more reason that maybe it's not about it's about
signaling come here whether or not it's you know this is where we want you to enter the building could we look at the plan I think that's slide 29 and can you explain how the let me go to you have one before
that can you explain how the the entries work a little bit and certainly so there are actually I would say four entries to the building three of which are sort of event mode okay so we think uh the majority since it's a
university building we really prioritize the main entry to be off of uh gainsb St patal of this corner so the main entry you can follow my cursor is right here so there's queuing and we've we've uh laid out uh the number of people these are actually each individual that we
anticipate for the flows that we need the queing goes along and a series of lanes that enters here to go into the event uh the wreck entry is down here and during non-events it may uh be through both entries but it leads to the same space auxiliary entry here is uh
for Hospitality spaces that it's a smaller more discret entry with its own stairway up and its own or a shared elevator and then the East entry which is secondary we anybody can go in there but we are gearing towards the sort of the new dogghouse being at this end and
so we anticipate uh mostly students coming in here uh that know uh that will be familiar with the building uh and coming up and going up to the upper conon and feeding down into the dogghouse so in this is event queuing
which is really helpful to see but in the day today where where is circulation going to happen so there again the the the main entry uh has the possibility it's an operational decision by the university but it has a possibility to
uh also be the wreck entry with a secured uh uh stairway that would otherwise lead to them to the event space so we see this entire thing potentially being a wreck Lobby if not it's a smaller wck Lobby that goes straight into the wreck core this the
the remaining two entries are more likely just athletes student athletes so hockey and basketball athletes would would uh would be able to utilize to the other entries as well so there wouldn't be as much activity on St bolov is that
right not on the day-to-day basis not from a queuing standpoint I do feel that this is a still a potential to uh allow for public space public use of the uh Hardscape there but uh that's the that's the intent yeah what so what would what
would draw people to that area um I mean I think that the the ele ation that you've shown on Gainesboro is really strong and I think has come a long way particularly with the addition of the
the wood fins but what will draw people here so this again I there's two things that we're planning here and we're working on that for upcoming presentations internally but this red zone is a placeholder for storytelling and we're anticipating there's a lot of
events uh that have happened in the in the existing um uh Matthews Arena that are that are interesting and important ranging from the doors to Muhammad Ali to presidential uh speeches as well as some interesting history to the building itself that is standing there more
specifically I would say to what uh was there originally so there's a there's a there's there's a Zone behind this uh I we'll call it cliche but we'll call it an Instagram moment the Husky sign here that we're working on uh uh as well but the goal is for this to add interest for
someone to engage and learn about the history of of the place there's additional seating elements with along the stretch of this as well and then what's behind this facade that facade is locker rooms down
below I mean it's really there's been since the beginning we looked for opportunities to get daylight down there and break it D but it really has no desire to have any daylight or or Windows in there and there's certainly privacy issues there's also uh uh you
know sort of a some rigid structure there to help with uh lateral loads as well going in the east west Dimension or Direction and remind us what the materials are in that facade Behind The Branding so this is a metal panel with a
granite base dark Granite base and then up above these are actually metal warm metal fins that are in this case they're not doing much performatively because it's under the it's on sort of the northish side and on the uh uh underneath the overhang but we are
trying to add some Rhythm to this so we have a sort of a butt glaze system here with a fin and every other one to give it a little more texture and scale and then the it's an interesting question about what we'll happen on this on St Bal right now it's a parking lot
and across the street I think New England Conservatory they got a Federal grant they spent a lot of money on trying to um make the sidewalk wide and have seating there's never anybody there you know it's a dormatory it's got a food service on the first floor but it there
isn't a lot of activity here except for the flow of people going back and forth to the New England Conservatory or the northeastern campuses so I think the History part is likely to be of interest during queuing but the question is can
we put something sculptural or interesting in the space that might people to think about it as a public place to sit be instead of just pass through can I Circle back on something and I it has to do with um
that corner for sov and um massav uh where you all had changed um yes that one yep I have a question and that is um just thinking about um folks who come to the
facilities outside the student using those facilities um and most people know to come from massav and turn on to same P um is this the impression is this the first thing that
you want them to see that will guide them to be excited about going entering into the building because currently as is it does not feel that way like the the amount of um energy spent on the the
