The city’s Public Improvement Commission unanimously approved several applications for proposed public-realm changes related to Mass General Hospital’s planned expansion, including the discontinuance of North Anderson Street as a public street, at its May 12 hearing, which took place virtually.
The proposed project will comprise two connected towers – 14 and 13 stories, respectively – sitting atop a podium facing Cambridge Street on the hospital’s main campus. Completion of the first tower is slated for late 2026, while construction of the second tower should be finished in 2030, said Nick Haney of MGH Planning and Construction during the April 28 PIC meeting, when the applications were first presented to the commission.
Howard Mosier, director of land engineering for VHB, a Boston-based civil engineering company, said at that time that the continuance of North Anderson Street as a public street would allow for the creation of the new pedestrian-oriented North Anderson Street Arcade, which will connect Cambridge and Parkman streets while providing a new main pedestrian entrance to the main campus on Cambridge Street.
Other approved public-realm alterations include the creation of a proposed two-story overhead connection, which would link the heart of the new building to Parkman Street and portions North Grove Street, as well as the creation of a tunnel connection on Parkman Street to move trash, goods, and services, but not people, among other changes, according to Mosier.