good evening This is the April 1st monthly meeting of the Boston Civic Design Commission It is now called to order My name is Mimi Love I am the chair of the commission and I'd like to thank the commissioners for donating their time sharing their valuable
insights and shaping the city of Boston into a more beautiful sustainable and equitable place for all its citizens The planning department continues to host public meetings in a virtual setting for the health safety and
accessibility of Boston residents The open meeting law requires that I notify the public that this meeting is being recorded Please note an audio recording of this meeting will be made available to the public Commissioners with us today I'm
going to do a roll call and please say present as I call your name Diana Fernandez Present Shauna Gillis Smith Present I don't know if we have David Hassin with us this
evening We'll come back to him Mick Young Kim present And Marie Lubenau present David Manf Freddy present I don't see Katherine
Morris Continue with Bill Ron Present Laura Solano present Kirk Sykes present And myself Mimi Love So we have a quorum Um and Commissioner Love I do see David
uh Commissioner Hassen has joined I just think we need to elevate him Great As you elevate him I'm going to continue Uh we'll be approving the March full committee and subcommittee meetings at
the next uh full commission meeting Um so with that we can move on to the report from the planning department's review committee on the two projects that we will be seeing tonight Thank you and good evening
commissioners For the regulations of article 28 of the Boston zoning code planning department staff have prepared the following recommendations for your consideration And because we have commissioners recused from both projects we'll take the votes separately First a proposed project at 75 Morsy
Boulevard Doorchester also known as 35 to 75 Morsy Boulevard phase 1 seeking article 80B entitlement contemplates the development of approximately 645,000 square ft of primarily residential uses
24,000 ft of open space and 414 off- streetet parking spaces in two buildings on an approximately 2.25 acre site consistent with an approved PDA master plan The proponent filed a PNF on February 8 2025 and planning department
staff hosted a public meeting on March 26 2025 Planning department staff recommend that the commission vote to review the proposed project All right And I believe we have Commissioner Hassin and Commissioner Morris I think has joined the call as
well and you may need to elevate her Um I'm going to call on commissioners to um say yay or nay to review this project Um Shauna Gillis Smith Yay David Hassin
David he must be on mute He's on frozen We'll come back to David in a minute MC Young Kim Yes Uh Anmarie Lupinau Yes David Manfred yes
Katherine Morris yes Bill Ron yes Laura Solano yes Kirk Sykes yes And yes for me uh Mimi Love David Hassin are you withhosin maybe Christina will move on
to the next project to review tonight The second project um is located at 250 Bay State Road Fenway also known as the Boston University Party School of Global Studies seeking article 80B entitlement which contemplates the development of
approximately 70,000 square ft of primarily academic uses and 50,000 ft of open space in a single 12-story building on an approximately 1.3 acre site consistent with an approved institutional master plan The proponent
filed a PNF on February 12th 2025 Planning department staff hosted a public meeting on February 26 2025 Planning department staff recommend that the commission vote to review the proposed project Commissioners I need a yay or
nay to review this project Shauna Smith Shauna I don't know David Hassin Don't see him Mick Young Kim Yes Yay And Marie Lubenau Yes David Men Freddy
Yay Katherine Morris Yes Uh Bill Ron I'm recused Thank you Bill Laura Solano I'm recused Thank you Laura Kirk Sykes Yes
and me Yay Um can you hear me now you're having trouble with your audio Yeah Oh we can hear you You can hear me now Yes Okay good I don't know what happened then
And I believe David Hussine is joining us All right Some audio glitches tonight but we will muster through it Um I apologize I'm I'm on Thanks David No no problem
I think with that Christina uh we have agreed to review both projects this evening So maybe we'll move on to the presentation for review and public testimony of the first project 3575 Moresy Boulevard which came to us back I
believe in December of 23 as an a PDA master plan And so now we're going to see phase one So we're happy to hand this over to um Ted and Seth who will deliver planning context followed by a brief presentation from the proponent followed by some
summary comments from Seth before deliberations So um Liz if you'll advance slides and um Seth and Ted take it away Thank you commissioners and thank you Christina Uh so the site uh is located in the Columbia Point neighborhood of
Dorchester between Marcy Boulevard and I 93 just north of the redevelopment of the old Globe headquarters at South Line and south of the Star Market Uh the site is currently occupied by a vacant one-story office studio building It has close proximity to transit at both the
JFK UMass Red Line and Commuter Rail station to the north as well as the Savin Hill Redline station to the south Across I93 in the rail lies predominantly residential triple- decker fabric of this section of Dorchester And
the east side of I93 lies mostly uh or sorry contains mostly autooriented commercial and institutional development with large expanses of surface parking uh undergoing a gradual process of densification Um and Ted will speak a little bit about the planning history uh
and planning context in a second At the southern edge of the site lies the Southline lab office complex and recently reviewed and approved projects by the commission of 135 Morsy Lab office building at the southern edge of South Line and the mixeduse master plan
for Dorchester Bay City across Morrisy Boulevard Uh between the site and the JFKU Mass station lies the hub 25 residential development completed in 2016 consisting of two buildings that flank a central driveway key to district
connectivity that Ted will speak to Uh next slide please and Ted Thank you Seth Uh uh so on this slide um the top of the page is oriented to the west uh and north um is on the right
side Um and uh the uh two projects that you'll be reviewing tonight are part of the master plan PDA Building A is a residential proposal uh when this was before you as a PDA master plan that was envisioned as a lab building uh and then
building B uh which is immediately adjacent to Morrisy Boulevard was envisioned as a residential building at the time Uh next slide please So now we flipped the orientation uh north is at the top of the page and um I wanted to review uh for the
commissioners the Columbia Point master plan from 2011 which informed the PDA master plan that you saw before and starting with the image on the left side uh that gives a little bit of a sense of the the context as Seth alluded to that right now there is not a network of
streets or open space in this immediate vicinity Uh the key axis of this uh uh planning area is defined by this red arrow Uh and that was envisioned as a main street to begin to set up an armature uh to establish a network of
roads and open space in this area Uh and then that got fleshed out Uh so in the image on the left that's the current condition Uh hub 25 near the top of that red line uh establishes the beginning of the street grid Uh one vision from 2011
is in the middle slide that shows Main Street running down the middle uh with uh east west connections across the site And it's important to note that uh one version of the master plan from 2011 envisioned the Boston Globe site going
away Uh that's what you see in the middle image However uh back in 2011 an alternative scenario was envisioned that retained the Globe building in its current site which is indeed what happened Uh and at the image on the right um I wanted to point out the
street that's running left right east west uh that is a street that's or first street that Seth will talk about in a little more detail And I want to point out that this axial connection running uh from the bottom of the arrow which is uh the site of the proposal that you
look at tonight to the top of the arrow where the MBTA station is was always considered an important connection And I'll ask the commissioners to focus their attention on the open space between the two buildings you'll review and understands how that serves the axial connection running north sight
through the middle north south through the middle of the site And that concludes my introduction and I'll hand it um back to Christina to facilitate Thank you Great So we'll turn it over here to the proponent team Um Phil and others are
you able to share your screen and unmute yourselves yeah let me just share screen here Christine let's see if you guys can see it Great How's that looks like it's still loading Says that you're screen sharing but it looks There
we go Okay great So Phil we'll give you guys a two-minute warning when you're approaching the end of the presentation here Great Uh good evening everybody Uh we'll start out with an overview of the site here really in the broader context a little bit to what um Seth was alluding to earlier So you guys can see
the site the phase one site shown in blue in the center of the site here really at the south end of the approved master plan uh with the Morsy Boulevard frontage to the to the east I93 to the west and the south end project adjacency just to the south of it And really you
can see the blue line here really talking about that significant opportunity the master plan the idea of this broader uh really pedestrian network that works its way through the site from the JFKT station all the way through Savin Hill uh and all the way really to Dorchester And then what it
really does we see is setting up this community park is really an integral link in that pedestrian network as well as being you know to some degree an anchor for community activity So really focusing on that open space network when we think about this Um a quick slide here for everybody just to talk about
all the great work that was done between 2021 and 2023 um to get the MPTA MPDA approved and then all those good design guidelines that came out of that that not only were you compliant with the the metrics uh of the MB uh MPVDA but also the these
design guidelines that are fairly specific and also talk about dimensional regulations and essentially quality of the spaces So a little bit about the evolution of the phase one program Um you heard it earlier building A has now been updated as a residential building
So combined building A and B in the phase one project bringing 754 residential units forward in the first phase of the project So really that critical density of of 247 activation that residential brings We're excited by that Um you'll also notice in the plan A
Street is included as part of the phase one site So that becomes not only this new connector but really that primary approach both pedestrian and vehicular from Moresy Boulevard and an important consideration as we think about evolving this uh in the phase one uh the remaining program again compliant with
the master plan 6,500 square ft of retail uh community space within the ground floor and parking spaces below grade of each building Um and then most importantly really maintaining that 23,000 square foot community park but really recrafting that to think about the phase one and taking advantage of
the new approach Um you can see on the right hand side how the program is split Building A up against the 93 frontage in 392 units and then building B is 362 units uh with the community park in between them flanked by both buildings Um and then just a few broader
views in context here You can see some distant views The one on the left is looking north down 93 and you start to understand how the phase one participates not only in the full buildout of the master plan you can see here but participates in the skyline and really the immediate context You see
Southline in the foreground here and in that lefth hand image really the opportunity we have here to build off that adjacency to 93 looking at kind of building off that unique organic form a curve linear form for building A giving that identity and presence to the first phase of the project knowing that we can