entrance way this is the first impression someone's going to get when they turn onto that street um that uh may affect if they want to go any further down so I'm asking that question because it does affect the
things you it sounds like you all work on about how to address this but that's the overall question I have about is this the first impression you want to make coming from that massav side turning on the S P moving forward I mean from my standpoint I think it is
engaging it sounds like there's work to be done based on the comments I'm hearing which which I which I appreciate but I I do think as you come off of the tea and you're coming around there is there is interest here I mean there's there's transparency whether it's daytime or nighttime there is activity
here uh and certainly I think the uh articulation of not only the curves but the texture are are intriguing I mean I I mean you look at the context I think there's there's some some play some abstractions of some of that in the
context and I think it's I do think it's intriguing I mean I I I understand there's a maybe a desire to look at opening it up more which we can talk about but I I do it is intentional I guess is to answer your question directly um Brian it would be uh helpful
if we could look at where the building was in October sort of uh facade by facade and that can be done in perspectives for sure these views of before and after yeah this is we have before and after of this one yeah can we go all the way
around the building and then we'll come back and talk about specific ones this one is I I'll tell you what's changed uh in this we we've raised this a little bit to get this whole datum a little bit to get as much light as we can and and
then we hit the slab so it becomes kind of uh pointless to go any farther and more expensive and more difficult but I think this we've raised this uh this datam here that enlivens that we have added some more texture uh throughout the building as well uh that we think
addresses that I don't have the before but conceptually I think this is pretty similar to what it was except for maybe the texture up on top um and and Brian I think that this is probably one of the most successful elevations and changes I
to me to my memory certainly that side has really lightened up and has a great uh forward face for the the campus as you head towards the campus y so let's see this one so this is the before there was a lot more solidity down here and
there was uh what I interpreted to some of the comments is breaking it down and not having sort of the consistency here and also dealing with the base a little bit U more uh uh a little bit better so what we've done is we've reworked the planning of this to allow for the uh the
better utilization of adding more glass here and we've sort of combined some elements to make bigger moves to really address different scales of moves on this on this facade as well as the base so we've added a base here that's darker uh we take a beating but it's not the
the whole thing coming to the ground there's been discussions about that in the past as well I can't remember who mentioned uh this in particular but that's something we wanted to address here as well actually if you could pause on this image sorry just what you just
described about what you did in terms of the broader elevation I just encourage you to think about how you can take that and address it at a pedestrian scale you
know at at the base of the building so you've been you've been successful I think you you you know you you've been successful in addressing some of our earlier comments about how you break down the scale of the overall mass and I don't want I don't want to take don't go back
I not asking you to go back to other slides right now I'm just trying to add a layer of of commentary to addressing because everything you know how how you address The Pedestrian scale the design of The Pedestrian scale of the
building right and and I I this is the kind of a partial elevation of seov and I think there's a lot going on here that that does engage it between the landscape which I think is actually out of date in this particular image but
this whatever this element becomes as well as the story whether it's a big graphic or it's actually you want to get close and read it if you haven't already but I do think there is a lot of attention that we've had we haven't presented maybe in this look because we had in the past is this what you're discussing or do you mean other part
building but you're showing us so many of the images that you're showing us are of are very large scale building facade and just I just encourage you to think about taking that attention and that approach to you know the texture and
scale of somebody walking by the building so this provides a little hint of that yeah that can you do something to break down the scale so it's not you know at that if you zoom into to where those three people are standing there yeah you know that's what I'd like to
better understand on a street that as everybody is commented you know you showed on a a plan a floor plan a diagram indicating and as as commissioner Morris said this is a a pathway for people to come to the campus to enter the building from Massachusetts
Avenue so you know this is an opportunity for the architecture to create some interest and texture in conjunction with the landscape architecture that is a little bit more approachable okay and I think you what we're studying
actually is what this becomes right now that's a presentation internal presentation that we're working on that might your comat might influence that you in a in a beneficial way yeah I mean just to focus on this and then I'd like to continue on the journey around the building if we could
but I would like to come in on this it's it's a space that as we've all said and I think you can agree is not the most active side of the building I'm not so sure that the Husky signs is
even if it's beloved that it it does much in terms of um activating that edge um I wonder about sort of traveling behind it traveling in front of it
