This is Waterside Place, a building that's about to start construction on the Southie waterfront. It's 20 stories, which is pretty tall for Boston, and it's what's called a slab. That's really what architects call it, non-judgmentally. Boston has a fair number of slab buildings, including Church Park:
And Tremont-on-the-Common:
Boston also has a fear/hatred of buildings taller than four stories which, at times, borders on the insane. Coincidence? Probably not. Slabs create shadows, and block views, and make people uncomfortable. But they also have a lot going for them, especially the fact that they are an extremely efficient packaging of space.
But I think that more importantly for developers, they provide more floor area per foot of height in a city that cares more about height than aesthetics. In other words, people in Boston hear "20 stories" and react with only mild dread, even if it's a 20-story slab. But what if this developer wanted the same amount of space and achieved it by making a building half as wide (more of a point than a wall) and twice as high? If you ask me, that would be nicer, throw less of a shadow, become part of a nice view rather than a blocker of one, and maybe spruce up our skyline a little bit, too. But developers know, instinctively, that 40 stories is a no-go in most of Boston.
I say: let's put a finer point on what we don't like about big buildings, and demand better buildings, not shorter ones. Let's let height happen in well-designed buildings and prevent it from happening in slabs and stumpy boxes.
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