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

Status
Not open for further replies.
kz1000ps said:
Maybe not for the lessee but to the property owner sometimes that's the only solution, especially if your building has some godawful '60s single pane windows that do nothing but run up your electric bill. Plus you can then tout how you've gone green and charge more for rent.
Click to expand...

One Beacon just did that, complete with fancy LEED stickers. Still a big brown turd.
 
I was in high school in the early 80's, and came down to Boston on a few trips in that timeframe. Aside from the two Back Bay towers, and the Fed which largely isn't visible when coming in from the north, the skyline was dominated by:
  • One Beacon
  • One Boston Place
  • the old State Street Bank building
  • 100 Federal
  • 60 State St.
  • One Post Office Square
Plus, the one tower hotel that ever stood out to me was a Howard Johnson's (probably because I came in on the Greyhound to the old St. James St. depot). Is it any wonder that I was not inspired to come to Massachusetts for college (even though I wasn't going to become an architect)?

Also (to try to get back on-topic for the thread): what was the difference between the original One Franklin and the current Millennium Tower, other than (I think) height?
 
Last edited:
Also (to try to get back on-topic for the thread): what was the difference between the original One Franklin and the current Millennium Tower, other than (I think) height?
__________________

__________________
 
Boston02124 said:
Also (to try to get back on-topic for the thread): what was the difference between the original One Franklin and the current Millennium Tower, other than (I think) height?
__________________

__________________
Click to expand...

I don't think I've seen this rendering before. It looks like they had intended on keeping a little bit more of the old brick facade on the corner of Hawley and Franklin st, as well as a high rise portion coming out of the burnham building. I know they removed that wall at Hawley/Franklin, but from what I've seen in the renderings, I believe they still intend on using some masonry at this corner, and I do remember when they demo'd that wall, they were carefully cutting and putting pieces on pallets, I assume for reuse.
 
Original plan for 1 Franklin was for a 495 foot tower (about 30 story) 1.2mil sq ft multi-use complex containing 500K sq ft of office space, 180K sq ft of retail, 140 residences, and a 207 room boutique hotel.
 
As I recall One Franklin would have used the facade on Franklin St. that was recently demolished for this project, but would have kept only the facade of the Burnham Building (thus why the building was completely gutted).
 
I actually kinda like the old design.

What I like: Street level doesn't feel so sterile. Kept the old brick facade in place. The details on the tower portion is kinda nice.

I'd still like that to be built somewhere else.
 
I like the tower portion of the new design far more, but razing the 1905 facade really dampened my enthusiasm for the whole project.
 
Last edited:
novitiate said:
As I recall One Franklin would have used the facade on Franklin St. that was recently demolished for this project, but would have kept only the facade of the Burnham Building (thus why the building was completely gutted).
Click to expand...

The original project would have retained and rehabbed the Burnham Building too. The portion of the tower you see in the rendering over the Burnham Building was cantilevered over the building. The original project would have also connected the entire base of the tower with what was the exposed part of the Burnham Building that is now enclosed with the new glass facade.
 
I'm not complaining about anything, just real glad to see something go up, and something with some substantial height (still not 1000' tho!)

Still, it woulda been nice if they could have worked the 1905 facade in as originally planned.
 
meddlepal said:
I actually kinda like the old design.

What I like: Street level doesn't feel so sterile. Kept the old brick facade in place.
Click to expand...

Same opinion here. The 2nd rendering had the best street level design. The base of the building complimented the scale of the Burnham. Also I liked the original plan to preserve the 1905 facade.
 
The key difference is that Millennium Tower is an unabashedly tall singular object. One Franklin was always trying its hardest to stay squat and looked like a bunch of buildings mashed together (in typical Elkus fashion). There's a lot of similarity to Atlantic Wharf in the OF proposal actually.
 
LOL Why is that "do you have any spare change" guy in the most recent rendering?
 
That render is not official. Boston02124 accidentally pulled a joke render that someone did where they added Spare Change Guy to the most popular rendering:

MillenniumTowerBoston.jpg
 
The old rendering is a hot mess compared to the stunning, new beauty that'll be rising soon!!
 
I love whoever added that guy to the rendering, absolutely funny since he's always on winter street downtown lol.
 
atlantaden said:
The old rendering is a hot mess compared to the stunning, new beauty that'll be rising soon!!
Click to expand...

Completely agree. And thanks to Datadyne for pointing out how much the old rendering looks like Atlantic Wharf -- it makes me dislike the old design even more.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top