um it it doesn't quite it I mean I think there's so many elegant things about the building truly but I'm not so sure that this adds to that I don't know what it would be I don't know whether or not you know
just seating or something else but this seems to in a way to me kind of bring out the um solidity of the base of the building in other words it's still something that kind of pushes you out um
but I I actually care less than that um about that than I do about the elevations and so could we continue that Journey around so where the service area is for instance on the backside yeah
yes so this is on the Alley side I should say yes so we've expanded this substantially a long time ago there were uh maybe even before bcdc there were comments about how to serve this building and we had at that
time actually had service on off of Gainesboro so we've actually gone to a Great Lengths to make this fit so down here are loading docks uh that access the existing alley but the alley has been expanded I think 10 or 12 feet I'm
sorry I don't have that number right now and really uh allowing that to uh the Turning radi to work and to give a better buffer as well so there's several uh uh access points in this there is uh there is the uh of eversource sorry is
that the right City Boston's eversource there's eversource access here as well as uh a a bike room a scooter room and then down here are are the loading docks which are obviously substantial for not used uh super often but they're
substantial for event spaces above that there are mechanical zones as well as coaches offices and hockey offices in this Zone as well so at at night will this be lit I mean because a lot of the strength of this building at Night comes
from the interior uses right that yep kind of the building kind of flips at night right um so these are not um anything that will be lit they're just basically well what are they those
are louvers I mean there there are louvers they're I mean we have some elsewhere as well mechanical louvers is mechanical louvers yes and then this is hockey offices as well as some conference rooms in the in the center Zone okay so let's go back to the
elevation from here that everybody's been talking about here this one yeah yeah I mean the the thing that's so tough about this View and I I'm sorry I keep trying to that's okay here we go um the thing
that's so tough about this is kind of the weight of this whole thing like you've gone to so much trouble to and and I think with the good effect right of making this sort of a a welcoming but
it's it's sort of like this almost negates what's happening over here because it's so heavy um and I I don't know what you can do about that but there was a view um of
this Edge it might have been this slide so this this slide I think uh that's the previous one but we can look at it yeah yeah yeah oh you start to see it peek through yeah where you start to see this
building down now surface areas are never right going to be great but I think that the the building is not just red here it's this whole
thing and so anything that you can do to kind of make it feel like this part of the facade is pulled into the motion yeah that you have everywhere else I think it would help it and while that um
Corner nighttime view is um dramatic it doesn't do you any favors in terms of making this feel like a really for boing SP place and this just may be the drama that you're showing and the highlighting
of the building itself but I I don't know that like if I were walking down there and I saw that big black Edge or undefined Edge I guess I'm not so sure I'd feel great about walking
there um right this Edge well this right go go back to the to the um nighttime view Yep this that whole area okay yeah yeah and
and and certainly there's okay we could look at that uh and there is obviously some rendering issues with ambient light and everything but I appreciate that I mean drawing some of that language that you saw previously and and and of bringing it in that could that could uh
make some difference in this particular view as well as the one that's a little bit further out yeah go ahead sorry I was just going to ask you to remind us I know most of that is back of house and loading further down but did you say there's there's access to the Bike Room and some other key things at the
edge yeah there's some weird sectional things happening to make this work but like there is a sloped pathway but there is a bike room back here there is uh the eversource room room there is uh the actual eversource room raised above for
you know for flooding mitigation and then there's mechanical room here but this is this is the uh hockey offices all the way to here so if if it's nighttime or or for that matter any time you to get to your bike here what do you
have to do there's A's downhill sorry there's a pathway I think it's oh I think we were able to uh keep it level at this height and then there's a railing that goes down and and
where is the actual can you point to the actual building entrance I I'm still over here you I've been toggling it's over there it's around the corner so it's around so that seems a little contradictory that on the one hand
you're you know you want to be inviting people into the building you want to help provide visuals cues to help somebody understand where I can enter and then the entrance itself is sort of hidden and and I think I I've
been toggling be back and forth between the draft presentation and the floor plan that's something that would be really helpful to see as we look at it is specifically can you zoom into what is on like a first a ground floor plan so we can see in detail where the
entrances are where the what's actually happening this is partial ground floor plan uh because this is the sectionally this is this this Lobby plan for both lobbies is very complex actually because for instance there's a four 4 foot three
