Nine months after Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino challengedarchitects and developers from around the world to propose a 1,000-foot tower downtown that symbolizes 'this city's greatness,' only onebusinessman responded to his call.
Boston businessman Steven Belkin yesterday submitted a proposal toreplace the Winthrop Square city parking garage with a 75-story glassoffice tower of an audacious design by renowned Italian architectRenzo Piano, elevating 1.3 million square feet of commercial spacethree stories over a one-acre public park at ground level.
The tower would be supported by columns, allowing the park to openonto Federal and Devonshire streets. A canopy system would provideshelter during the winter.
Escalators at the building's ends would whisk people to the lobby,and from there visitors could take express elevators to the roof,where Belkin has another surprise in store: a 20,000-square-foot parkand public space.
Early drawings of the building show exterior glass with varyingsurface appearances on different sides and a tall spire rising upalong one side.
'I called for world-class architects to come up with a buildingthat reflects all the greatness and potential of Boston,' Menino saidin a prepared statement yesterday. 'Today's proposal ... promiseseverything we asked for.'
Yesterday Belkin said he had answered Menino's call 'with aproject driven by unprecedented public spaces and an innovative,environmentally friendly design.' He calls it Trans National Place,after his company Trans National Group.
Menino had hoped his offer of downtown city land would drawintense interest - a spokeswoman at the time predicted 'dozens' ofproposals - but the sole submission appeared to be driven by thephysical layout of the property.
Though about an acre in size, the Winthrop Square garage site isoddly shaped and wedged between two buildings owned by Equity OfficeProperties of Chicago, making it difficult to use as a conventionalbuilding footprint. But Belkin, chairman and founder of credit cardand travel companies and part owner of two Atlanta sports teams, hadthe foresight to purchase a neighboring building, 133 Federal St.,which when combined with the garage land makes it a relativelystraightforward square building parcel.
'Very clearly, Belkin had the corner on the market, because he hadthe corner,' quipped David I. Begelfer, chief executive of theMassachusetts chapter of the National Association of Industrial andOffice Properties.
Potential players in the skyscraper stakes echoed Begelfer's view.
'The bottom line is that the city site is a difficult one todevelop without the Belkin parcel,' said developer John B. Hynes III,who long had his eye on the site and even talked to Belkin aboutcodeveloping. 'It looks like everyone who looked at it saw it thesame way.'
Architect Alex Krieger, chairman of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, was aconsultant about a year ago to Equity Office Properties, which hadconsidered submitting a proposal for the garage site.
'It's not the world's greatest opportunity, especially with themayor's announcement that it's got to be a very large project,' saidKrieger. Large projects mean developers have to pay more for theland, Krieger added.
In an interview with the Globe last March, Belkin said he had beenworking on ideas for a skyscraper there since 2000 and wanted tocreate an 'indoor town green.' Noting the site is a block from thenew Greenway parkland that will replace the former Central Artery,Belkin said he 'wanted to build a community of the future. We need tobring a community feeling back into the city.'
Belkin pioneered the successful use of 'affinity' credit cards,those tied to businesses or other organizations, and has started morethan two dozen companies. He is extensively involved in charitablework in Massachusetts, including efforts on behalf of HarvardUniversity, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Museum of FineArts Boston.
Architect Renzo Piano, who is working with local architect CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc. on the project, designed the commercialand cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris in the 1970s and recentlycreated a new headquarters in Times Square for The New York TimesCo., which owns The Boston Globe. Belkin has employed the real estatefirm Meredith & Grew to be development manager for his project.
Kairos Shen, the city's director of planning, said the buildingwould be environmentally friendly, 'one of the largest greenbuildings in the country.' Energy-saving aspects would include aninsulating double skin of exterior glass, photovoltaic cells, andreflective panels on Belkin's and neighboring buildings to directsunlight into the park underneath the tower.
'It will create a major new open space in the middle of the citycomparable in size to Post Office Square' park, Shen said.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
