Draft Project Impact Report - Boston Redevelopment Authority

Exeter Residences/888 Boylston
\\Mabos\projects\09916.00\docs\Permits\DPIR\Text\DPIR Chapter 1 Executive
Summary.docx
stepped storefront that eliminates the taper towards the corners cause by the curved
storefront. Additional proposed street-level retail will now activate the corner
adjacent to the Boylston Arcade entrance and a proposed restaurant on the first floor
of the Hynes Convention Center will open onto the plaza with seasonal dining. Other
improvements include a remodeled Boylston Arcade entrance to give this major
entrance to the Prudential Center more presence on Boylston Street and to relate it
architecturally to 888 Boylston. The plaza design is envisioned as a ”hardscape”
plaza with street trees and planting near Boylston Street and featured amenities such
as seating, fountains and decorative lighting to satisfy the public’s desire for open
space with a pedestrian scale and ambience.
1.2 History of the Prudential Center /
The Prudential Center Today
The history of the Prudential Center is discussed in Section 1.4 of the NPC/PNF.
The approved Prudential Center Development Plan is divided into six project phases,
with two phases divided into subphases:
Phases la and lb (111 Huntington and Retail Expansion) have been constructed;
Phase 2 (Shaw’s Supermarket) has been constructed;
Phase 3 (Belvidere Residences) has been constructed;
Phase 4a (888 Boylston) received schematic design approval from the BRA on
July 12, 2001;
Phases 4b and 5 (Mandarin Oriental Boston) is under construction and is nearing
completion; and
Phase 6 (Development between East Ring Road and Exeter Street) was approved
on the Master Plan level, subject to further approval on the Development Plan
level.
Today the Prudential Center complex consists of the 52-story Prudential Tower and
surrounding one-story retail shops (800 Boylston); one 25-story office building (101
Huntington), one 36 story office building (111 Huntington), three 26-story apartment
buildings (the Boylston, Fairfield and Gloucester Buildings), one 11 story residential
building (The Belvidere Residences), two department stores (Lord & Taylor and Saks
Fifth Avenue) and a retail arcade, the Sheraton Hotel, a Shaw’s Supermarket (53
Huntington), and an underground garage divided into two halves (north and south)
by the Massachusetts Turnpike. The north and south garages are connected by a
pedestrian tunnel, and by retail/commercial space at the Plaza level. Two-mixed use
housing, hotel and retail structures, each 13 stories connected by a low-rise structure
(the Mandarin Oriental Boston) are under construction and nearing completion for
the fall of 2008. Since acquiring the Prudential Center in 1998, Boston Properties has
redeveloped, or has caused to be redeveloped, almost all of the 4500 feet of street
Executive Summary 1-5