The Kensington | 665 Washington Street | Downtown

Re: Residences at Kensington

type001 said:
^Hahaha. Proof that gothies are architecture majors.

"Goddam Conformists!"
Click to expand...

I was a stage crew nerd, had to wear all black though

... oh shit.




type001 said:
And everyone is reaching for the top of shelf of insults to describe this building. It's boring, not atrocious. I'll go as far as to say that a rich Bostonian probably prefers living somewhere that doesn't stick out.
Click to expand...

I think that building something so uninspired (it looks like the "design" process, as data mentioned, was simply to draw the walls in revett with stock materials) that it is worse than ugly. With an ugly building there was thought and motivations involved. It can be critiqued and evaluated. This thing is the highrise equivelant of a subdivision. Government center, while a disaster, at least has merit.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

I want to know who lives in Tremont on the Common. I'd be embarrassed to live there.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

What's not to like?

toc1.jpg
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

The best thing about living at Tremont on the Common is that its awful majesty is not part of your skyline view...

type001 said:
...everyone is reaching for the top of shelf of insults to describe this building. It's boring, not atrocious.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It is an alarming indicator of the extraordinarily low standard of quality our friends in the BRA are using to determine what gets built in our city. In aggregate with the projects I've alluded to elsewhere, its architectural worthlessness is further amplified.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

We're building something next to an H.H. Richardson building. Maybe we should take that into consideration.
H.H. who?

Compare this to 60 State st, where I think they did just about as good of a job you could if you were going to put a skyscraper right in between the Old State House and Faneuil Hall.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Here's the glass I didn't post last time:


20121126-PB260087 by NelsonAndBronte, on Flickr

Perhaps it will echo Millenium behind? I suppose the development next to Jacob Wirth's will end up hiding it in any case.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Re: "conformists!" - be careful what you wish for when what you wish for is cheap mass culture-consuming suburbanites living in highrises downtown.

Hopefully whatever fills that Wirth lot isn't "The Fail Next Time".
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Just a couple random points from a part-time poster.

1) Architecturally stunning buildings cost more to build and therefore cost more to rent/purchase

2) There are a limited number of people who can afford to dis-regard value in their housing choices

3) Suburbs are popular because they offer more space per dollar even on a commuting cost adjusted basis

4) You guys don't like people living in the suburbs

5) Foreign Investors either are investing for cash flow, or a part time residence. Rental premiums in architecturally interesting buildings don't command a significant premium to boring buildings (especially if most buildings were interesting due to the whole supply thing) and "snob appeal" for a part-time residence is sort of lost when bragging locally (i.e. when talking wealth on the streets of Moscow, Best Building in Boston < Any Building in Manhattan)

6) banks lend based on current market rent comps and have a tough time getting comfortable with projected market premiums

7) time = money, and complicated/contentious/difficult to finance projects take more time and developers prefer more money to less money

8) developers will stop making boring buildings when the market decides they don't want to live in boring buildings and refuse to buy/rent there are prices that make them profitable
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Guys, developers have almost always built bland buildings. The ones that have lasted to today, for the most part, are the ones that were the most interesting or just lucky. Do you know how many bland row houses went up in the 19th century? They weren't all the restored gems in the gentrified sections of town. Even most apartment buildings were pretty basic on the outside. Walk up 5th Ave in NYC or look at the triple-deckers in Dorchester, they are all pretty much the same (relative to their surroundings; I'm not saying 5th Ave apartment towers are the same as triple-deckers). The only buildings that really stand out do so because someone had an ego. A developer builds for profit and the thing that most residents of these buildings care about are what's inside. This has always been the case.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

I think what people like Beton are saying (and I agree) is that the Bra should be making developers spend more money on materials and design instead of making them fund parks. Bra should dismiss neighbors complaints about height and shadows in ridiculous places like the west end and next to the hancock bldg (here and now, micro thinking) and worry about design for the future and design related to others in the city
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

This building is atrocious but in five to ten years time you will never know it was there. It is short stumpy and going to be hidden by slightly taller stumps.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

You can build buildings with some style.

03R.Jen15CPW.c--300x300.jpg


Prices begin in the $5,000 per square foot range.

(Shown: 15 Central Park West, NY, NY)
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Yeah nut even 15 CPW is a limestone behemoth. The insides are still all that matters.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Suffolk 83 said:
I think what people like Beton are saying (and I agree) is that the Bra should be making developers spend more money on materials and design instead of making them fund parks. Bra should dismiss neighbors complaints about height and shadows in ridiculous places like the west end and next to the hancock bldg (here and now, micro thinking) and worry about design for the future and design related to others in the city
Click to expand...

That I agree with.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

vanshnookenraggen said:
Guys, developers have almost always built bland buildings. The ones that have lasted to today, for the most part, are the ones that were the most interesting or just lucky. Do you know how many bland row houses went up in the 19th century? They weren't all the restored gems in the gentrified sections of town. Even most apartment buildings were pretty basic on the outside. Walk up 5th Ave in NYC or look at the triple-deckers in Dorchester, they are all pretty much the same (relative to their surroundings; I'm not saying 5th Ave apartment towers are the same as triple-deckers). The only buildings that really stand out do so because someone had an ego. A developer builds for profit and the thing that most residents of these buildings care about are what's inside. This has always been the case.
Click to expand...

The difference being that the crap buildings of yesteryear were built for the masses, whereas today even the architecture of the elite (most luxury condo buildings) is awful.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

meddlepal said:
This building is atrocious but in five to ten years time you will never know it was there. It is short stumpy and going to be hidden by slightly taller stumps.
Click to expand...

I agree....besides it's next to impossible to view this building from most angles, except from the street below. You have to be in a helicopter or in an upper story of a nearby skyscraper for it to matter much (pity the apt. dwellers across the stree!) If the streetscape ends up being okay (fingers crossed cynically) we'll forget about this building in short order.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

meddlepal said:
This building is atrocious but in five to ten years time you will never know it was there. It is short stumpy and going to be hidden by slightly taller stumps.
Click to expand...

Far from hidden.

The building, or should I say this vertical homage to new formalist classical penitentiaries, faces Beach St., quite prominent and visible from both Washington St and Chinatown.

Excuse me, I must get back to lurking.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

I don't understand what the complaint with this building is. Wait until it's finished - It doesnt look that bad, for something int he middle of construction. The massing is in line with the area
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top