Quote:
Originally Posted by maccoinnich
Does anyone know what's going on?
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Gremlins?
OK, so I'm not hallucinating then. Obviously somebody has (very recently) updated the map since the last time most of you had seen it. Not sure what the impetus was for the change, but regarding the north half of the block, Ankrom Moisan doesn't appear to be taking advantage of it. It looks like they're trying to cram as much square footage as they can (under the old 130' height limit) by capping the Temple with 4-5 additional floors. It's visually overwhelming and I think it seriously detracts from the Temple.
Back to 96Pearl's comments, I totally understand the desire for larger floorplates in office buildings. But instead of a massive cap that suffocates the building underneath it, maybe those upper floors can step back away from the facade of the Temple so as not to be visible from the street below. Even just a 20' setback from the north and east sides would help to maintain the integrity of the historic asset while only sacrificing 3200sf/floor. The difference could easily be made up by adding one or two more floors onto the new office building. This could also provide a very nice terrace on top of the Temple for the new tenants.