I believe uh grade change between this Lobby and this Lobby the event level which we're actually maintaining um as existing is uh I believe 11 ft below this main lobby so sectionally there's a lot going on at these entries entry
points um this is the eversource and here's the sorry it's kind of a difficult um these particular areas I don't even know if we have the plans to explain it because of the complexities of the section so that had looked like that
previous one had the bike storage in it y it's just I guess one thing is where is the bike sorry I don't quite understand how the Bike Works this is an uper so you walk you walk uh you can
walk down to is that even right help me out here Stephen I'd go back when Brian I think it's behind the fin do you see it no that's the source that's eversource that's eversource okay yep so is this the Bike Room Brian you had it
correct there you walk down this the bik is down I thought sectionally there was something even funkier happening but you walk down the sidewalk against the building to the uh to this room the best bike room so if my bike is in there that's actually where I have to walk so
I think that further those are for people working in the building and staff right it's not it's not right right but still if if you're working in the building and you've worked late or there's a late game and you're you're
coming to retrieve your bike you're going in through the building right and then exiting out that way or or whatever MH yep is there and bikes for um for
students or visitors those would be out in the street the St you know the the city bike uh racks like you'd find Elsewhere on public areas don't you don't have any interior for um students or
visitors it would be that bike room so looking at this plan again where you have the and and actually thank you for explaining the four entries that's very that was very helpful for me so I've got that the gainsb St Bop the the
recreational entry auxiliary and East entry I think it's it's what is I think what's becoming clear to me again is the this is sort very conceptual in terms of where they're in terms of how you illustrate where they are and then
there's that you know when I am on the street trying to enter the building you know where are the where are the doors where are the visual signals that Draw Me Closer and then help me understand where to enter the
building and I I I'm sorry I was I'm being a little bag but I'm just I guess what what's becoming to clear clear to me is sort of the challenge of you know what what makes it you know a successful kind of Civic experience you
know or Civic environment is you know how we help Orient people and guide them to key entries of buildings and I appreciate you're walking us through because I think also there's the tension between the queuing for an event which
you've clearly spent a lot of time but then also how does this building contribute to the public environment the campus environment the university the Civic environment of the city to help people navigate their way from place to
place um if I could just chime in I'm Corey Berg director of Campus planning um just back to your point anarie about the entries um you're right in that um we spent a lot of time thinking about the queuing but also I think looked at how our arena is used today um and
trying to avoid some of maybe what's happening today where people are queuing on the street and so that's why I think pushing those pedestrians back having the multiple entry points is really important right now we do have a separate kind of student entrance in our existing Arena um which we're trying to
replicate here in that um East entry access point so that's really not intended I think for the general public but but trying to um recreate what we've got now where we've got students kind of flowing into what we call the Dog House the student section um and and trying to
push the pedestrians the General kind of guests and and general kind of um attendees to that West Entry so that we aren't um having them spill off onto the road and and kind of what we've got right now just kind of people everywhere
so I think that separation is really important but um I think our challenge is how do you make the East entry appear welcoming from the street but we really don't want the general public kind of going in there we really do want to kind of separate out flows of people if we can so I think I think everyone's kind
of hitting on that challenge I think again we've obviously tried to use transparency particularly the lower I'll say floor and a half or two 20 feet so as an opportunity to see through the building and understand a little bit better in that corner yeah thank thank you Corey I
think that's that's really helpful and I could see if you had that entrance on the corner let's say that it would really would start to create kind of a um um a
beist yeah it's not safe right I mean that's what we heard as a condition that they're dealing with right now with the with the sort of ceremonial entrance so so I do think but I do think if we're gonna stick with this corner I I truly
think that you should think about that entrance to the to the Bike Room that feels unsafe to me and then and also see how you can integrate that facade the alley facade so that it starts to feel
like it's part of that corner like the motion of the bu I mean there's really some just amazing things going on in this building and I just you know there's always like a facade or a part of your design that's just not quite
there and you kind of as a designer you know it but you're you're so busy paying attention to other things that um it may slip [Music] um the uh there was one other thing what
was it oh the landscape can we look at that that's that's good let's look at that the plan no I'm sorry yeah let's start with this perspective yeah thank you I'm not um I'm not sure how the