recraft that as a residential use Um and then building B a little bit more of an interlocking form building knowing we want distinct identity but also creating separation in light and daylight and air between these two buildings Uh and then to the right you can see a view looking south down Morsy Boulevard Again you've
got the the full buildout of the master plan in the foreground and then building A and B really anchoring that southern edge up against the the south front edge Um and then a little bit few diagrams about our massing strategy the evolution of it for phase one So you can see on the left hand here um the
original is contemplated building A was a life science building So that large floor plate building and then in the middle here as we really rethink building A as a residential building it gives us that opportunity to really carve the massing back and allows us to bring a lot more daylight uh and
sunlight and reduce shadows in that community park to really improve the environmental conditions there um throughout the day Similarly on site B we're actually rotating that massing stepping that form down as it goes towards the community park again opening up that threshold for light and air and
then really holding that street wall on and Morrisy Boulevard is contemplated by the master plan And then finally on the right hand side really kind of um really fine-tuning and sculpting these masses for their uses the residential really starting to harvest those views to Dorchester Bay
back to the skyline and starting to reorient and recraft those footprints again to that that a street approach from Lorie Boulevard for phase one Um and now here's a few pedestrian views just comparative views we want to show you to give you a sense of of really the impact from a pedestrian view standpoint before and after So on the left hand
side we have a view looking down Morsy Boulevard You can see A Street in the foreground building B in the foreground as well from the prior master plan massing And then on the right hand side these are the updated massings You can see now these building massings are separated We get more again daylight and
air on this open space in the community park Um really reducing the shadow impact If you look at the diagram to the upper right in yellow you can see the significant um daylight that's been increased This is a snapshot of 1:30 in the day So really an important environmental consideration there Um
also looking at these slender forms for um the residential use stepping down to that park and then also creating these distinctive podiums that were part of the design guidelines as part of the master plan Mitigating that scale of the high-rise down to the street edge and really opening up the ground floor plane
to that Um you can see really what also separation of the building does is it increases that threshold that gateway opportunity for the community park for this critical sight lines um from Moresy Boulevard encouraging the community to make its way in Um and now here's a rendered view really from that same view
looking you see Moresy Boulevard in the foreground with the A Street approach and you can see on the left the building B Uh again the tower is sitting at top that sort of distinct architectural podium with a different expression than the building U the building itself is really kind of a simple interlocking
form with a a pattern of punch windows on it And then by contrast looking at building A really reinforcing these sort of slender stepping forms and a more glassier expression again sitting on top of a differentiated podium And then you start to really get a sense of those
sight lines from Morsy Boulevard from that community park again inviting the community in now flanked on either side by residential lobbies um that tend to bring that 247 activation to the space Uh similarly a view looking up a street you're looking here at the building A
which is uh formerly considered his lab the larger floor plate And then on the right these much more slender forms that the residential use affords us Um the daylight and sunlight that's coming through the community park Now you really start to feel that gateway opportunity the community park inviting
folks in And then this opportunity for identity and presence for both building lobbies off of A Street knowing that until the master plan is fully built out Um that's really going to be the the key driver identity um for the project And then a rendered view of that same view A
street here in the foreground Um you start to see this stepped edge of the podium with the retail spilling out This sort of high transparency in the ground floor indooroutdoor activation allowing for the retail cafe to spill out retail frontage making its way up A Street Um a
consolidated service entry and then the the residential lobby and building B Similarly on building A you can see the prominence of the residential lobby um as well as that activation that really lines the community park and that that threshold and gateway opportunity for
that from Morrisy Uh similarly that view from the massing the highway looking north on 93 uh as previously contemplated with life science and now building a again with that slender curve linear form taking its cues from the highway um and again
building off the alignment with the master plan design guidelines the idea of a unique and easily recognizable design features um talking about the pen houses as being a singular form So really um building off that identity and presence but again making these two forms very distinct and separate uh
within the first phase of the project Uh and then similarly a rendered view from that same vantage point You can see that building a curve linear form and really reinforcing the horizontals We think about a facade strategy to really bring that curving form to life Um and then at
the ends of very slender verticals and a glassy um sort of expression really reinforcing that slenderness Um and then the separation between the two buildings and then building B being a very kind of um straightforward intersecting form of contrasting materials with a much more
punch window expression um giving itself some distinction from building A Um and here's a view of the community park We're looking north now between building A and B You know and this is really the exciting part of thinking about this as a a community asset The idea of
facilitating that pedestrian connectivity from Southline which is in the foreground here that courtyard all the way through the site flanked on either side by very active podiums We're looking at community civic space residential amenities and retail space uh as well as more residential amenity
and lobby on either side um residential terracing and balconies sort of again giving those sort of eyes on the park that 247 activation and then this opportunity for a variety of spaces uh within the community park both for multi-use large scale events gathering
and performances and then these smaller sort of discovery spaces uh that are allow for some more kind of contemplative uh moments Um zooming into the site plan quickly here how we've really recrafted each ground floor plan to reorient it again to this A Street
approach off of Morese Boulevard Um you can see the sort of serrated edge of the ground floor of building B lined with active retail and multiple corners for visibility Uh the consolidation of that service entry into a single bay of frontage for loading and parking really minimizing that impact in the ground
plane Uh and then that prominent lobby sort of welcoming people into the the open community park there Uh again amenity and civic space lining the active edges on the park Uh and then similarly building A looking at that lobby with that prime visual identity Um
kind of anchoring the site with active residential amenities along the park Um further retail and community civic along a street and then consolidating loading and parking really up against I93 off of West Street Um you're also starting to understand a little bit about the conceptualization of the community part
You know this sort of incredible asset we see as part of this first phase and really thinking about this with Arcadus in a series of conceptual ways First being this gateway plaza You see this 165 ft of opening up those sight lines Um and thinking about that as sort of a
hardscape welcoming plaza sort of a mediating place between the sidewalk um and then this open multi-use lawn the idea of a multi-purpose space that is terminated by a gathering and performance uh trellis and stage The idea of uh a number of activities that
can take place there and then lining those edges with these smaller spaces um potentially Discovery Park for kids um dog walking spaces and smaller seating areas just for um facilitating that pedestrian again connectivity throughout that park Um and then just a couple of
threedimensional views just giving you a sense of that approach again from a street here looking at that gateway plaza bringing the greenscape forward with this lining of trees starting to see the activation of the lobby drawing you into the multi-use event lawn Um and then similarly on the right uh a view of
the multi-event lawn looking back towards a street seeing the activation of both buildings on either side and really the opportunity for a variety of activities for for community gatherings that that we're excited about Um and I think that's it for our summary presentation today So happy to
take uh questions and comments from here Thank you Thanks Phil And if you wouldn't mind um just briefly stop sharing Uh we think we just have a couple more comments from Seth and then we'll ask you to put up a site plan during deliberation Uh thank you So as uh the planning
department has uh begun to review this scheme we're of course focused on the public realm and the relationship of the buildings to the public realm both as this project will exist in its current condition or in the in the current uh let's say phase one build condition as
well as the future buildout of improvements along uh the 3575 master plan as well as Marsy Boulevard So very much uh interrogating the relationship of the park uh configuration and park design uh with the future civic plaza
that's located sort of page top right uh the future main street that was that axial relationship um in the center uh that Ted spoke to uh as well as to the current Southline complex with its courtyard uh uh that you see here on the bottom of the page as well as any
potential future uh redevelopment of the Southline site uh in many many Uh do the buildings themselves successfully define the edges and activity along Moresy um both as it exists today and as it will exist in the future a street and the community park
and very much also focusing on the importance of A Street as the you know front door and access to the uh proposed development here but also making sure that we set this up for success in the future with the full buildout Um but in the interim condition making sure that
we have enough turning movements and ability to have this function as a true sort of main street uh to the development Next please As the design goes through further refinement uh we're looking to further understand the program of the
open spaces and establishing stronger connections between the active uses within the building and the open spaces uh and continue advance the materiality and form of the podium um at the base of the buildings uh especially the frame elements uh at building B And with that
turn it back to the proponent and the commissioners Thank you Thank you Phil I think it would be helpful if you would pull up your slide deck and maybe go to a site plan and commissioners you can raise your hand And I see that Commissioner
Kim has her hand raised so go ahead Great Thanks Um thanks Phil This looks great I mean I think my first reaction is about the project as a whole And I do appreciate seeing these early I'm
getting used to it like seeing these things before they're fully gelled But I do appreciate you're including us in this process It does feel to me if I just take like that central space including the facades of the lobbies and the amenity spaces
and that central community park that there's a kind of complexity to this project that I think as you develop this further that it would be helpful to kind of make things speak to each other more I feel like in general like for I'll
give you an example like the trellis of the gathering performance space and then the kind of arcades around the building each of which are different maybe there's a way in which they could be cousins to each other and so I understand uh I'll have my fellow commissioners talk about the
