'Making' Kenmore Square

A massive mixed-use development could be built on top of the Massachusetts Turnpike near Kenmore Square, following a trend of proposed construction that would take advantage of some of the last remaining open space in Boston.

Developer John Rosenthal said he is awaiting municipal and state approval to build a $500 million apartment and condominium complex between the Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue overpasses. If approved, the project will begin in 2010 and finish by 2013, he said.

"It's next to Kenmore Square, which is synonymous with the gateway to Boston University and many other universities," Rosenthal said. "It's going to transform this area and add to the quality of life for BU and its students, he said.

The construction would include four buildings, a parking lot and 40,000 feet of open public space, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority spokesman Mac Daniels said in an email. The tallest tower in the complex would rise 23 stories above the area.

President Robert Brown said he supports the latest plan Rosenthal submitted to the city, arguing the complex would will help build the "critical mass" the area needs to become its own residential district.

"We're one good grocery store away from making Kenmore Square," Brown said, adding that traffic is already so busy in the area that more housing would not make the area much more congested.

In an interview last spring, Brown said he would like to link the gap between Commonwealth Avenue and South Campus by developing the air rights parcels over the Mass Pike near where the One Kenmore Square project would be completed. The ribbon could be used to provide more campus green space, he said.

For nearly three decades, few developers even considered buying more air rights parcels until 2002, when the city hired the architecture and planning firm Goody Clancy to engage in talks with the eight neighborhoods abutting the Massachusetts Turnpike, firm designer David Dixon said.

The discussion between Goody Clancy and the Citizens Advisory Council led to the creation of "A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights," a collection of guidelines for air rights development. BU also had a hand in talks because it falls within the eight neighborhoods along the turnpike.

BU attempted to purchase the air rights over Mass Pike for its own expansion, but failed to go through with the plan, former BU President John Silber said in a 2002 B.U. Bridge article.

"BU at the time, institutionally, was supportive of air rights development," Dixon said, "because in effect, it's almost an air-locked campus."