queuing works in here so you have zoom into this maybe it'll help no I I I do understand that but in the three dimension sort of you have queuing that's here and queuing that's here do I
have that right in other words there's six Lanes of of queuing that happens between the glass and the inside face of the column okay that goes around that's why there's directional benches to allow circulation around that
oh I see so um got it so it's basically you kind of you're you're circling back it's like at the airport yeah it's like a it's an l no it's actually six lanes that are L's uh that's why we actually
oh I see what you're saying got it yep yep yep yep a pair going into each door sort of yep yep um and then I I wonder about the scale
of the benches um whether or not they like they should they all these are all the same size right now is that correct yes they are Laura I just wonder
if you could you know just study whether or not they're particularly on this side I actually kind of I get totally why you're doing this but on this side whether or not they're particularly along this Edge which is going to connect to that corner and you have that
entrance back there I wonder if there is um a way to think about the benches in terms of scale like public scale on the public side of the colums it's a little hard
for me to tell um see maybe we should go to the plan Brian maybe you can click if you go to maybe the next one after this just to see um this one yes I think this this one this one yeah I think one one of the things we were trying to do here
Laura and I hear I hear your comment and and I think it's it's very helpful it was we we went down a road of um could we do anything with movable Furniture which doesn't work programmatically um but this is the idea
of does can it feel like a living room with a few of these kind of you know two-sided things that still allow a lot of paracity for people to move around them without having them too big because the you know the fixed um benches those
those are you know they vary in scale but they are really kind of something that you have to move around so we wanted to break it down and have the pods be a little bit more like you know A love seat or something that is is a little bit small that can have that kind of grouping to
it in various places but still allow movement around them yeah and and you're starting to see that kind of outdoor space right like that's a perfect one where you have this little pod right that that people go
together but maybe you know sometimes it's nice to have a long sofa if you will with a shorter I I just wonder if there's more variety in there so that it's not just a love seat for each one I myself find
love seats annoying but but yeah I know what you that has nothing to do with what you're doing I think that makes sense we can take a look at that Laura I think one of the things that you'll appreciate we have been really challenged with is
maintaining herocity of flow yeah door and all of these sides and then we have the columns and other things but it's a really great comment and I think um we'll definitely take that in consideration and and see if there is like a jump and scale and something that
feels a little bit different you know maybe particularly in that corner and not not all of them right not all of them just some of them so that there's a little variety and I appreciate that you didn't line up the benches parallel with
the street that in fact you you're sort of giving people a SK a skewed view both ways much nicer and it's very helpful then Street trees are those uh
just question the spacing of those are those for a city standard or sort of where did where did that come from we've actually played with it to have it more relate to the activity it's not a universal thing so we've grouped them
and then they've opened up in certain places is where we're trying to like if you can look on St batal Street the trees are a little more grouped in front of The Branding sculpture to make it feel a little bit more like a room there then it opens up a bit um so and we're doing the same thing along Gainesboro
they're not an even spacing of the trees um they you know cumar variety there's something we've had to you know look very closely for things that can deal with our our narrow kind of space but that it's not a consistent spacing as it's in the existing ones across the
street are slightly not consistent either yeah I and I appreciate that I just wonder if you can push it a little further like you know do all the trees have to you you kind of got a consistency right and then you you have
a break but I'm wondering you know like beads on a string whether or not you can have some you know that are together and and it's I guess I would study this whole thing in terms of what the us are um but if you can see it's like
pearls on a necklace right but they don't have to be so evenly spaced maybe like the building they would add a dynamic aspect to it if they're not just this column and you may play with it in
terms of like light or you know something like that so I am I am never somebody that thinks that build that trees need to be perfect spaced on on cities because there are obstacles to go around right and if one goes away then
you've like wrecked your whole idea of having this really strong line so just a thought no that's a great thought I think we can we're trying to be so respectful to still the ones that we are grouping that the canopy has room but I think that's a great point we can
study that a bit more and Laura if if you're done with that line I'd like to to maybe return to a theme that anarie brought up earlier sure I'm all done great um and and you know this goes to
some of an Marie's uh initial questions and comments relating to I think scale and texture and materiality and I think the project has come a long way um from its initial uh showing while still you know maintaining the diagram maintaining