architecture in general but I just wonder if there's some kind of way in which the architecture can more embrace that central space and and feel like they're work that the elements are working together to create a more
cohesive experience It feels a um maybe overly complex but I do think that there's a kind of programming there's a very smart programming layout for the community space So I do support that um in general with a real diversity of uses
Um but there's something about you know as as you're developing this that even the way the pathways are shaped um that they're bumping up against the building and each other in ways that are a little bit awkward right now So I would just
ask for you guys to take a look and see if there are ways of really kind of making this more cohesive as an experience even though I think that if you drew a diagram of all the programming you know I really believe it I think that it's it'll be a really
successful community space Thank you Mc Young David Hassin uh thank you And if I have connection problems I apologize I'll I'll I'll defer but um I agree very much with what
um Mick Young said First of all I want to mention that I very much appreciate um the fact that these are two large housing projects um that will add this dynamism to this neighborhood And I also very much like the twist um in the long
path um that uh better connects the South Line development to the the future of the district Um I must say I find myself agreeing with uh quite a few of uh uh Seth's comments about the overall um uh the the
issues that are to be explored Um and I agree with uh Commissioner Kim that it feels a little complex The um now I'm talking about the architectural massing Um and I do wish that there were there was a little little bit more of a
conversation uh between the two buildings um architecturally and formally Um and I say that in part bec sorry I say that in part because um I was driving down Boilston Street just
today looking at the Pierce and how it uh its podium and the form participates in the very careful uh composition of the street and how much it it breaks that street wall and um in a way that
that I find complicated and um unsatisfying And I I'm a little concerned that the podium on Moresy Boulevard and the twisted uh building there is doing the same thing um in that location as what the future of Moresy
Boulevard might look and feel like So because I'm going in and out I will leave it to other commissioners to talk about but I would appreciate a little bit more simplicity and a little bit more conversation um between the two buildings Um and I'll leave it there
Thank you David and Marie Uh I I I too agree with um the the comments of Seth and my fellow commissioners And let me try to be a little bit sort of add a level of of detail to this And one thing I know a theme that has come up I believe
possibly in an earlier review of the the the initial plan for this is sort of how when we look at projects that are of this scale and in involve multiple buildings they the design considers them as an ensemble Um as it is it appears
that these are two independent structures while the facade treatment might be similar um they they just read to me as objects in a space and I am particularly concerned about the serrated edge along Marissi Boulevard I
would like to better understand and frankly see a response to the different conditions on the site that you know Mercy Boulevard which is a very busy street versus a street which as Seth mentioned really um serves as the front
door to the development And I also have some practical questions as to if I'm picking somebody up or dropping somebody off where does that happen um one of the wonderful things about this overall development is that that central
corridor that public realm creates a bit of an oasis in in a very busy environment So how does the design of the space reflect it and as that central space is designed right now it just seems like one large open space So not
only am I interested in a better understanding you know the programming of it but how the design responds to it how um frankly if I live in the building you know I would be eager to find a quiet space within that Or if I'm
walking through the site is there a place where I might pause and maybe have a coffee and I'm just it feels a bit like a frankly a green thoroughare to me So I think how how can um you just think about how the base of the buildings
relate to the site and to each other how the site um reads as an ensemble and also the um you know some of the the you know thinking about the practicalities of what does it mean to be a gateway to this particularly what what
distinguishes this as a residential complex which I too am thrilled to see this be housing versus um you know a commercial office or or tech space Thank you Anmarie Um David Manf Freddy
Um there's been a lot of very good comments already I won't repeat them all Um but I'll ask um the proponent to to address this question and it was a question that our our
colleague Eric Howerho was used to ask and I'm reminded of it on projects like this I I'm confused about um what these these these two buildings and I hesitate calling the pair of
buildings um what do they have in common and what makes them different they clearly are linked to each other They're they are part of an ensemble Um they they share this ground plane um that
they they um share a a kind of broad bulk sense of massing But then I get kind of lost I get kind of lost when I'm trying to understand what what do they have and what makes them um an
ensemble and what separates them And I don't I'm not I'm not looking I'm not suggesting that they they there should be more or less of either right now I'm still I'm sort of confused as to what the direction is in terms of their
relationship um to each other what what the intentional relationship is to each other Um and uh I so there was some very good comments about Oh and I would also ask the the proponent just to help us understand or or or the planning
department Um I don't know that I'm current on what's happening with the future of Morsy Boulevard in terms of infrastructure and I'd love to know more about that Morsy Boulevard It's a very very difficult um street almost
impossible to imagine uh retail activity any kind of strong u pedestrian sense until it's reconfigured in some way And I know it's hard because the volume of traffic is so significant
but a little bit of tutorial on that would be helpful for me to understand how to think about the ground level uh especially of um the building that faces Morrison Thank you Thank you David Kirk Sykes Great Thank
you Um so lots of great comments I think in in the interest of offering something else that I think might be helpful um is the cues that are presented to the so many people that'll pass the building on
the highway side of this great allay that you're creating on the interior You know there is a public realm that uh could be unnoticed or could be celebrated And to that end I guess I I would ask maybe three things one about
the podium and uh its its views or allowed views into uh this LA as well as sort of uh referential statements in the podium self greenery activity you know a
sense of place beyond and then tops how the buildings actually are finished So from the long view they sort of herald that people should get off the expressway uh you know where they can on the uh eastern edge to experience and get to
here And so to that end I think it would be helpful to sort of look at what's been done to date around the central artery and what worked and what didn't and you know think a bit about ink block as it went up and the views in and what made us want to go there or get off and
experiencing it So those are those are some of the thoughts that I think apply not just to the two buildings here but to the buildings to come that are referenced in the PDA master plan and how they invite people into this public realm that you're creating So I'll stop
with that Thanks Thanks Kirk Shauna thank thanks Phil for the presentation and and overall it's it's a very exciting project I think this this project also just this part of it has a lot of lot of potential I
um I'm not going to echo but I do agree with many of the comments of of my colleagues and with respect to the overall complexity and the the different languages in it I think the project's a little bit hard for me to understand
from a streetscape perspective So whether it is a walkound uh you know like a a a flyby or stroll by or a series of streetscape sections moving around the project I think would be really helpful to understand not only
the um the streetscape which in on Moresy Boulevard was represented differently in almost every view So I don't know if there's street trees there or not street trees there bike lane there or not bike lane there Um and I may I may just be confused with the pro with which views of the project but just
just understanding that I do feel that the project needs some level of protection from Morrisy You know street trees are planting al along that that sidewalk Um and then and then just really reaching out on both sides um
feeling how the project to at least halfway through Moresy and all the way to 93 from a sectional perspective just to really understand the scale of of the moves and yeah and also just understand the feeling of of things like the serrated
edge we're talking about or the scale of the very large um podium archways But thank you very much and I look forward to seeing the project in subcommittee Thank you Shauna Phil yes Phil thank you
for your presentation and uh I think your building a uh looks uh very promising Uh I'm not going to repeat everything that everyone else has said and I want to be gentle here but um I
think there's uh there's been a unan it's been absolutely unanimous questioning of the relationship of building B to building A and I just want to say that I think you
should start over on building B I really do because if you bring in minor changes to this and we try to go to a second and third meeting and we're trying to cut down the number of meetings we have we're we're running the risk quite
frankly that by dent of time we we might start um uh approving a building that obviously the last seven or people who've talked uh have raised serious questions together with the serious
questions raised by Seth And so I Phil I'm sorry to say it but I I I would urge you've got a perfectly decent building in building A and can't we start over with building B and I say that in trying
to be nice but I just to put us through minor revisions to building B thinking that that is what is being discussed here I think is not the kind of review that you have just
heard So and you may res may want to respond to that You know I think it's a good point understanding the the context of the comments I think there's a tension between distinguishing the buildings and then the cousins and that familiarity You know I think it goes beyond the
podiums I think we were looking to start to interpret the design guidelines out of the master plan but I think it's quite early and I think there's a lot of evolution that can come from these comments to your point Bill Um whether it's a full redesign of be or not I think we need to take a look at that You
know I think there's form and mass and then there's going to be exterior expression But I think you guys bring up good points about you know where how are these going to be cohesive together yet distinguish themselves and then when we think about the highway adjacency versus
the Moresy adjacency very very different right and and really all around that site So I think those are good comments to take in I think we'll take a look at building B and I think if we look at those adjacencies at the ground level how does maybe that influence the building in rethinking some of that
built to your point because those adjacencies are are quite varied but quite important to to really be successful for the project the way we see it I think Bill can I ask a question um sure Uh to your just to respond to your comments Why I and I agree with
Bill by the way I think there's building a is is quite elegant in many ways Um I guess my question is why can't these be a pair or why shouldn't these be a pair um why do they need to be so distinctly
different from each other in your mind i mean is it a is it a marketing issue are they being marketed to different groups of people or um because to Ann Marie's earlier comment about an ensemble um like I can very easily imagine looking
