WS Development Office Tower Slices Through Bland Design Criticism In Seaport
When Boston architect David Manfredi asked Jamestown L.P. president Michael Phillips what the Seaport neighborhood’s biggest challenge was during Bisnow’s State of the Seaport event in February, the Innovation and Design Building owner said its uninspiring architecture.
After WS Development revealed Tuesday a rendering of its planned office building at 88 Seaport Blvd., it appears one developer did not take the design critique lightly.
The 18-story building, on the site of the old Our Lady of Good Voyage chapel, has the square glass exterior common for Seaport architecture. The midsection, however, dramatically slices the 499K SF building into two sections with tree-lined terraces facing Boston Harbor. WS Development hired the building’s architect, Dutch firm OMA, with the intent of breaking away from the neighborhood’s normal designs, the Boston Globe reports.
The project, along the MBTA Silver Line, will also entail the construction of a new entrance to the eastern end of Courthouse Station to improve accessibility. WS Development aims to begin construction in 2018 and complete by 2020, pending Boston Planning and Development Agency approval.
