A legacy to straddle Pike

19 January 2005

Big projects are rare in Boston. The few proposed - the development of the South Boston waterfront, for example - are argued over for so long that circumstances change and they lie dormant. Projects we big - such as Millennium Place in the one-time Combat Zone - may be significant in impact but in fact occupy relatively little territory.

Indeed, think big in Boston and two projects come to mind: Government Center /Charles River Park, built by ripping down the West End in the 1960s, and the Big Dig, an exhausting saga whose story still continues.

Here's a third: Columbus Center. Outside of a small circle of planners and local activists, it's been little noticed and little discussed. That's about to change. Construction begins in July.

For a private project, it's huge, costing $500 million and covering seven acres. Moreover, it's being built atop the Massachusetts Turnpike, stretching from Clarendon Street all the way to Tremont Street by Bay Village. If you know your way around Boston, you understand what this means. The Pike divides sections of the city - and is ugly, to boot. A decent project has the potential to knit together neighborhoods, effectively transforming the area to the same degree that the burial of the central artery has transformed the downtown.

Or not.

Columbus Center is hardly Boston's first air-rights project. The most recent, Copley Place, was built more than 20 years ago. Yet while Copley may have good facilities - a mall, two hotels and office space - it is aloof and unconnected to the area around it, a failure of urban design.

Columbus Center strives to be different. Almost an acre's worth of parks will meander its length. It's largely residential, with one hotel and a good amount of retail (a grocery store and other service- oriented shops).

Where Copley Place has few doors open to the street, Columbus Center will have more than 35, making it pedestrian- and street- friendly.

The architecture and feel varies by block. There's a 35-story tower by Clarendon Street. Farther east are town homes and lofts of only four to six stories. Columbus Center will look less like one project and more like a series of smaller buildings that mesh with existing infrastructure.

None of this came easily. Developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin first proposed a version back in 1997. Over 140 community meetings and $20 million later, the resulting project has one fewer tower, covers two more parcels and is, frankly, better than it was. Even so, four members of an 11-member review group opposed it and the project remains on the receiving end of much grumbling.

Nevertheless, the approvals and the money are in place. Of the $500 million needed, $150 million is equity - unusually high in real- estate. The remainder will be debt, all but $25 million of it private (that piece will be from the state as part of the project's commitment to provide 15 percent affordable units). Cassin expects the financing to close in May.

By July 2006, the Pike will be covered. A year later, the first units will be for sale; by 2008, it should be done.

Cassin's pleasure seems to extend well beyond the prospect of making money. He walks through renderings, pointing out a day-care center here, a little pocket park there. He loves the way a 600- space garage was made nearly invisible by surrounding it with residences. He pretends to lament being "forced" to build a park on the easternmost parcel. Cassin and Winn have been behind significant projects before, including the redevelopment of Mission Main and the planned Clippership Wharf in East Boston. Yet this is different. More than just another development, it's a legacy.