Globe Article on Design of BCEC

The Boston Globe
ARCHITECTURE
Expanded convention center must do more than get bigger
By Robert Campbell, Globe Correspondent | December 20, 2009
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Does Boston need a bigger convention center?

Do convention centers really do anything to improve the life of a city? Any city? Boston in particular? And is bigger better?

Already, Boston is home to a behemoth of a convention center with 12 acres of indoor space. The building near the South Boston waterfront, designed by Rafael Vinoly, is only five years old.

Four weeks ago, the Convention Center Authority held a press conference. It launched what journalists call a trial balloon. What if, proposed the Authority, we doubled the center in size? That way, we would be able to compete with other cities for the biggest conventions. All those conventioneers would need hotel rooms, restaurants, much else. They’d spend money. They’d bring economic growth to a part of the city that’s long been pretty stagnant.

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Boston’s convention center can’t do all those things. But the principle holds. Any addition should be thought of not as a deadly, single-purpose monolith, a vast pile of hotels and meeting rooms, but rather as a mixed-use neighborhood in which lots of different things happen, as they do in San Francisco and Philadelphia. It should incorporate shops and restaurants at its edges, where they can engage the neighbors, including pedestrians as well as conventioneers. It should mitigate the inhuman vastness of its barren site by inserting some public streets. Good cities are made of good streets. The city should mandate these benefits.

If the convention center accomplished some of that, it might even do good for the South Boston waterfront. So far, this huge new piece of Boston feels like a badly designed New Jersey office park. The streets are too wide (they’re highways in the city, really) and they are hopelessly disorienting. The signage is misleading and the buildings are too far apart to create interesting frontages. Who has ever taken a walk for pleasure in this part of Boston?

Boston’s biggest selling points are its human scale, its walkability. Those are the qualities that attract visitors. Maybe a better convention center could bring some of these merits to a South Boston waterfront that needs them desperately.

Robert Campbell, the Globe’s architecture critic, can be reached at camglobe@aol.com.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Proposal to Double Size of Convention Center

South Boston convention hall could double in size
By Scott Van Voorhis | Saturday, July 12, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is reviewing expansion plans that would nearly double the size of the South Boston hall.

Just four years after its opening, the $800 million-plus Boston Convention & Exhibition Center has its calendar packed and the project has been lauded in the industry as a huge success.

Supporters say an expansion would allow the BCEC to attract even more business and keep Boston competitive with other cities.

Watertown-based Sasaki Associates recently presented a series of expansion possibilities to the convention authority’s board.

Under one scenario, the convention hall would add hundreds of thousands of square feet of core exhibit space, boosting the total to anywhere from 800,000 to 930,000 square feet. The hall’s exhibit space now totals 516,000 square feet.

“It is a confirmation of the success we have had,” said James Rooney, chief executive of the state convention authority. “The consultants took a look at the bookings. They were at least impressed enough to say we think you are doing the right thing to think about expanding. That is validating.”

Other ideas thrown out by Sasaki call for adding a second ballroom, possibly as large as 80,000 square feet, as well as an auditorium with up to 6,000 seats. There is also a need for as many as 50 additional meeting rooms, Sasaki found. The hall currenty has 86.

One big question looming is where such a major expansion would go, with the convention center covering two-thirds of its roughly 60-acre site.

The consultant’s final report is due later this fall. After that, Rooney expects an intensive master planning process that could take another year.

“The investment in the convention center was a major public investment,” Rooney said. “I feel like it’s been successful.”

Convention center looking at adding auditorum

Southie hall may expand
High demand seen for auditorium
By Scott Van Voorhis | Friday, January 25, 2008 |
http://www.bostonherald.com

The Hub could gain a showcase auditorium for fast-growing biotech companies and major political events as part of an expansion of the city's new convention center.

An auditorium that could seat thousands is under consideration if a decision is made to expand the new, $800 million Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, said Dean Stratouly, a member of the state board that oversees the hall.

An auditorium is in demand among the life sciences, high-tech and financial firms that have been flocking to the new center since it opened, Stratouly said. Such a venue would also be available for major political events as well, from presidential debates to mayoral addresses, James Rooney, chief executive of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.

... (read full article)

Boston Convention Center Now Allowing "Boat Shows"

The Boston Business Journal has an article about the effects of the BCEC allowing exposition shows: Bayside by the Wayside.

Originally, when the Convention Center was created, Boat Shows and other events which draw significant numbers of ticket-buying patrons were strictly forbidden. This was to limit the traffic and noise impact on South Boston, as conference goers usually don't drive in.

Last year, Romney signed a bill which changed this and now the BCEC is allowed to have these kinds of shows. The neighborhood was sent a notice about this and it slipped under our radar. If someone finds more details on the bill, please follow this up with a comment or email the FPNA at: fpna@dewdrops.net.