Most impressive construction boom: Boston, Montreal, San Francisco, or Washington DC? (cost, compare)

[Trafalgar Law]

Most impressive construction boom: Boston, Montreal, San Francisco, or Washington DC?

- Retail
- Housing
- Office
- Hotels
- Bridges
- Roads
- Trains
- Buses
- Infrastructure (reservoirs, levees, flood gates, so on)
- School campuses
- Greenspace

I think these four should round-about in the same general range when all things are considered. Like the initial thread, this one is featuring the cities and their metropolitan areas, so feel free to go outside of city-limits if needed. Also this is not a definite list of criteria, just enough to get the thread off the ground. If you feel that there are other criteria points worth adding as it pertains to construction and development activity then by all means add them in.

[2Easy]

DC by far.

[masssachoicetts]

I voted Boston for the upcoming decade

Towers Growth:
1. John Hancock - 792ft - 1976 BUILT
2. The Pru - 749ft -1964 BUILT
3. One Dalton / Four Seasons - 742ft - 2018 BUILT/FINISHING CONSTRUCTION
4. One Bromfield - 709ft - 2026 - PIPELINE
5. Winthrop Square Tower - 692ft - 2022 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
6. Millenium Tower - 685ft - 2016 - BUILT
7. South Station Tower - 677ft - 2024 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
8. One Congress - 647ft - 2023 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
9. Federal Reserve Building - 614ft - 1976 - BUILT
10. Aquarium Garage Tower - 606ft - 2025 - APPROVED
11. One Boston Place - 601ft - 1970 - BUILT
12. One International Place - 600ft - 1987 - BUILT
13. One Hundred Federal Street - 591ft - 1971 - BUILT
14. One Financial Center - 590ft - 1983 - BUILT
15. 111 Huntington Ave - 554ft - 2003 - BUILT
16. One Sudbury Condos - 547ft - 2020 - UNDER CONSTRUCTION / TOPPED OFF
17. Hub On Cuseway Office - 525ft - 2020(1) - UNDER CONSTRUCTION
18. One Post Office Square - 525ft - 1981/2022 - BUILT AND UNDER CONSTRUCTION, will be completely gutted
19. One Federal Street - 510ft - 1971- BUILT
20. Hub On Causeway Residential - 509ft - 2021 - TOPPED OFF
Other Notables
23. Garden Garage - 485ft
30-44: Raffles Boston - 406-449ft (Im getting a range of numbers from different sources on this one)
30-44: One Clarendon - 420ft
35-44: Back Bay Station - 413ft
45-54. Fenway Pike Parcel - 345ft
45-54: BU Data Science Book Building - 340ft?
55-59: Kenmore Square Hotel - 300ft?
And countless (Roughly ~70 in the U/C, Approval, Pipeline phases) through Seaport, Cambridge Xing, and South End buildings between 200-400ft tall



Notable Mass Projects:
-Cambridge Crossing
-Seaport Square/Parcels
-South End Development
-Assembly Square (Although in Somerville)



Before and Afters
Seaport Square 2007: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3528...!7i3328!8i1664
Seaport Square 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3528...7i16384!8i8192

Southie Seaport 2007: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3444...!7i3328!8i1664
Southie Seaport 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3445...7i16384!8i8192

Seaport Part 2 (2007): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3494...!7i3328!8i1664
Seaport Part 2 (2014): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3493...7i13312!8i6656
Seaport Part 2 (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3492...7i16384!8i8192

South End (2009): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3449...7i13312!8i6656
South End (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3446...7i16384!8i8192

Cambridge Xing (2012): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3717...7i13312!8i6656
Cambridge Xing (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3717...7i16384!8i8192 -6 200-400fters under construction now.

The Fens (2009): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3440...7i13312!8i6656
The Fens (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3440...7i16384!8i8192

Causeway Street (2009): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3660...!7i3328!8i1664
Causeway Street (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3660...7i16384!8i8192

Chinatown (2007): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3512...7i13312!8i6656
Chinatown (2018): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3512...7i16384!8i8192

Scummy Mass Ave (2007): https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3464...!7i3328!8i1664
'Scummy' Mass Ave 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3464...7i16384!8i8192

Boylston Street 2007: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3485...7i13312!8i6656
Boylston Street 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3485...7i16384!8i8192 Definitely helped the street wall and the shopping scene

South Bay 2011: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3241...7i13312!8i6656
South Bay 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3241...7i16384!8i8192 To show the boom is outside the dwntwn
South Bay other side: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3251...7i16384!8i8192

Somerville 2011: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3916...7i13312!8i6656 Ewww
Somerville 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3916...7i16384!8i8192 Assembly, Encore Casino (2 Billion Dolalr development) .. and its only the beginning here

Boston Landing 2007: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3570...!7i3328!8i1664
Boston Landing 2018: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3570...7i13312!8i6656 New Balance HQ, theres about ~3 more buildings in this place now.


