By Prashant Gopal and Brian K. Sullivan
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Only a decade ago, Boston’s Seaport District, located just southeast of downtown, was little more than a crazy quilt of outdoor parking lots and warehouses. Then the city began recruiting startups and big corporations to what it dubbed a new “Innovation District,” and the area sprouted offices for General Electric, Amazon.com, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Fidelity Investments, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, as well as luxury condominiums, museums, and some of the city’s hippest restaurants.
What no one mentioned at this month’s event is Boston’s poor timing. No American city has left such a large swath of expensive new oceanfront real estate and infrastructure exposed to the worst the environment has to offer, according to Chuck Watson, owner of Enki Research, which assesses risk for insurers, investors, and governments. The expansion totals 1,000 acres, an area bigger than Manhattan’s Central Park.
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Developers are elevating ground floors, putting electrical and other critical equipment on higher ones, and investing in salt water-resistant materials and flood barriers to protect garages and other vulnerable areas of buildings. Boston is planning a series of sea walls, berms, and other structures that will act like a barricade against Mother Nature. The city this month opened an elevated playground near Boston’s Children’s Museum that will double as the first such water barrier. The city still needs to raise as much as $1 billion for Seaport defenses.
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At the $360 million St. Regis condo tower, now under construction, flood walls will rise from the ground to block waters. Also, its lobby floor has been designed so it can be permanently raised by four feet as flooding worsens, according to developer Jon Cronin. He’s hopeful that his neighbors and the city will follow suit. “We don’t want to be the only building in the middle of an island,” he says.
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