Developer, architects plan plaza upgrade
Rendering/Courtesy Canal 5 Studo
A preliminary concept design of Canal Plaza
Architect Patrick Costin calls the courtyard under his eighth-floor office in One Canal Plaza a failed plaza.
"It's dark, it has no amenities that provide a draw, it's sort of just a way to walk into the building," Costin says. The barren plaza on Middle Street is often in shadow during the fall and winter, and has no benches, colorful gardens, fountains or sculptures. "There is just not much there that invites you to linger and stay and talk and hang out in, which is what people do in great urban spaces."
Developer Tim Soley of East Brown Cow Management, the owner of the three buildings around the plaza, a few months back approached Costin and his architecture firm, Canal 5 Studio, to redesign and enliven the courtyard. Plans are still preliminary at this point. Soley is seeking city approval to build a one-story structure in the courtyard for a restaurant or store. He'd also like to add additional floors to two of the Canal Plaza buildings.
Canal 5 Studio's conceptual drawing of the new courtyard shows a glass building, giving those inside views up Temple Street to the First Parish church, over to Monument Square, and across the street to the small park in front of the Nickelodeon Cinema. The contemporary design contrasts with the historic context of the downtown, but the plaza itself, which was built in the 1970s, doesn't have much "historic gravitas," according to Costin, "and we think the building needs to be a contemporary statement of 21st century urban life."
He adds that the three brick office buildings surrounding the plaza are "neutral and static in their character," and that his team envisions the new building as a dynamic foreground.
Costin says Soley would like the plaza to become a draw not just during the daytime, but a nighttime spot as well, and connect to the lively energy of the Old Port. "At night, it will act as a lantern to ... pull you into the plaza," Costin says.
With the regulation process just getting under way, no tenant has been named, but Costin says Soley has reached out to potential restaurant operators and retail tenants.
The city's planning board will consider Soley's proposal at its July 12 meeting.
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