at this image and almost imagining a kind of yin and yang of of two buildings on this site that would be curved and dynamic and beautiful um in relationship to each other doing all the things that you wanted to do in terms of solar orientation and maybe actually helping
shape a more cohesive space on the ground floor as I believe uh Mick Young Kim was maybe asking about Um so I you know I I I think that um we we're we're in an era where a lot of these developments feel like they're
more sculpture parks than cohesive urban design community urban designed communities And I just want to challenge that notion a little bit and and and and um so that's that that would be my question Why
you know I think it was this this fine balancing act we're trying to achieve David And I think we've gone maybe too far distinguishing them I think an ensemble is a great way to honestly describe these two Um yin and yang as well So there's a common language and a common thread I think we can work on
that So we're gonna we're going to feel that this is a cohesive site because really you know when we think about the adjacencies to that park I go back to that park view Um you know how does that how can that feel a little bit more
cohesive together as a as a full project you know in that in that scale So um let us go back and take a look at these are these are great comments I think coming at it as we've kind of looked at it you know in isolation a little bit without the feedback So this has been helpful
All right And we have a last comment by Laura Solano Thank you Um thank you for the presentation Um you rightly so talked about you know the potential power for the community part to provide a calming
um for the buildings as well as um unifying them And yet there's a level of um chopping up of the landscape that I think is is uh taking away from that Do
you mind going to the um plan and then I'll want to come back to the perspectives when I look at this there are so many pathways that kind of repeat themselves And what the north south
paths in particular do is they they kind of suburbanize the the um buildings in the sense that they they give a space for planting at the base like you would see in a suburban um you know a suburban
neighborhood And I think that you could celebrate um the urban nature of this and then its future as well right where you're going to basically let this kind of set the tone for it And I remember when we were
looking at the master plan you know we talked a lot about sort of the urbanity of the project as a whole And I find there's a lot of double circulation going on in the east west um as you go
north south So for instance if I look at the Southline Courtyard and it was in the perspective before there's a public walk then there's a middle walk and then there's another you know another pave space and it it starts to feel like
landscape is not something continuous that can kind of unify these buildings but just as chopped up as um you know as the architecture entrances are I don't think it's really doing anything that
kind of gives this sense of calm as you walk as you walk into it Um introducing more air and light is just so terrific I'm I'm so happy you did that Um and I I question whether or not um
you need that much of an event lawn and if somehow putting that in there has sort of forced you into this a uh you know walkways that serve each building like where is the opportunity for the
residents of each building to come together and and by that I I don't mean just into an event lawn an open space because I don't think people know in the city how to use a lawn very well And so
are there I can't remember which commissioner said it but are there ways to make rooms that are not tiny but generous and allow people to do people watching and you know come together and
the the event lawn feels um overscaled to me Um and and that it by cutting it back a little bit you may give more opportunity to have that back and forth that east west motion that isn't just on
the perimeter of the buildings Um the Could you go to the view that's on the other side as well i think you have one Yeah I I'm um I'm wondering about the
um the welcoming that the park does to get inside the buildings um inside the space between the buildings because you know it how do you welcome the public in there so that it doesn't feel like
there's a barrier at the edge is there a way that kind of funnels people in and doesn't necessarily push them to the sides right away um and I I think that's something that needs to be investigated
on both the north and the south Um I'm not sure I understand the relationship to Southline like how the grades work And I know we saw just saw that perspective with the steps in it but I'd like to understand that a little bit
more So I think kind of turning the dial more towards the landscape itself and letting it be that calming and unifying um device that you talked about at the beginning
So thank you Yeah Thank you Laura and Mick Young I just have a quick recommendation as you come forward um in future meetings It might be helpful or something that we do in our office that's very helpful is to maybe draw
some very clear and simple diagrams of what's the intention of the project because I I can hear different people interpreting the project in different ways And I think Phil you guys are the designers and so you should come to us with a very strong diagram to say this
is what this project is about And if there's a way of really simplifying like the architectural um elements and their intentions um in diagram form as well as as Laura talked about the pathways and and the
kind of covered spaces it just might be helpful to pull back I can see that this is like early on and often that happens in the design process You get a little kind of there's many different ideas in here and and the diagram kind of pushes
us all of us as designers to really say what's important and so I just it'd be great to see that in a future subcommittee meeting like h what what are the guiding principles of the project is it two two very different
projects is it one kind of cohesive thing i think um I'd love to hear more from you and your team about what is it what's the intention here So I think having some very simple diagrams would be very helpful
Thank you Mick Young staff And just uh quickly in regards to the commissioner's questions about the future of Marcy Boulevard we'll be asking the proponent to come back in subcommittee uh with uh both some more detailed drawings about how the building relates to Marcy Boulevard as it is
today as well as uh how it is planned to be in the future And while we have Ted here thought we'd just give him the floor quickly to update the full commission on where uh the Marcy study stands Thanks Seth Uh and if you could go back to the um site plan slide Um I
yeah I just wanted to make the commissioners aware that uh we're not sure exactly what the dimensions are yet but the state has convened RC commission and u if you can see where I'm annotating that um the there'll be more
separation in the state's rightway um from the heavy traffic So um roughly speaking uh this zone will be a combination of perhaps active mobility bike path uh or some sort of uh green open space and then also there'll be a
slight grade uphill uh that's part of the climate resilience So uh as you think about um this active retail edge uh just be aware that it'll be a little bit further removed from the high-speed traffic and that uh street section is uh
to be determined Uh so thanks Seth Uh hopefully that uh helps clarify things for what the uh subcommittee will discuss Thanks Ted and Seth All right I think we had a lot of excellent comments from the commissioners and the interest of time
Christina let's go to see if we have any public testimony and then I'll summarize um the comments and include a comment or two of my own at the end Great 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 press star 9 on your dial pad to activate the raise hand function and star six to mute and unmute yourself Please state your name and any relevant project affiliation information and please keep
your comments to 2 minutes Commissioners at this time I see no hands raised so we will close the public comment period Great Um so here's I was taking down notes because I thought we heard a lot of excellent feedback from the
commissioners and so um I'll just go over them Um but I'm sure you were taking your own notes Um I think we're the commission is asking you to come back with guiding principles and diagrams of how to understand your sites what are what are the main you know
goals that you're trying to achieve here on the site so that we can understand your basic uh urban design strategies Um we've asked to come with more cohesive strategies for the buildings to think about are they where are they similar
where are they different um think about the relationship of the tower to the podium Right now there was conversations about them maybe not being completely related to each other So we'd love to understand a little bit more about that and even possibly rethinking building B
We will leave that up to you There was talk about the serrated edge Lon Moresy Boulevard and it was helpful to hear some of Ted's comments but it put a lot of questions in my mind what that actually means So that would be helpful to see as we are seeing that edge
further developed programs and scale um of the landscape and I would add the programs on the ground floor buildings I know where you got to You had very different
strategies in the PDA master plan Have there been other you know considerations you've looked at i think we want to ensure that the retail is successful if located on Moresy Boulevard but have you thought of other strategies it'd be nice to know that And
I saw some second floor activation It'd be also good to see a second floor plan to see what you have planned on on that floor Um what does it mean to be a gateway project that would be an interesting conversation to understand from your perspective
Um and we need more information on the streetscape Um a video would be great to walk around but it could be still images just to get a sense of all of the sides of your um large block I think those are
the ming main things that I have I I won't uh let it go without saying that I'm happy to see that they're both h housing buildings much better than a lab building So that's a huge win for the city And bringing air and light is always welcome So we're we're very happy
to work with that It's a starting point Mimi if I could add that that um we'd like to see some more study on um the scale of the interior spaces in the landscape as well as the relationship
and circulation of those spaces between those spaces and how the landscape can better unify those buildings Of course Thank you
Laura All All right Um and with that um I think we need a motion So moved I would assume I need a motion to send to subcommittee or to do something So
move to uh send the project to subcommittee Second Second All right Thank you Um and so I'm going to call in all the commissioners May I just ask a question
is there a way given how strongly the group felt to have the if we're moving it to subcommittee shouldn't we indicate that in fact particularly relating to building B that
uh we're only doing that as a procedural thing and not indicating any approval or I I don't know how to do it Yeah but we're sending it to subcommittee just like every other project is not indicating the level of concern that has
been expressed here So I think that's a good comment Bill And I think because we have Seth and the planning department I'm sure we have a project manager They're going to hear these comments I would assume and maybe we should just get clarity that you're
going to work with a proponent team and make sure that they're addressing these comments before you would send them to subcommittee Could we just add that kind of language to it is somebody gives me a motion that's I would say um subject to provisiso that
planning department staff work closely with the proponent to consider those comments shared in this meeting and a second Second All right Um Shauna
yes David Hassin yes Mick Young Kim yes And Marie Lupinau yes David Manf Freddy yes Yes Katherine Morris Yes Bill Ron
Yes Laura Solano yes Kirk Sykes yes And myself yes Um so I think you heard from the commissioners and we look forward to seeing all of the revisions based on these
comments And I think with that we'll move on to the next project which is um 250 Bay State Road Boston University Party School of Global Studies Um we did see a peak of this in