I think the strength of the the form um and and the Clarity of it uh which I think is a great strength to this um but I think as we've discussed before uh and the Commissioners have brought up multiple times it's it's that sort of
secondary and tertiary layers of additional texture in the materiality you're doing some beautiful what looks like uh is going to be some beautiful work with the brick right at Key moments to help uh set scale on the larger uh portions on the upper portions of the
building and then uh also moments where that brick comes down to ground and we saw that that perspective view of the rounded stair Corner coming down um I believe the close in view not not this corner but the other
corner of that that stair on St Bal um yeah yeah yeah where where that texture actually came to where people would be walking and I thought that was a really yes you know really nice moment where the the M of the whole thing starts to
have a scale that's you know I don't know if if the general public would do this but I would do this I would walk up to that wall and touch it right and feel the brick and understand the scale scale and I think that's a nice moment where it comes down to the ground I know it can't come down
everywhere but I think you know it's it's these types of moves and the questioning uh earlier of and you know I think we're all anxious to see the interpretive wall what happens there and how that you know becomes a pedestrian scale that you want to be up against and
interact with and if it's not you know the the moment of the interactive uh Zone it's that corner moment where the brick does come down and it's it's not as Sleek um and I noticed that you've introduced you know a sort of champagne or brownish uh fin right here and and
you were alternating it to create again this sort of more variety and texture in that clear story there and yet when we looked over at the the main entry Lobby um those all appear at least to be sort of standard I don't know 4 foot on
Center black curtain curtain wall window wall you know Mulan systems um and so and and we're seeing in this image right the underside of the overhang is a sort of champagne and I know you're doing a mirrored underhang overhang um at the
entrance to to play up the activity that we're going to see but I guess you know there seems to be when getting at is there's there's this um effort to sort of warm it up add texture add a variety of details of scale right so that it's
not just a you know that clear story isn't just a March of the same uh champagne colored fin you alternated it right there's begins to get some complexity in there which I think is is really promising and then I I see this and I wonder why you didn't sort of
begin to really do that in this most public of moments right um understanding that you want to keep it simple but also how do we how do you warm it up particularly with the reflective ceiling which has its own Dynamic um in some of the cuts on the
upper levels it seems like the uh the fins are champagne in other ones it doesn't seem like there are any um there are black and undercuts they're champagne so I'm trying to understand the sort of logic as it's deployed throughout the building and how you
might be able to take it one step further to sort of keep the Integrity of your diagram which is great um and just add this extra layer that really then grounds it and helps relate it to The Pedestrian and and and the context to the materiality that I think an Marie
was talking about at the start yeah and I'll explain the rationale for this this we see this as more of a a massing scale move this particular one and this is another one of those punch languages however performatively we wanted to have uh some fins and there was you know there's a desire to warm particularly
that main view or we consider the main view from this corner so we have because there were fins there uh we wanted to really bring some warmth there and and highlight that entry point uh this we are currently looking at whether or not these fins are actually required you
mean more consistently we probably wouldn't need those and we're studying that from a from a a cost and environmental you know whether we need to add more aluminum to the project from a series of reasons but we're trying to keep this as more of a massing move and this is a punch within within that
that's the logic all of these have uh uh you can see showing up here the champagne elements uh in in the in the punches and we're trying to differentiate for sort of a massing shift versus uh something within a facade and I say the same is true I
don't think I have for here we can go to here so all the punches along sa Bal as they've been you know they're they're framed three three-sided with the champagne which the the Brick sort of Curves in and allows that soft
transition to uh the window and here's a better view of that so the massing moves do not have the champagne that's the intent well and I think again just to reiterate you know how you translate because I really do like those moves how
can you translate those to the ground plane you know how can you translate them to to you set comment about you know what does it mean for me when I'm walking up against it and because that's part of the interest of the texture of
city like Boston you know there's a variety of different textures we don't have as many you know things aren't monolithic I think that's what draws humans to um you know to textures and and building so just how can you take
these moves and you know almost you you know as a design exercise zoom in on that first floor you know the first story or two that a pedestrian walking along the street is likely to see because you are not as lovely as
this is as a composition it's unlikely anyone you can actually see that any of us could ever see that but how can you take that Artistry that you brought to this elevation down to those smaller scale
experiences and how also can you take the you know the comment Laura made about not have thing you know don't have the street trees March along and be evenly spaced you know how can you introduce some of that creativity and
