Government Center Skyline Could Be Changing
BOSTON (CBS) - The old and ugly 11-story Government Center parking garage may soon be coming down to make way for four new towers under a plan submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
HYM Investment Group is proposing a 48 story office tower and three smaller ones for apartments, condos and offices.
Government Center Skyline Could Be Changing
Managing Director Thomas O'Brien says no one likes the garage.
"People recognize that the Government Center Urban Renewal Plan included Boston City Hall, and the John F. Kennedy Federal Building. I think those three buildings are some of the least loved buildings in Boston."
Construction could begin before the garage comes down.
"While the garage continues to operate, we would build two buildings through the existing garage by sinking columns through the various floor plates of the garage itself," O'Brien says. "Once we've completed those buildings, then we'll remove the garage over Congress Street down to the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and then build smaller-scale buildings that would include a great retail promenade, and a real exciting public space that will be associated with the Greenway, and connect, for the first time, Faneuil Hall and the Boston Garden along Canal Street."
The plan dramatically opens up that part of Congress Street, and changes the environment.
"The garage was built in 1968," says O'Brien, "so that part of Congress Street has been fully covered by this garage since then. So for the first time in close to 50 years, removing that garage will shine daylight down on Congress Street."
O'Brien says the plan had been on hold until the local economy rebounded. A BRA hearing on the proposal is scheduled soon.