the IMP process but I'm going to pass it on to either Seth or Ted to give us a update on what we're going to see Thank you I'll I'll kick it off Uh so um tonight we're viewing uh the party
school building Uh this proposal is for 70,000 square feet of institutional use in a 12story building that's 186 uh feet tall on a 1.3 acre site Uh just to remind the group that this was recently
reviewed as part of BEu's recent IMP update Next slide please So the the planning and zoning context has already been established as has the zoning envelope for this building through the recent IMP process Uh on this map uh this is building uh labeled
CC right in the middle of the map Uh and then just to situate this in in the larger neighborhood context I'd like to call everyone's attention to the adjacency of the Charles River and uh the Esplanade and Staro Drive just to the north of this site And then also uh
this is the terminus of Bay State Road uh which comes in from the east And to uh speak a little more detail on these issues I'll now hand it over to Seth Thank you Thank you Ted Next slide please So the site is located at the on the campus's
embankment above the Charles River nestled between Commonwealth Avenue and Soldiers Field Road within the heart of BEu central campus This area has a predominant fabric of mid-rise institutional buildings west of Graanby Street uh and low-rise residential buildings east of Graanby Street
punctuated by iconic moments such as the Marsh Chapel and Plaza along Commonwealth Avenue as well as taller punctuating icons such as Joseé Lou's law school tower to the west of Marsh Chapel and the recently completed computing and design sciences center to
the east of Graanby Street You also see Warren Towers on the bottom right of page the renovation of which was recently approved by this commission The historic low and mid-rise fabric of this area is complemented and contrasted uh by the area's own mini skyline The super
block is formally organized by Commonwealth A and uh the strong edged defining campus buildings on the south with a variegated edge on the north where parking lots and underutilized open spaces address the BU beach and views across the Charles And with that
I'd like to turn it over to the proponent to present Just realized I was on mute and I was just noting that commissioners Ron and Commissioner Solanos are recused from this review Lizzie have we promoted folks to co-host
yes they should be promoted It looks like Sean Gallagher who I recently promoted has left the meeting I don't know if they're planning on returning Is anybody who's supposed to be presenting able to raise their hand if you're not able to unmute yourself from the BEu
team i'm here from the Hi Chris and and texting Sean furiously to see that's okay Um so just one moment please Sure thing And if we're having problems with Sean getting in uh may it make sense to jump
ahead to the urban design review slides which will give a little prematurely to the slideshow but hopefully give Sean a little time I think that makes sense Seth Yeah sounds great Sean is under Eduardo is what we're
getting So you might need to elevate Try elevating Eduardo and see if his last name Pon I'm assuming Yep Yes Sean let me know if you are elevated and able to unmute I am unmuted now and elevated Hello
everybody Can you see me yes I had two names into the system I am so sorry Uh let me share my screen Sean we'll give you um 10 minutes when you're ready to get started and a
two-minute warning Okay Okay Can everyone see my screen yes Yes All right So let's see if I can see the time Good Perfect All right Great Um okay So
I think we'll start Um so hello Um obviously everyone I'm Sean Gallagher but I'm also being joined by Chris Donghue who is from uh principal and BV because obviously as we know we saw this previously um at the IMP process It
involves a lot of landscape um which is really part of the um the proposal a big chunk of the proposal as well Um as we know we we we went through the IMP process and it was about 70,000 square feet with a maximum building height of about 186 feet um that we kind of
defined in that process But what we really heard was that um there were questions that you guys brought up in the initial presentation about characteristics of the landscape characteristics of the building Exciting to see how that would be developed um what were their relationships and how
does this building work as an academic building in the massing form um that it is and hopefully we can add that part of our process and our thinking as we were developing the design and we can kind of walk through that today in the 10 minutes Um but starting at the beginning as we all understand you know the site
itself was doing a lot more than just a parking lot site So we really wanted to kind of improve the campus connectivity and we pushed the building itself off of the main part of the site and behind side hall um up against the lot land wall And by doing this we were able to
create over an acre of green space by reducing the footprint And we felt this was really um important and is one of the reasons why the building mass went taller than um than than shorter But the idea was that this would actually set up something that would be able to be a
future central green um or at least start to define the language for the future center green of Boston University Um and so we're really excited about that and it's a really big component right off the Charles River and for these campuses to kind of improve on their social and their gathering spaces
and their natural and ecological spaces And so I'm going to let Chris jump in here and start to talk about the landscape and how this starts to set up the kind of foundation for um for a larger um central green in the future Thanks Sean and thanks everyone Um I said it last time but I'll say it again
It It's a kick to get to present the landscape before you we even see the building I think it speaks to what the the real the the really important piece of this project is in terms of campus making Um we heard a lot from you all about what this landscape could do that even though it's just an acre that it
needs to draw from a much larger landscape and that larger landscape of course being the Charles River Um and so we've begun to think about this land landscape as sort of a gradient one that is quite bane up at the the sort of north corner of it connecting to admissions plaza an entry grove that
connects into the forum of the building a very public first floor open public first floor Um a large meadow in the middle that serves as both a civic lawn for campus events and a woodland that helps to frame this landscape with an ecological dense woodland
frame Um go ahead Uh and that gradient expresses itself both through planting and through the organization of planting Um we see that entry grove as being being somewhere that people can sit comfortably under the canopy of of trees Um that that
arrival sequence has a relationship to the Charles River in some ways acting as an extension of Beu Beach So an accessible comfortable place to sit under the canopy of trees that pull from the language of of the Charles River esplanade Um the meadow being a place to gather a place where people are are
sitting on an open lawn um framed by a diverse canopy of trees again and shrubs and understory plants that bring diversity to something other than just a a lawn Um and that pocket woodland that sort of creeps around the backside of the of the quad to frame a more e or to
provide a more ecological frame that provides urban canopy carbon sequestration and biodiversity um to look at that cross-section and how it relates to the river We've elevated the landscape a bit as we go back or south into the site and pull away from the Charles River so that we get expanded
views and and sort of extend the life and the the atmosphere of the Charles River Esplanade and Beu Beach Um that can as I said the entry grove having a high canopy and becoming more and more diverse as we get back into the woodland frame that that wraps around the south
and east leg of the site Good Um and so to look at how uh I believe David you asked the question or or highlighted the importance of these landscapes having specific roles and how they relate to the programming Um the entry plaza being a spillout space from
the forum for lectures and dialogues that happen within the building Um reading BOS that happens that entry plaza sort of outdoor classrooms in some ways um how the lawn provides place for larger events yoga movies sports on an open lawn a lawn that does not exist on
BEu currently and how those outdoor gathering areas or outdoor reading rooms and classrooms can be framed by the canopy of trees in the southern area of the woodland Go ahead Um and so looking at these through expressive um sort of renderings of each of these landscape
types an entry grove that pulls from the canopy of Bay State Road and connects with warm materials into the interior of the building Go ahead Uh an an open lawn in the middle of that meadow that's framed by an ecological a biodiverse native meadow
that frames uh that new lawn place for events but also for biodiversity Go ahead And then these smaller scale outdoor rooms that become reading rooms outdoor classrooms people places for people to come out from CAS and have lunch out on
the quad in a more intimately scaled um place under the canopy of trees Good And just looking at how that material blends from the interior the warmth of the interior out into the expressive bark of the trees in the entry grove warm wood benches that are
of course accessible and comfortable and evergreen trees that provide some life throughout all four seasons And it was important for us to really sort of bring these ideas from the landscape and actually kind of build on the way that we can make our urban environments more
natural more healthy more sustainable places and kind of bring that warmth and that landscape into the building um and and and kind of develop that kind of connection And for us you know it wasn't about just bringing it down at the bottom of the floor but it was about actually bringing it up to all the
spaces that are within the building itself and really kind of have this warmth this kind of more natural kind of feeling be part of the urban experience be part of the BU uh party center global studies experience So how do we get here just kind of backtracking a little bit
and thinking about it One of the things that's really interesting about the Party School of Global Studies beyond its mission um is that the school is distributed through many different brownstones along Bay State Road So they're kind of kind of moved around all these places and because of this they develop this culture within the school
itself where they're actually used to collaborating and meeting in these kind of warmer smaller environments these living room spaces um and these kind of with little bit of libraries a little bit of um exhibit space artifacts And what worried us was that this intimacy would be lost when we moved this into a
traditional um academic building or a building at a a larger scale And so what we began to think about was how do we actually break down that scale internally really thinking about on the internal side of it their experiences um uh working with the school So we started to organize into multiple little
neighborhoods inside the buildings So very much like mini little brownstones um and stack them vertically And what the idea was that each one of these spaces each one of these neighborhoods you would come into and it would be a centralized living room space um which would have an opening to um the facade
but also then be connected to this collaboration network Other small meeting spaces um and classroom spaces where people would teach and actually work together And that this would be kind of the structure of the interior of the building So there wouldn't be long hallways and and things that actually
break down um and and make the scale much larger um uh appealing inside the building And so instead of clatting all these spaces in wood or kind of trying to imitate what we were doing in the past with the brownstones we looked at building with wood We looked at mass timber Could we make the structure of
the building mass timber um and what we did was we said if we could do that we could just expose the mass timber and actually not bring extra materials to the process But the structure of the building itself became these warm spaces Um and what we found with our project is that the massing type would actually fit
