$1B Twin Tower Project Proposed for Boston's Waterfront

A developer is planning to construct a pair of angular skyscrapers with up to 300 hotel rooms and 120 condominiums on one of the city’s largest development sites. The $1 billion project would construct two modern towers -- one clad in glass, the other in terra cotta – that would rise to 600 feet along Atlantic Avenue on the downtown waterfront. Construction of the 1.3 million-square complex would create jobs for up to 3,300 hard hats.

Developer Don Chiofaro plans to replace the Harbor Garage with a pair of tall buildings containing a five-star hotel, residences, offices and stores.

The $1 billion waterfront complex, designed by the firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, would redefine a corner of the city dominated by structures built many decades ago, and create a new gateway to the city from the water.

The 1.3 million-square project would construct a 600-foot tall residential tower and a 537-foot office building, including up to 300 hotel rooms, 120 condominiums, 700,000 square feet of offices and three levels of retail stores.

On the ground floor, a public arcade would be constructed to connect the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to Boston Harbor, and 1,400 parking spaces would be built underground.

The arcade would represent a dramatic improvement from the lack of public space presently on the site, and would allow for year-round public events and open new views of the water from the greenway – both signature elements of a thriving city.

The developer plans to meet the state waterfront development requirements of devoting at least 48 percent of the footprint to “open space” by primarily creating “Harbor Square,” an enclosed atrium covered by a retractable glass ceiling and removable doors that would house a skating rink in the winter, and a great lawn with flowers and farmers markets, in the summer months.

At its widest point, Harbor Square would be 167 feet wide at Atlantic Avenue, tapering to 70 feet wide at the Harbor -- large enough to comfortably accommodate the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink.

“The project looks like nothing else on the Boston skyline and nothing else at the ground level,” Chiofaro said. “In its uniqueness, it shares a common bond with a distinguished collection of Boston architecture and engineering.”

Chiofaro said that his project, with his glistening towers and five-star hotel, will increase property values in the area and transform the entire neighborhood.