Beginning in the mid-1970’s, several very large development proposals were made. Consisting of new and larger retail and commercial office space, these proposals dramatically altered Washington Street.

Failed Urban Renewal

With Urban Renewal in the 1960’s, streets were repositioned or widened to facilitate downtown traffic for the suburbanites being lured back for shopping and entertainment. But these investments fell short in execution, and created only urban “stasis”: the Combat Zone was essentially contained in the “hinge” between the remaining Theater District and the traditional Commercial District. Pedestrian activity was mostly concentrated in the Downtown Crossing area, which remained vital due to office commuters and the confluence of subway connections.

Lafayette Place

Lafayette Place, positioned adjacent to Jordan Marsh and absorbing several blocks, became a mega-project with over 300,000 sf of retail, restaurants, and a 500 room hotel. The complex basically turned its back on the street, focusing the main retail event on the central round dining courtyard – a circular variation on the classic linear suburban mall. Minimal display windows dotted the perimeter and a submerged hotel port-cochere, coupled with the loss of street facades due to the super-block, drained vital pedestrian activity from the street.

The city was looking for ways to re-build the activity of this district, and its first major Planned Development Area was for what became known as the Midtown Cultural District. Significant zoning envelopes were created by the city that were intended to lure developers to the area (Article 38, Boston Zoning Code).

Certain protections were created to protect the environment of major open spaces such as the Common, Old Burial Ground, and some of the historic landmarks, mostly north of the District.

Building massing emphasized urban street wall continuity, active and visible storefronts, setbacks for daylight to the street, and a range of permitted uses including multi-family residential.

During the 1980’s a series of major proposals on Washington Street sought to expand on the retail and commercial investment already made at Lafayette Place, which began to fail from the day it opened its doors. Essentially, the city endorsed a “doubling-down” on the intensified retail/commercial model for urban revitalization. The Recession of 1991-92 permanently arrested both projects. The anticipated mix of retail, hotels, and commercial office was impossible to finance during the early 1990’s recovery. Empty lots remained as nagging reminders of a still stalled Washington Street revitalization.

1987: Boston Crossing

The Boston Crossing project included replacing Jordan Marsh with a Bloomingdale’s department store and an office tower at Summer Street, and another 30-story office tower on the now empty site abutting Hayward Place. Bracketing the Swiss Hotel at Lafayette Place, the 7.4 acre complex proposed a continuous façade of “big-box” retail on the east side of Washington, punctuated with office lobbies only at the street corners.

1988: Commonwealth Center

Almost concurrent with Boston Crossing, on the west side of Washington Street at Avery, the Commonwealth Center was a proposed 1.7 million SF project with office, hotel, and retail. The adjacent Paramount Theater would be re-furbished as part of a new entertainment program with additional movie theaters. The internalized shopping experience included a skylit atrium connecting Washington Street to Tremont and The Common. A hotel would flank the atrium, and office towers would straddle both sides of Avery Street.

Specific tactical design “operations” are employed to organize the building massing, re-enforce street activity, and locate the high-rise portions of the program in a meaningful civic design solution. This required careful reading of the existing context and interpretation of the cues latent in the existing mix of building types and scales.

Reading the Context: The Syncopated Street Wall

From State Street south to Boylston, Washington Street is characterized by a syncopated street rhythm of varying cornice lines and street fronts. Most structures are 45-60’ tall. There is another datum at about 100-130’ (600 Washington and Filenes), and then a few in the 300’ range from the late 1960’s and early 70’s (Tremont on the Common and Swiss Hotel).

The west face of Washington retained this irregular rhythm of narrow frontages, some with deep upper court recesses. The east side is notable for extended regularity of 90’ street wall from Summer (Macy’s) to Hayward Place (Lafayette Place), bracketed by the 130’ high buildings at the remote corners of the Avery block and the Jeweler’s Exchange at Bromfield St.

By the mid 2000’s, incremental investment and re-vitalization on the southern portion of the District began to achieve a self-sustaining vitality in the neighborhood.

But the national consolidation of department stores coupled with competition with Big Box operations and a steady increase in internet shopping, led to the collapse of the Filene’s brand in 2006.

Re-think the Proposition

In 2010, the City solicits new proposals to kick start the project. The same development and design team for Millennium Place is selected.

Two key ingredients are changed to make the project financially viable:

• Applying for historic tax credits through a faithful restoration of the Filene’s building exterior,
• Re-calibrate the program mix of uses eschewing a hotel and emphasizing a substantial increase in residential density.

Massing Strategy

The massing strategy recognizes the Burnham Building as an urban “set piece”, unique in form, capable of defining the immediate surroundings through scale, materiality, and articulation. The Tower is thus “joined at the hip”, connecting the first three floors of the Burnham Building with retail uses, but clearly perceived as independent along the street wall and on the civic scale. The narrow proportions of the Tower are driven by the residential program.

Recalibrating the Program Mix

The overall size of the project is reduced. The emphasis on parking is reduced. The Burnham Building floor plates, with minor adjustments, prove to be a optimal size for commercial tenants.

The perceived illness of “urban blight” in 1950’s led to a cure worse than the disease: Urban Renewal, which typically did anything but. After several attempts to revitalize the Mid Town Cultural District in the 1980s with mega-projects that stalled, a new paradigm of development was belatedly recognized that provided a key to reviving the Washington Street commercial and theater district. Fundamental components or actions can be summarized as:

The Residential Hybrid Building, calibrated to the right density, carefully tailored to fit into the fabric of the historic city, and balanced with attractive functions, was the catalyst for the city’s long-sought change.

An “Open System” of incremental development should be assumed and encouraged. The forced arrangement of the retail mall is a “closed system” precluding other players from participating. Peripheral activity (like boutiques, restaurants, cafes, small retail, and the like) cannot symbiotically grow easily nearby. A mixed-use development that nurtures its connections to the street will open other possibilities on nearby properties, spawning a natural accretion of smaller peripheral investment and improvements.

Regulatory Jujitsu: Urban design is a political process. Lengthy and detailed environmental review is rightly required to ensure zoning mandates are followed. Both Millennium Place and the Burnham Building/Millennium Tower built on such previous city approvals but made significant modifications by reducing the size, amount of vehicular traffic, and natural resources consumed (water and air quality). Both projects had to comply with strict shadow limitations already established. By accepting these limitations – and coopting political inertia - the public approval process was smoother and shorter, thereby jump-starting construction dates to hit the market in a timely way.

The accretion of new projects, either renovations or new construction, is illustrated on this map. Since 1998, when Millennium Place began construction, numerous projects have begun in the district. These include major investments by Emerson College and Suffolk University, new rental apartment buildings, residential loft conversions, a boutique hotel, new office spaces, and importantly renovation of several historic theaters.

Since Millennium Tower and the Burnham Building renovation was announced in 2012, a major office tenant is moving to the project, along with a new supermarket into the Filene’s Basement space. Other buildings along Washington Street are being renovated for new tenants.

The critical mass of the Residential Hybrid Building, coupled with careful urban design tactics, is bringing to fruition the social and political objectives originally envisioned 25 years ago in the Mid-Town Cultural District in downtown Boston.