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Boston Garden was a sports temple for the Celtics basketball team and Bruins hockey team until its closure in 1995 and demolition three years later. Those venerable professional sports franchises now play out of TD Garden, which was built on a neighbouring plot of land and held its first game in 1995. While TD Garden played host to cheering fans and two championship wins — the Celtics in 2008 and the Bruins in 2011 — the site of the former arena sat underutilized as a parking lot. That's all about to change though, as developers Boston Properties and Delaware North have now broken ground on a transformative mixed-use development formerly known simply as The Boston Garden.
When the dust settles, Downtown Boston will have an additional 1.5 million square feet of office, residential, retail, and hotel space. Developer representatives were joined by government officials Wednesday to celebrate the ground breaking for The Hub on Causeway.
Located directly below TD Garden, the North Station transportation hub serves Amtrak, MBTA Commuter Rail, and rapid transit subway and light-rail trains. The planned three-phase complex is expected to add another entrance to the busy transit node via Causeway Street. TD Garden will also undergo a 64,000-square-foot expansion, including an additional entrance to the facility. The first phase is set for 210,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, the city's largest supermarket, and a 15-screen movie theatre. Rounding out phase one, 175,000 square feet of "creative office space" will provide a healthy mix of year-round activity. Most of these amenities will be accommodated within the podiums of highrises in future phases, which are set to expand the site vertically.
The second phase will bring a 38-storey residential tower housing 440 units and an adjoining 260-room hotel placed within a 10-storey structure. The final stage of development will see a 21-storey tower offering about 525,000 square feet of offices. The commercial spaces have been designed by prestigious architecture firm Gensler, while Solomon Cordwell Buenz has been assigned to the residential component of the project.
Alongside the ground breaking, shiny new renderings show a more refined version than the previous concept. The office tower in particular has received additional treatment at the top, and now features a slender spire. As we gawk over the renderings, heavy equipment is already on site, ready to begin the nearly $1 billion development. The first phase of the project should be completed by late 2018.
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| Related Companies: | Gensler |