you know vibrancy to the experience of somebody walking along the street along this building because it is a huge structure so I think again that's that's part of the beauty of your project in your design is this texture that you're introducing so how can you take that to
the you know not the scale I'm trying to think about I feel like there's an intermediate scale that if you could add that that that if you could add that particularly at the base of the building would give it an additional richness
that would help to address some of the you know concerns we're raising and I think may also help to answer or provide some guidance as to how do you address the issue of the entrances because maybe that's the piece too is there another
layer of design or scale of design that is specific to building entrances how can you take the language you've created but specifically design building entrances because right now they feel I I don't feel like there's a building
entrance design it's just part of it's just part of the building as a whole well we've we've developed I'll just give my response whether you agree or not we've developed a language where this interior and even the sov metal panel is something that's has a Sheen to
it that is it's metal and we're bringing that through uh you can see it come through the exterior uh and and Pierce that and we're doing something similar as I mentioned on the northeast corner but you can see a little bit here so we're looking for the next level of
branding opportunity for to to address the idea of Entry now I do understand that maybe this curtain wall could be something a little bit more engag enging and and we can certainly look at that we are pinched for a lot of this is were obviously very pinched for Sight Dimension just programmatically but
looking for subtle variations I think we could certainly uh try to try to work on I think it was the East entry correct that we were the you know we we spent a lot of time talking about that yes so I I hear
I think entry I guess building entry for me it's more than a curtain wall um and it and it's more than relying on light you know you've made a compelling argument for how the building will come alive at night but it's I think there's
just another layer of design that and design exploration that could help to address you know help to answer address and answer some of the issues we've been raising or concerns we've been raising about par you know this particularly this corner of the
building Commissioners we've been uh debating for or discussing for about an hour um are there other key threads we want to jump into before I solicit any public testimony okay so uh Brian if you don't
mind just going to the cover as I don't have slides with me today I'm sorry Seth I is on mute mind if I just say something quickly so Brian when you first presented this building to us and you were looking at this iron spot brick
y um and I think we had talked about whether or not there would be a blend of the different Iron spot right because there are Blends that are kind of close together but there are ranges did you ever study or think about in the areas where you've done the texture which are
really beautiful whether or not those would be further enhanced by you know putting in 20% of a different Blend or anything like that we did look at we looked at a number of options with different uh uh brick colors and and and
presented those and discussed those with the university uh we we all I think all but certainly our position as a group is to still we we like this the most we think it's the most appropriate for the for the project we did look at that though okay I will
say the one thing we I want to look at with a mockup is whether or not there's actually a different texture on what we're calling the Audi's uh but that's it's going to be subtle but it will provide a little bit more differentiation we're looking at that in a in a in call tabletop lockup because
right now there's a smooth finish to achieve the the sheen that we've been talking about yep if we went with for say a vour there might be a slight variation uh and whether or not it's actually worth it I'm not sure yeah and I I hear you I just couldn't
remember whether or not you had studied that okay thank you thank you Seth um just one other question Dare I ask um where you've all landed in um relocating the arch that presently is
located on St balf we have we haven't landed yet um we we have a number of options that we're getting ready to bring to the landmarks commission um we're taking them to our president later this week um to see if
he'll if he has any strong opinions so we can share that when we go um so yes we have a number of options that are great different that's good to hear look forward to see forward yeah okay
so at this time uh we'd like to invite any members of the public in attendance who may wish to contribute public testimony to raise your digital hand and I will call on you if you're calling in by phone dial star9 to activate the raiseed hand function and star six to mute unmute yourself please state your
name and any relevant project affiliation information and please keep comments two minutes and so I'm looking to see if there's any public test I do see uh a hand raised uh
Allison uh are you able to unmute yourself thank you Alison ponis um a uh question related again to the entrances and um thinking about the orangeline
platform and um getting off at the end of the platform near uh Gainesboro Street and then walking to the public entry for the building and what that walk is going to be like um I'm I
thought I had heard that there would be improvements to the MBTA infrastructure there but I didn't see that in the presentation but if that um turns out to be the more frequently used route to the