within um type 4B construction for mass timber So it's as of right But there is one catch with this because it's all new and it's kind of evolving with our codes We can only um uh expose 20% um of the mass timber structure in type 4 B
construction in high-rise construction So we started thinking about this and thought so what if we began to carve away at all the other spaces and expose the living room spaces expose the collaboration spaces um the lobby the event space the classrooms um and start
to actually make those the spaces that see the mass timber itself Where would we you know where would we be at with the percentage wise of surface area and I'm I'm not going to lie we got lucky we just happened that the program was was was was about 19% um when we started
calculating all the individual surface areas Um so we were kind of pushing things around here and there to kind of make this work Um and so what we found were we were about 19% which gives us a little bit of room for error when we're doing this But that wasn't it We also wanted the community to see these spaces
um and uh and vice versa from the inside you actually be able to connect with something significant on the outside or significant that's part of the neighborhood So we started to carve and arrange spaces at key moments as you moved around the tower um that could connect back to the community So we opened up at the bottom at the emissions
plaza Then we circled around so you can get a little bit of height and look down beautiful Bay State Road Then we moved up a little bit higher just above the tree line um and so you can actually see the river and it had the classrooms just above that tree line And then we kind of moved it more um east so you could see downtown as you got higher into the
building And we thought that each one of these things would actually start to define the the movement um that you saw of the mass timber through the tower And so in the end you really start to see that the expression of the building as we talked about in in the IMP process you know it's a very tight skin Um you
know the minimal amount of surface area is doing all the things sustainable that you want to have done for building in the future um but at the same time has this kind of vibrant network of where the party program actually becomes the expression of the building within the warmth um of the overall um
collaboration network And so at the bottom it opens up to the public space um to the admissions plaza and becomes more of a kind of front door for coming into this new uh central green space And then as you move back down Bay State Road or you move to the north or to the
south of the site you start to see the rest of the spaces um where people are actually collaborating socializing uh and doing the work that the party school is doing to try to create more sustainable communities both economically socially um and
environmentally around the world And so I wanted to keep to like 10 minutes and and um I think we're I think we're 11 in So Chris you know I think I went over by one So thanks Sean Before we start actual deliberations can I turn it over
to Seth real quick for just a couple um additional comments and then commissioners were happy to turn it over to you Thank you Christina and team So we applaud the project for removing over an acre of surface parking and creating new campus open space in the near term that will connect to a long-term vision
of an expanded central COD for the campus uh as well as for the project's environmental goals and use of mass timber Um specifically looking at the site plan uh we're really interested in understanding how can the proposed landscape better visually and physically
connect to the Beu Beach and the Charles River beyond and how can this new landscape make better accessible connections to nearby open spaces particularly the Marsh Chapel Plaza Commonwealth Avenue uh the BU Beach and specifically the admissions plaza And
how can the turnaround uh which is at the sort of right hand number two there uh be rethought to allow for safer pedestrian and bicycle connections while also serving the admission center and the loading and service needs of the adjacent buildings uh and back of house Next
please Uh and specifically with the circle it's a level of detail that we look forward to getting into with a proponent Uh but here is where the vehicle route overlaps and interrupts the alignment of pedestrian uh sidewalks And so we're looking to see how we can uh improve the public realm moving from
this critical moment of Bay State Road uh which feels like a some public right of way into the heart of the campus Next slide Uh architecturally of course we're interested in how does the building really engage and meet the ground uh and how does it engage and meet the sky Um
the success of this building will obviously depend very much on material selection and detailing And so we're focused very much on uh working with the proponent on the selection of glazing and all materials and treatment thereof to make sure that the desired look and
feel that we're seeing in the renderings is actually realized in the building as it evolves Thank you very much Thank you Seth Commissioners Nick Young maybe uh Sean if we can have you
pull up your presentation start maybe with a site plan that would be helpful I think there's a lot to like about this project I think there's a lot of interesting um efforts towards um finding new ways
of using materiality I think BEu has become uh an exciting place where new architecture is being tried on campus and so I I really do appreciate that I just have one question I'm going to pass this over to my fellow
commissioners which is this is a a center for global initiatives for I imagine kind of diversity and inclusion and a place where many different colors come
together if we're thinking about studying the world And I would love to just hear more about just in terms of both the building and the landscape as you're selecting materials as you're developing the kind of landscape design
how because it's a very unique building type and I'm sure you've thought about this I'd like to just understand better how um this very handsome building um and the kind of notions of
sustainability and mass timber which I applaud all of it but I I wonder if there's another layer that really tells people from the outside that there's this tapestry of different kinds of studies that happen both outside and
inside that really um mark this as a special place Um and so I would just uh ask to understand that better as as we move forward Thank you Mangan Any other commissioners
shauna um so I I can follow and thank you very much for this very beautiful presentation I wasn't involved with any of the IMP um process So it's actually the first time other than a little bit of media that that I've I've seen it Um
I'm going to talk primarily about the landscape Um which which I think is is quite quite lovely Um I think Chris you had mentioned and I think the large moves are actually very strong I echo um
Seth's interest in making accessible connections to the chapel and to and to Commonwealth a as we're working on this project I think Chris you had mentioned expressive renderings and I think they are really beautiful and really expressive but I have an um I don't
fully understand the project through the renderings I don't understand the um the height and scale of the mounds It looks like it they're about in at least in some places 20 20 ft high Um so I think and I don't understand the relationship
to the graduate school of arts and science So I think having some more less expressive and perhaps more informative um information when when we look at look at it next to really understand and I do understand this section but this section doesn't have the you know it's this is
kind of super stripped down There are no maps So I know this is probably cut through you know cut through the the hardcape but trying something in between in between those two um would be would be really helpful And I I really love
the idea of this relationship between the landscape and the architecture And um you had mentioned the the relationship between the entry between the forum and the grove outside the entry grove And I'm curious how that I I
know it's a material connection but the you know the wood inside will be different than the wood outside So are there other ways that that that um indooroutdoor connection can can be made it's quite a just from this perspective it looks like quite a tight space in in
one of the views as well So really understanding the robustness of that connection further and how the landscape whether it's um you know whe whether it's with the form or some way that the material connection the indoor outdoor
material connection can can be furthered I also love the idea of these living rooms in the building and in in the building it's kind of a a a simple architecture with expressive moments of these living rooms And I'm wondering
without you know I think that I think the landscape strategy is is is smart and and quite beautiful but are there ways that some of that same thinking about the um about articulate living rooms in in the landscape can be pushed
a a little bit further again because most of the renderings are are quite expressive I'm I I don't fully understand um you know understand the overall character of them Uh I'm very excited about it and I I just want to understand things a little bit more
explicitly when we when we next meet Thanks Janna Kirk I think you're on mute Kirk I knew that would happen Um a a terrific presentation and uh I I
do love that you thought so intentionally about growing this from the ground up Um and from the landscape into the building Um I I really like what Mick Young said about trying to express
uh more of the intentionality of the programming in the public realm And I think to me some of where I see that maybe least at the moment is where the building meets the ground plane And whether it's how the building reaches
out into the landscape or how the landscape reaches up into the building I think there's some opportunities on the first and second floors in the way perhaps the building is treated uh in in building elements and facade because
right now it seems very intellectually uh rigorous in the way you've presented these um neighborhoods but it it's missing some of the texture of that living room that you showed us Uh and I think both are quite endearing Uh but I
think there's an opportunity to find out where you blur the distinction between public ground landscape and building base Uh and so I'm going to leave it there but just to say that would be my uh wish that you might come back with some thoughts on that
Thanks Kirk Catherine Oh I'm sorry Did you call on me yes your hand is raised Um thank you Um uh I agree with all my colleagues Great presentation Um so thank you for that And I do want to double down on uh
Commissioner um um Mc Young around um the design and the elements incorporation of culture right given um that this is the party the party building and representing global studies what is missing although it's
articulated from this livering perspective but when you're talking about uh the the cultural integration of how that shows up in the building both externally and internally that's what's missing to wrap around the full story of the importance of this building the
second thing I I want to lift up um uh while the design is is amazing I'm seeing a lot of stairs and I am deeply concerned about um in terms of students and faculty and and other folks visiting this space um it doesn't feel as
welcoming to um the disability community when there's a when there's the impression of a lot of stairs Granted there's an elevator but from all of the um renderings um there's a certain of implied abbleism here that I just want
you to be mindful of given um uh what is housed in this building And just to consider that in um the design um and how this can truly be welcoming to all um and not just the representation of all these stairs because it can throw
off um folks who are uh trying to come to this building and experiencing it Um full stop Thank you Katherine David Manf Freddy I don't want to repeat a lot of very good comments Um uh this really we
should applaud um both the design team and and Boston University There's so many good big decisions here uh about the opportunity to to um do something very special Um but as
