Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Re: Filene's

Like the new height, hate the new, banal-ized design.

The new "vision" for the building reminds me primarily of 785 8th Avenue in New York:

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It hasn't exactly been a hit in NY: The Wired New York crowd (NY's ArchBoston counterpart) has generally jeered it, and, probably more importantly, more than 2+ years after being built it is fully empty and the developer has recently gone broke.

One can only hope this is in some part a response to its lame architecture.
 
Re: Filene's

P.S. As long as Menino is in the mood for micromanaging and banning things he doesn't like, I would love to see the city ban balconies on high-rises. They really do look terrible, almost without exception, and the Filene's proposal, should it get built as it now is, would be another example of why not to put balconies on high-rises.
 
Re: Filene's

itchy said:
Like the new height, hate the new, banal-ized design.

The new "vision" for the building reminds me primarily of 785 8th Avenue in New York:

a01.jpg


785_Eighth.jpg


It hasn't exactly been a hit in NY: The Wired New York crowd (NY's ArchBoston counterpart) has generally jeered it, and, probably more importantly, more than 2+ years after being built it is fully empty and the developer has recently gone broke.

One can only hope this is in some part a response to its lame architecture.
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Itchy, this building certainly wasn't panned because of what you posted. The entire back side of it is a blank, windowless wall. http://www.emporis.com/images/details/695730
 
Re: Filene's

choo said:
500 units is good. assume an 2 people a unit- thats 1,000 new people in dtx,
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Will it really be though? 3/4 of the Mandarin's residential units are dark all of the time.
 
Re: Filene's

I'm very happy about this! My only lame concern is that the tower wont break the plateau view when coming into town on 93S, but that view most likely would not have changed with any proposal.
 
Re: Filene's

DZH22 said:
Itchy, this building certainly wasn't panned because of what you posted. The entire back side of it is a blank, windowless wall.
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I know the building well, including its blank wall -- and that certainly is a source of spite. The overall design of the non-blank side of the building hasn't seemed to have pleased many, though.

Either way, to my eyes the new Filene's design as rendered is poor at best and a downgrade from what had previously been planned. Desperate as the BRA/Menino are to have this built, I hope they do pressure Millennium to up their design game.
 
Re: Filene's

type001 said:
I'm very happy about this! My only lame concern is that the tower wont break the plateau view when coming into town on 93S, but that view most likely would not have changed with any proposal.
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It will definitely make a huge impact from the north though!

My biggest concern aesthetically is the top of the tower. It seems very uninspired. Maybe the mayor will convince them to change their "hat".

Somebody mentioned this is the same group that had the Boylston Square proposal? They should make this proposal look a little more like that one, and we're good to go.
 
Re: Filene's

I am loving the comments on the article on Boston.com. People talking about scaling it back, it's too tall, it will look way out of place. Someone even believes all of the building in the surrounding area are 3-10 stories tall.
 
Re: Filene's

So they can build this for $615 million but it takes $1 billion to build a casino at Suffolk? WTF?
 
Re: Filene's

Based on it's slender design, I'm guessing it'll be primarily hotel and residential, dropping office space out of the equation?
 
Re: Filene's

bbfen said:
Will it really be though? 3/4 of the Mandarin's residential units are dark all of the time.
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This is my concern (which I shared 2 pages back). Even if all of these units are occupied, the vast majority of these residents will be in their homes by 7:00pm during the week not likely to leave again until the morning. The key to this project is bringing some life to downtown crossing after business hours when the area empties out. The retail component is going to determine whether this project is successful in this regard. They really need destination type retail/restaurants. Unique to downtown retailers and restaurants is really key here. If they merely add another PF Changs/Cheesecake Factory and stores with locations elsewhere in the city, the development will struggle to succeed where it is needed most (night and weekend activity).
 
Re: Filene's

^^^^
Something does not feel right for me on this one. I am not a fan of 33 Arch or the other comparisons. Still need to see the renderings for the ground floor & base of the building.

Anything at this point will impove that area thou.
 
Re: Filene's

base looks nice here. it's gotta be better than macy's. i like the separation between the buildings- better that than trying to make it one and failing.

(also, this view will never exist on account of other ahhh, how do you say, buildings)
 
Re: Filene's

Ron Newman said:
Whereas I like the new design better. It keeps the old Filene's building visually separate from the new development, instead of surrounding it and stacking above it.
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Ron -- that's the key -- the Burnham Filene's is the most important aspect of the site - everything else has to be subsurvient to it at eye level of a pedestrian approaching from Washington, Summer or Winter St.

The goal on the street level should be to get back to the look of days of when Filene's faced Jordans "down in the paint' with Borders on the fringe as the supporting cast
 
Re: Filene's

BostonUrbEx said:
Based on it's slender design, I'm guessing it'll be primarily hotel and residential, dropping office space out of the equation?
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Urb -- they said what it would be:

Ground floor and 2nd retail = 2 Home Depots's worth -- that could be a downtown type Target or even a Wegmans + some restaurants

upper floors of Burnham Building -- "office'

Tower = condos and appartments -- no explict mention of a hotel

with separate entrances on the street for everything

What I've seen / read so far -- sounds good

Even the height is good -- 606 top floor over 650 to the roof
 
Re: Filene's

I have a three item wish list for this site (in order of importance).

1. Fill the hole. - Check
2. A varied & permeable ground floor with a variety of retail - Unknown as yet
3. A stunning piece of real architecture that would honestly compliment the Burnham Building. - Nope. It's not bad, but sadly, it's just another background building.
 
Re: Filene's

I'm sure they'll have a significant amount of retail space on the bottom few floors. With all the foot traffic going through there, dedicated retail is almost a necessity for the investment. I think it'll take 1 or 2 big draws and it might even help revitalize the rest of dtx and fill in the Borders and most of the other empty places. I am glad that they're keeping the filene's facade though.

Peterborough
http://www.bostontipster.com
 
Re: Filene's

Millennium's reputation for active ground floor in Boston isn't overly impressive unfortunately. They are really going to have to step out of their mold on this one to impress me.
 
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