MassDOT Pike Parcels 12 - 15 | Boylston St. and Mass. Ave | Back Bay

In my mind this was always the best proposal. The best massing, the most urban, the the least gimmicky. I do understand the hesitation around the materials, but I'd argue this is one urban scar that requires a very solid "background" building - one which gives the sense of always-having-been-there permanence - rather than something jarringly stand-out.
 
Count me in the negative, too. I actually think the Peebles design is good. From some angles the curve is very, very nice, and as others have said, it's probably the best-integrated design of the bunch.

I've got a big problem with what's inside of it, though. There are two (soon to be three) very large hotels just a few blocks away from it, with many more in the surrounding area, and yet it has more than 150 hotel rooms and less than 90 residences. It's a gross reversal of priorities in a city as expensive as Boston. The other two proposals didn't wow me aesthetically, but at least they recognized this reality.

I appreciate the civility and intelligence of this forum, it's attention to things besides the mindless, ridiculous height worship you find on SSC and SSP, but I think the ideal of an "urban sense" can sometimes become, in the face of a housing need as massive as the one in Boston, an unhealthy fixation on an abstraction. We need beds more than anything.
 
Peebles was my least favorite of the 3, but it is not without some redeeming qualities. The massing should get the least pushback from neighbors, compared to the other 2 with towers. And if you really look at the renders, I don't think it resembles a monolithic wall. It has a lot of texture.
 
Re-reading this winning proposal, I was actually surprised to learn that this will not be occupied until August of 2023 (page 34)!

Clearly not an expert here on air rights construction, but I'm surprised at the length of this time table. Does anyone here have perspective/information on the start-to-finish timeline for Copley Place?
 
Does anyone recall whether ability to finance and complete the project was a factor in the selection process? Having been mentally beaten down by our recent history of the Columbus Center failure and the Fenway Center indefinite stall, and even more recently the mulligan on the last bid process for this area, I almost couldn't care less what goes here as long as something actually happens on an air rights parcel in this town.

Related: will the deck go up for this before Fenway Center breaks ground? [Edit for simultaneous post above: wow, not likely.] Your move, Rosenthal. It's been your move for a damn decade.
 
Awful choice. No setbacks, minimal glass, all monotonous wall. We already have a dull boring curved building:

3_Center_Plaza_by_Matthew_Bisanz.jpg


I rather have the third proposal. Once again, BRA showing their incompetence in choosing quality designs. Geeez...
 
KentXie said:
Awful choice. No setbacks, minimal glass, all monotonous wall. We already have a dull boring curved building

I rather have the third proposal. Once again, BRA showing their incompetence in choosing quality designs. Geeez...
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Setbacks would have been terrible on this site. It needs an actual streetwall, and the third proposal was much too low (don't get fooled by the tower, most of the building was low and flat).

Also, the Cambridge Street comparison is pretty disingenuous, since that building is larger and the Peebles design actually has quite a bit of texture to it if you look at the different elevations.

Finally, MassDOT picked Peebles, not the BRA. The BRA had nothing to do with this, and the decision probably had more to do with the plan for the deck and T station than with the architecture.
 
This building doesn't need a setback. Further, it doesn't need a glass wall. Contextually, this speaks to the urban fabric of Boylston Street much better than the other proposals which were gimmicky at best.
 
I really like the treatment of Newbury Street in the Peebles development. It will help to extend your view upward over the 2-story buildings at this end of the street, making the bookend of Newbury / Mass Ave less monolith feeling than it does today.
 
If this gets built ... what site will the BAC students use to test their skills? ... I say reject it ... for the children.

cca
 
GW said:
I appreciate the civility and intelligence of this forum, it's attention to things besides the mindless, ridiculous height worship you find on SSC and SSP
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You must not spend much time around here.

cca said:
If this gets built ... what site will the BAC students use to test their skills? ... I say reject it ... for the children.

cca
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There's still the lot at Dartmouth & Newbury for students to design in Studio. ;-)
 
datadyne007 said:
You must not spend much time around here.
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Ha! I suppose I could qualify that by calling it a relative statement. SSC & SSP feel like being stuck in boys-only middle school classroom with an absent teacher.
 
When I hear about height worship here I think of one person really. Just saying.

I really think there should be something more interactive at the corner of Mass and Boylston. It doesn't seem like there's anything but a blank wall and an escalator here. Also, the residential and hotel lobbies are taking up most of the ground floor... retail seems minimal. That's a bad idea to me as they could've made more retail and had a much more vibrant block. Its an improvement but it aint great
 
The hotel operator, whomever that turns out to be, would be stupid not to have space for a rooftop bar along the lines of a Salon de Ning type of place ... unless of course we're looking at a Motel 6 going up here.
 
kmp1284 said:
The hotel operator, whomever that turns out to be, would be stupid not to have space for a rooftop bar along the lines of a Salon de Ning type of place ... unless of course we're looking at a Motel 6 going up here.
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I don't think a rooftop bar is out of the question even for a brand like Motel 6 if the location is right (and it is). There's a La Quinta in Manhattan with a nice rooftop bar (VU Rooftop Bar) in the shadow of the Empire State Building on 32nd Street. I've actually gone a few times in spite of the awful name and unappealing hotel brand as most of the other Manhattan rooftop bars I know of are either really crowded in nice weather or a bit pretentious. It's certainly not on par with Salon de Ning (I've never been, but I know of it), but it's an open air rooftop bar with decent drinks.
 
Brad Plaid said:
Would like to see a MacAllen-type roof slope down to the Mass Ave/Boylston corner.
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I appreciate the MacAllen reference: In my mind I'm now weighing the potential for something that looks like the MacAllen building against the potential for a rehash of the State Transportation Building.

The former is clearly preferable; I can't get the resemblance to the latter out of my head. Neither is appropriate for the site, but at least this monolith is being built as a result of decking over a highway. That alone beats most of the state-sponsored monoliths in the city (e.g., the Seaport), which could instead have been normal-sized parcels.
 
el raval said:
I think the selected proposal was by far the best from an urban design sense and it will help knit Boylston St together. It also seemed to be the most interesting architecture of the 3, I'm surprised at the negative reaction here.
The development is starting from a good spot, the key to success will be to deliver on the potential.
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I agree, this building is very interesting. I particularly like the way it resembles a viola scroll, quite fitting for a location so close to Symphony Hall, Berklee, Jordan Hall, and the New England Conservatory.
 
It is going to be so long that this happens that I might even change my mind and like it when it's done.
 
HenryAlan said:
I agree, this building is very interesting. I particularly like the way it resembles a viola scroll, quite fitting for a location so close to Symphony Hall, Berklee, Jordan Hall, and the New England Conservatory.
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It's actually called "The Viola"...
 
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