as somebody said to recover reclaim um all of those black top parking spaces and and create this really important green space that is going to be so important so so precious to to everybody on this campus and and make those
connections I'm I'm very interested in um and and maybe more out of out of interest and curiosity than as as um to offer a critical opinion but um to to really understand
um how the what's happening inside in terms of the organization and I love you the the storyline of these living rooms and in um these wonderful houses uh and how that's been mapped on the building U
and and how you're thinking about that Um I I have a sense of of of all that but I think more explanation would be very helpful And uh it it's it's um I the points that Mick Young and and
Kirk just made are are excellent as well the the connectivity between what's happening on the ground plane and what's happening in this building is strong um maybe can be even stronger So thank you for an excellent presentation Thank you David
I'm not seeing any other commissioners comments So um I can summarize at the end but I I do want to just um ask that when you come back to subcommittee we get a little bit more feedback on the drop off area I I'm not
sure what's happening as it relates to the entry plaza So I think that goes in tandem with drawings that Shauna may have been asking for more specificity more details uh and me planned blowups of what's happening there on the on the
ground floor But um I I I will say that this is a very exciting project These are the kinds of projects that we like to see come to the BCDC So we're really excited to work with you and maybe we'll see if there's any public testimony and
uh I'll try to summarize at the end Great 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 press the star 9 on your dial pad to activate the raise hand
function and star six to mute and unmute yourself Please state your name and any relevant project affiliation information And please keep your comments to 2 minutes Dolores we've promoted you to co-host Are you able to unmute yourself
i am Thank you Go ahead Um yes Thank you My name is Dolores Bugdan I currently serve as president of the Ottabon Circle circle neighborhood association um which association is a member of the Boston
University community task force Um I'm I'm here to speak on the potential impact of this project on the public realm in particular the Espanade and the Bay State Road Backbay West architectural conservation district This
site is mere steps away from the conservation district and of course this building will affect will probably cast shadow on the esplenade and neither one of those um points was raised during the course of this presentation Um I think
that the BPDA has done a very inadequate job protecting our open space lands Um especially from encroachment of shadow and while it's laudable of the city of the university to try and create some open space on its campus It's private
open space that can be converted to other uses at any time in the future And it may very well be to the detriment of our public open space and especially something so so precious as our esplanade our historic parkland along the Charles River Um we don't know what
the shadow impacts of this project will be and I think that's something that should have been presented to the commission during the course of this presentation Um I uh think it is ironic and a little disingenuous of the university to espouse such eloquence
about creating private open space but that could have detrimental impact on historic public open space land and a historic district meaning the Backbay um uh architectural district Um and I don't
see any reference at all to the architectural district or to the esplanade um and mention of Beu's beach um kind of is irrelevant So thank you And I would ask that the commission take a closer look at how
this project impacts our public open space and historic resources in the city of Boston Thank you Thank you Dolores And Christina if I could maybe just address that specific public comment for commissioners uh benefit Uh so as part
of the IMP the uh project uh zoning basically the zoning envelope for this was uh studied uh proposed and ultimately approved which did also include shadow studies of the uh impact of a mass on this site at this height
and location And so we'll ask the proponent to bring that to uh the next uh subcommittee uh so that that can be presented and discussed Thank you That was my question actually So that was great
Pam uh we've promoted you to co-host Are you able to unmute yourself i believe so Can you hear me yes we can Go ahead Good evening and good evening commissioners Um my name is Pam Beiel and I am the chair of the Boston University Community Task Force and I'm also a commissioner
on the Backbay on the Bay State Road Back Bay West Architectural Commission And I am here to tell you that um the project and the landscape of this entire area um and how it incorporated into the
taller buildings on Commonwealth Avenue and the low-rise buildings and historic buildings along Bay State Road was vetted through the um task force meeting and this building was very wellreceived as was all the landscaping So um I look forward to a very um positive public
process and I feel that this building will be a great addition in a wonderful location in the middle of the campus and that it will tie all of this area of the campus together and um really make it a cohesive um important piece of a very
long linear campus So thank you for your time this evening and I look forward in um listening to the further deliberations and hopefully participating when needed Thank you very much Thank you Pam Um Amry I see your hand raised I'm just going to reiterate Um
are there any additional members of the public who wish to contribute public testimony okay seeing no new hands raised we're going to close the public testimony Um we would invite anybody wishing to provide additional commentary to do so Um I I'm happy to um put the um
BCDC comment uh in box here in the chat Um so commissioners at this time I'm going to close the public testimony period and turn this back over to you Mimi um for further facilitation Yeah Ann Marie has her hand raised So
love to hear what she has to offer Thank you I just um I I uh first of all really appreciate the design also appreciate the public commentary The one thing I would add is I there's much I I like about the the proposed design I am
curious or as we review this and continue to discuss it in subcommittee we'd like to understand the relationship between this building and the broader campus identity which is obviously evolving Um as Mc Young you know acknowledged there has been you know an
evolution There's some exciting new design I actually can begin to see how the tower itself begins to relate to say the data center but it's not as clear to me how the base of the building which of course is such an important role in the
public realm you know relates to the broader context physical context of the campus and the neighborhood Uh so I'm just curious to learn a little bit more about that in the next in our next meeting Thank you
Thank you Ann Marie Um so I'm going to add on to that comment some additional ones that we heard We talked a little bit about materiality Could this building reflect the diversity that is defined by global studies i think that was a theme that we heard a couple of
times Um we were when you come to subcommittee we would like to see drawings that further describe the landscape It could be you know plans or more detailed blowups but I think the renderings have served their purpose to get the ideas across but now I think we
want a little bit more technical drawings around topography um and streetscapes um I think would be helpful There was some talk about the living rooms um that are nicely reflected in the building Can that story
and I I can see that there's a thread is developed in the landscape How can that be a little bit more reinforced we'd love to have a conversation about that Um the legibility of the program and you know incorporation of culture um was
brought up I like that is something that I think really could define and make this building very distinct Um accessibility was talked about at two scales accessibility to the building Looks like currently there's only an
accessible route through an a building and so are there other ways around that and then accessibility within the building um are we losing sight of of um people with um access issues and then we
talked about shadows and appreciate that that study will come back so we can talk about how shadows and height was approved during the IMP to remind us all So I I think that that's all I have Um we didn't specifically talk about the
glass what you intend for the glass on the exterior of the tower So it would be nice to know in subcommittee what you have It seems like there's some kind of film and you know we do want to weigh in visibility from the inside out as as an
as something we like to see in buildings So that would be nice to know what you have planned for that I think that's all we have and so we're excited to see um you in subcommittee All right So with that I'm
going to move it along Christina I think we're going to go now toformational presentations Do we need to take a vote to send to subcommittee yes we do Thank you for reminding me That's okay All right So I need a motion I move to to send the project to
subcommittee Second All right I'm going to call on everyone Shauna Gillis Smith Yeah Yes We lost David Hassin to another meeting Uh Bick Young Yes Um and Marie Lubnau Yes David Benf Freddy Yes
Katherine Morris Yes I'm going to call on our recuse commissioners Bill Ron I'm I'm coming to the back end of the meeting Yes Call it Yes Yes we can Bill Laura Solano
recused Kirk Sykes Yes And myself Yes So we look forward to seeing you in subcommittee Thank you everyone Thank you All right So we are going to shift gears from new projects toformational
presentations Um starting with Warren Towers we're going to continue with BEu I will just remind the commission that um this is coming to us in as an update Um it's really not up for deliberation So we don't have to offer comments
unless you have burning recommendations as the team wraps up their CDs But we do want to show you where the project um has really evolved from all of the comments by this commission And I don't have the exact language in
front of me but the specific proviso was an update on the evolution of the ground floor design uh based on comments from commissioners uh and where uh the city also wanted to take the project uh but was not yet ready at the time of approval
So Christina is it just up for the proponent to give us a presentation or do we have a preamble no I think um Laura and um other members of the proponent team if you'd like to The preamble you gave Mimi was great So you
guys can uh take it away Great Can you see my screen yes we can Great Okay Thank you Christina and thanks commissioners Um I'm Laura Rushfeld a senior project manager with CBT and we along with MDS
have been advancing the project Um just a reminder when we came before BCDC in spring 2024 as part of the joint IMP PNF um review and subsequent approval um the project at that time had limited the ground floor interventions to sidewalk
improvements and accessibility upgrades and the commission approved the project with requests for the project team to revisit ground flooror improvements including rethinking the existing building canopy maximizing transparency and activation on the streetscape and just considering the building as an
integrated whole in terms of its design language So the team took this to heart and went back to revisit the ground plane um starting with the materiality and the the color palette that was developed for the tower renovation and reviewing the opportunities and
constraints of the ground plane Um you know this is an existing building so we have to work within this context particularly with a large wide shear walls that comprise the backup of the facade at each tower base and
finding a way within this framework to develop a ground floor expression that maximizes openness creates seamlessness along the length of the facade and finds a way to start to stitch the tower and podium together The revised streetscape design maximizes
the transparency at these retail facades and deploys a textured metal facade in a pretty playful and dynamic way to try to animate these more solid portions of the facade The facade rhythm seeks to reflect the existing podium's proportions and rhythms and ties the
