A shift in the waterfront tower wars
The Boston Globe - 08/19/2014
This abrupt turn for Harbor Towers is likely to end in one of two ways: Either they end up assenting to a significant redevelopment of the Harbor Garage, or they keep voicing the same complaints they’ve been airing for years — and discredit themselves in the process.
The Harbor Towers trustees said this week that they’ve hired George Thrush, the director of Northeastern University’s architecture school, to formulate their design response to Chiofaro’s redevelopment plans. Thrush is an architect who has little sympathy for NIMBY-ism or for people with a reflexive fear of tall buildings. He recently helped pave the way for the construction of a 699-foot-tall tower at the Christian Science Center in the Back Bay.
Thrush says he couldn’t care less what Chiofaro’s proposed development means for views from a particular Harbor Towers condo unit. Rather, he says, he’s been hired to press a wider conversation about what Chiofaro’s proposed development would mean for the city’s future.