building um then it's definitely worth um improving how that feels I mean I mean obviously there's a ramp and stairs there now but it doesn't feel very um inviting um so just a thought about access I mean obviously from massav
people coming on the number one bus would be walking down St batal street but um if they're on the orange line they could use the end of the platform there thank you thank you Allison is there any additional public
comment okay so at this point I'd like to close uh the public comment period I don't know if the team wants to talk briefly about the uh planned improvements of uh that that the project is proposing at that um uh connection
between gainsboro and the te and then what we understand the T to be providing just to clarify ify um the intent there now we're we're the team is in in close contact with the mvta about when
and if their plans for the massav um station are going to change and we're coordinating with that because it's obviously going to be important to the success of the project and Kathy is it fair to say that you know our understanding right now is
that the plan is to um renovate the existing uh stair and ramp that's there by the T um and turn that into a full access uh and on the station yes yes but I it is not clear to me that the funding
for the tea to make the changes that they're going to make is actually in place so it a lot of it's going to be timing right yeah but everything in our design accounts for that and so there's nothing in our design that would kind of prevent
that it'll it'll kind of dve together okay great Commissioners uh thoughts on next steps here and this is just a reminder this is a subcommittee so there's no formal um rooll vote being taken we're looking for
uh uh thoughts on next steps relative to um bringing back to full commission potentially um it seems that there's a few things to to keep working on
um uh what I heard were um entrances and design of entrances um Trees and Landscaping and groupings of uh or how trees are deployed um and also um the
further refinement to the extent possible of the end entrance in and Gateway at St Bal to the building um there may be others that fellow Commissioners should um add to that but it seems to me that these are
all things that might be um worked on Seth through at a staff level as as further refinements to to final um but it seems to me we've taken this about as far as we're going to take it I think
at committee how do my fellow Commissioners feel about that you did wonderful yeah I there other things missing though I just want to make sure that I didn't in the things that I captured that I caught what everyone
thinks needs further refinement um Kathy did that include the stretch where the Husky sign is I don't know that I captured that adequately so say more yeah I I think um
what's happening on that edge relative to the amount of activity um as well as I I think that an Marie had some um good suggestions about what the base of that building might be that there might
be you know you might feel like leaning up against that because of the the texture or the the Warmness of it and you know whether or not there are other landscape improvements along there too recognizing that those are important
queuing spaces others yeah I think I would add you know I I guess in this case I would defer to staff in terms of next steps and reviewing I'm just I'm sorry I just keep
going back through the the draft presentation um slides and there's a slide that refers to design drivers facade strategy and it's got continuity um facade continuity
fenestration aperture texture activation and again it's all you know looking at this very large building as a whole um so I think as this moves forward really it will be important to
help us understand how does that apply again to that first story to say the ground level in The Experience how does it relate to what's happening inside the building it it became really clear to me in the
discussion about there's some it is a complex building in terms of navigating you know a change in grade what's happening inside and outside so I think it's going to be very important when you come back to us to be very to to very
clearly communicate these help us understand how this works because it is you know our purview is the public realm and it seems like these detail you you've done such a nice job of thinking about the building as a whole and as an
object but think it's going to be very important to help us understand how that trans how that attention to design and detail translates to how this building meets the ground and how we help you know guide how we help people and how
the design helps people navigate the public realm and the building itself okay thank you all very well said I might add to that given the timing that um looks like there will be a meeting prior to this coming back to
full committee because this is also tied to the northeastern imp uh that there will be a meeting with the office of historic preservation and and landmarks um staff to discuss uh some other features that may find their way uh into the design so I think that could be
something that um is looked at uh at final um committee as well so hearing no additional comments at this time and in lie of a formal vote Commissioners is my understanding that the pro proposed project is recommended for final
consideration and a vote of recommendation uh with the um uh not formal provisos but informal provisos that all the sort of design content and and work that we talked about today continues to advance uh and we see some
good progress at that for final commission yes okay great well I think that concludes our uh presentation and session this evening Commissioners as always thank you for your time and energy uh public thank you for attending and to the
proponent team as well for making this investment and time and effort in creating a better design outcome uh for both nor Eastern and for the city of Boston thank you so much every thank you thank you thank you everyone good night byebye right