tower to the podium at these punctuated moments within each tower Here you can see a before image and then an after image that's demonstrating this change The new canopy and the continuous frames of the facade create an armature that tie the open and
solid facades together And the existing 12 media screens that exist on the building have been replaced in kind with a more architecturally integrated solution which was a direct comment from the commission here There's subtle shifts along the length of this canopy
to create dynamism and difference as a visitor moves along the length of the facade and a new special canopy which is grander in scale and has a more accented texture which gives hierarchy to the main building entry where no canopy exists today
The result along the length of Commonwealth AB is an opened activated ground flooror solution that really starts to feel more integrated with the towers And where the old canopy and retail entries faced frontally only the new streetscape design will wrap the
building at each corner providing continuous weather protection activation at the grade as the building is approached on end along the length of Commonwealth Avenue and daylighting retail spaces and bike parking programs that wrap around on either end of the building
Finally um you see the the detailing at the podium parapit fourth floor windows and even penthouse have all been refined working with the Boston planning department staff input Um and we feel like this updated design feels more unified integrates the design language
really from the streetscape all the way to the skyline And that is the update Thank you Thank you Laura Commissioners any feedback if not I'll just say that I
think all of the comments that the commissioner gave um have definitely advanced the design and it I think it's a welcome change to the existing uh condition But I do see that Kirk has his hand raised And you're on mute Kirk
Two two in a row Um thank you for doing this I I think uh it's such an important stretch of of comm that needs animation and you know I think your intent is uh is clear here to try and
achieve that Um just a couple of questions and maybe comments one um it it is a little relentless at one elevation and I just wonder if uh even at the tower uh there isn't an
opportunity to raise the canopy or alter the canopy in some way that there's it's a little more dynamic um you know along the length of the tea of course and then the question about lighting um which I'm
sure you've thought about because uh it's a great opportunity to introduce new lighting strategies uh here So uh and then the last comment is I'm assuming the canopy varies in its density or opacity So even that could be a more
dynamic experience as you're walking under it So just few questions or thoughts Laura you are muted Do you want me to briefly address the the questions that would be fine Laura Yeah Um so we did study options that
looked at a canopy that maybe changed in level more um or had some higher levels of differentiation and we found just along the very long length of the facade um it actually contributed to a busyiness So we sought to strike a
balance here um with something that did have subtle dynamism and difference along its length but didn't introduce too many moving parts So the way that um the canopy extends a bit further at the retail spaces So as you read it on end you read actually the canopy as taller
at the retail spaces Um helping with that sight line into those um openings and also looking at um subtle differences like adding a texture that picks up on the solid facade along the portions of the canopy that are at the solid areas but then letting it open up
so you experience change in daylight and shadow effects differently as you move along the length of the canopy Um we also varied the lighting So the what you see at the A type at the retail spaces the lighting actually is continuous along the prow of the canopy and then
switch and follows the peers when you get to the solid moment So you have a differentiation there And then at the end the main entry canopy we actually have a rippled surface here and feature lighting that uplights that will actually create a a cool um light wash
on that surface to really accentuate that So it tries to create these different moments along the length without um unnecessarily adding a lot on a building that has a lot going on already Um thanks I'm not seeing any other commissioners
hands raised Mimi I just want to make a quick point here which is that um I just really want to commend the BU team for coming back um to us with some of these details You know this was again I think you know as we've been talking to the commission about some of these reforms
this is a great example of staff being able to continue to work with proponents to address comments shared by the commission Um and um we just I I really want to highlight that and BEu's partnership and helping us address uh some of the concerns that the commission
had raised before Thank you Diana Katherine Morris I see your hand up Yes I just have a um a logistical question around um this new change um is you know given we're New
England and we have very unique weather and I'm thinking about weather conditions whether it's snow ice cold and that falling on on this particular um new design you know have all those factors been considered given that this
is now a glass canopy versus a fabric one um from a design perspective and what that could potentially mean around uh changing weather conditions It's a it's a good question and we did get pressed with by Seth and the BPDA
team I'm sorry Boston planning department team about that as well Um we uh we were uh asked to study it to be sure we wouldn't be attaching gutters to the outside that it could handle snow loads Um a unique thing about it is that the old canopy actually just dumped rain
onto the onto the public pathway you know on straight onto the sidewalk So we'll actually now be capturing that and dealing with it internal to the building And we did look at how to structure the canopy such that it can um withstand the loading that would come from capturing
and dealing with the the weather elements that fall onto it without having to dispel into the public way Um we are still working out some of the logistics of those details as we advance this part of the project to catch up with the rest of the project which is um
preparing to begin construction Thank you All right Well we wish you the best and wrapping up the CDs and look forward to seeing this in construction very soon
Thank you very much Thank you commissioners I think with that we're having a follow-up conversation to the article 80 modernization and uh the reform to the BCDC and I'm going to pass this on to
Christina Thanks Mimi Um I thought we would just make a little bit of extra time I think we had a very long monthly meeting last month for most commissioners I think almost everyone here except for Mimi um where we
introduced um six specific formal recommendations to the commission um on reforms that were related to article you know our broader reform efforts from our um article 80 modernization that was to remind everyone just to improve the
consistency of reviewers um thoughts around reforming public testimony initiating the commission's review earlier reaffirming the commissioner's ad the commission's advisory role introducing meeting limits and increasing the threshold for the commission's review And one we wanted to
say thank you for everybody who contributed comments last month um and who maybe um sent us follow-up comments or um calls um shared their think their thoughts with us We also wanted to let you know that we met with the BSA and the BSLA to take in additional feedback
Um and we are we just wanted to share with you that we're still working through that Um I think specifically the recommendations around um introducing meeting limits and um increasing the threshold for the commission's review I
think we spent some time um talking about the need for more clarity around what actually describes a project of special significance Um we look forward to bringing that language back um to this commission Um but frankly we're sort of working it through the channels
of our council and our senior leadership team Um and are not quite ready uh to share that this evening Um but wanted to I thought since the agenda was lighter although we are already four minutes over time uh leave a little bit of space if there was anybody who had any um
questions or comments that they weren't able to share previously that would like to do so Um if not I also have two separate completely separate updates to discuss Okay Well um we will commit to being back again in front of you soon um
with some more updates around those two specific things But one just a quick reminder that we have two subcommittee sessions scheduled this month the April 15th and April 22nd And that's not an April Fool's joke We appreciate your
time Um and the other is that we are in the early stages of planning our annual thank you event We had to delay this um earlier this year Um the mayor was out on parental leave then we had the state of the city Um we're looking at some dates in early May So please keep an eye
on your calendar um or your inbox sorry as we um send around some draft dates Uh but looking forward to getting everybody together to say thank you for another excellent year although now we're deep into 2025 at this point Diana um is there anything I maybe missed there
i think that's great I think our goal is to host it at the Parkman House as we have in the past um and have an opportunity to reflect as a commission So really excited to um host that event and uh please let us know in your calendar We just want to get these things locked in and booked um so that
we can um get this on the mayor's calendar uh and hope she can attend So all right that's what we had had for you this evening Oh go ahead Bill Sorry Uh so Diana you say you're you're looking for us to share dates or you're
going to share dates that then we will discuss We're sharing dates So Christina is going to follow up with a couple of options Um and based on commissioner attendance um we will pick the date that has the most attendees um and try to get that uh
on the mayor's roster I'm I'm sorry I misunderstood something I not to jump back into the BCDC reform I also know that we're hoping to do a training session I don't know if there's
a time frame that we're trying to aim for There's a month That would be helpful to also know if that's I think as people's summer schedules start to get in the way it'd be nice to know when we're targeting that Yes And I
think Mimi next time uh next month we hope to be back to you guys with an update um on the article 28 and article 80 modernization and specifically the timing of when we would want to advance these elements through zoning through
the BPDA board um and subsequently once that's been implemented um when we host our sort of you know operations and training So um more more details we're working through all those pieces right now and the sequence um okay
implementing those changes So zoning h changes have to happen before we have these sessions so that we're not talking about super near future Hopefully the training session would happen before the zoning but um I would say that um that
is not we should not plan for a training session before May at this point We're targeting a zoning change potentially this summer Um and so I think that gives us a couple months of runway to get a training session done before that before
that happens Terrific Although many of the changes are not related to zoning They're primarily operational in nature In fact almost all of them are Exactly So I I think this is Mimi I think a little bit more about we want to make
sure we're all in alignment with the direction we're going on these things because we don't want to set up a training session and not have alignment with the commission on where we're going So we want to lock that in and then get going on getting that on our calendars Makes
sense All right I think with that um is there a motion to adjurnn so moved So moved a second I heard second so I'm just going to assume So Shauna
yes Uh Kirk Sykes yes Mick Young Kim David Manfred yes Bill Ron yes And Marie yes Laura Solano yes Katherine Morris yes
And me Pim Love yes So we are adjourned Thank you all I'm glad we didn't have a late night because we have a busy April and see you in subcommittee Thank you Good night everyone All right Bye Thank you Bye Bye So