Scale
This shows you how much there is to develop in Boston, although posted in 2019 this shot was taken in late 2017 as Pier 4 hasnt been started in the pic. But look at how much in 2017 was developable land. In the 2020s the city will be transformed with new residents, retail and density.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3524...7i12000!8i6000

Here another, all of this land in East Boston is now developed with 6-8 story condos and some ocean front restaurants. It is completed with a whole park that traces the Bay there. Slide to the right a little bit and thats what the rest of the undeveloped land looks like now.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3577...7i12000!8i6000



Transit
1. The Green Line is expanding to two new forks with a Somerville and Medford expansions. Cost: 4.3 Billion
2. $10.8 Billion for in-service upgrades, signaling and track improvements from now until 2025.
3. The Orange and Red Lines are getting a 100% train and care replacement by 2024.
4. NSRL Link being discussed and electrification of the commuter being discussed. Total Cost could be 30.8 Billion.
5. Fal River and New Bedford are getting new commuter rail service.
6. Its getting prettier in Boston! Many new stations have been built...
Typical 2010s overhaul Before: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3571...2!8i6656Typica 2010s overhaul
After: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3572...7i16384!8i8192

[march2]

DC hands down

[Joakim3]

Yeah DC is on the fast track to being Manhattan/SF built out. It's building as much as other cities with a city wide height restriction.

One just has to look at Navy Yards or The Warf to see how ridiculous the construction boom in DC is.

[MrJester]

Originally Posted by Joakim3

Yeah DC is on the fast track to being Manhattan/SF built out. It's building as much as other cities with a city wide height restriction.

One just has to look at Navy Yards or The Warf to see how ridiculous the construction boom in DC is.

If we are talking about the metro areas, then D.C. Tyson's Corner is exploding with growth, the Silver line extension will light the region on fire with development.

If we are talking about city proper only, then SF has a case in that it's expanding its skyline rapidly. But SF has a very inadequate rail transit system for a city of its density.

[urbancritic]

For DC, just talking about the less sexy stuff making a huge impact:

-Key Bride renovation done
-Memorial Bridge complete restoration over halfway done
-Frederick Douglas Bridge replacement nearing halfway done
-11th Street Bridge replacement done
-11th Street Bridge park funding almost finalized
-Storm water sewer separation tunnels making significant progress

[CXT2000]

For Montreal (from the top of my head)

- Building a 67km rapid transit system (REM) with a potential phase 2 to start in 2025 (from rumours I heard)
- Blue-line metro extension expected
- Brand new $4.4B bridge and new Turcot interchange.
- Downtown added 20,000 people between 2011-2016, and about 70+ highrises since 2012. 4 buildings that are 200 metres are U/C at this moment, quadrupling the amount we had before. The downtown area also expanded, adding Griffintown (which grew by 642% from 2011-2016)
- St. Catherine street renovation
- Royal Mount megamall broke ground, a huge mall along with potential 8,000 condo units, hotels, offices, entertainment etc. Essentially Montreal is getting an official Midtown.
- Plans for a "downtown" in Kirkland.
-South Shore is getting two new "downtowns". One near Dix-30 mall (and future REM stop) with dozens of highrises (hotel, office, apartments, entertainment) and a $3B plan for Longueuil to get a new and improved downtown.
-2.2M sq ft of office space U/C downtown, about 3M total in the metropolitan
- The metropolitan area averages 44K population growth per year, 60K in 2018.
- New protected green space in the West Island, 400+ acre park in St. Michel and 6-7 new parks downtown.

Perhaps on the building boom scale, it isn't as much as Boston, SF or DC but I believe when accounting infrastructure projects, it can rival each city. Regardless if it's the top or not, the boom currently on going here is phenomenal and needed after 40 years of nothing. Unfortunately, looks like the Quebec economy is gonna underperform heavily, so it looks like the boom is done here. If so, it was a fun couple of years.

[18Montclair]

All 4 are doing exceptional...here is the change in SF

[Boston Shudra]

Originally Posted by Joakim3

One just has to look at Navy Yards or The Warf to see how ridiculous the construction boom in DC is.

Maybe I’m missing something, but both looked smaller than the Seaport on google images. Boston has East Cambridge (including Kendall), too.

Got any stats on how the 4 areas compare?