Before and after

I liked all the "after" images except one: The Liberty Mutual office tower at 157 Berkeley Street.

A less clunky, less white building would have gone well there. In addition to it's hulking clunkiness, the rounded corners don't go with anything in the rest of the view.
 
The construction photo of the Kensington looks 1000x better than the finished product.
 
I liked all the "after" images except one: The Liberty Mutual office tower at 157 Berkeley Street.

A less clunky, less white building would have gone well there. In addition to it's hulking clunkiness, the rounded corners don't go with anything in the rest of the view.

Weird. I love that building. Different strokes...
 
The construction photo of the Kensington looks 1000x better than the finished product.

The building U/C in the foreground in the photo for the Kensington (which is actually in the background) is Jacob Wirth.
 
Now I'm angry about Dainty Dot all over again.
 
I liked all the "after" images except one: The Liberty Mutual office tower at 157 Berkeley Street.

A less clunky, less white building would have gone well there. In addition to it's hulking clunkiness, the rounded corners don't go with anything in the rest of the view.

Its interesting how different of opinions people can have regarding the same things. Thats why its hard as an architect to create something that the majority will like. Liberty Mutual to me is one of the most important buildings Boston has built in the last 15 years. It gives us some more art deco that we unfortunately were mostly passed over by in a very visible place. I think the execution of that building was flawless. (IMO) that may be the best building since Rowes Wharf and up until Lovejoy Wharf/Millennium. Like the other poster said though different strokes.
 
I was looking at the building in the context of that particular view shown in the Before and After article. The building itself is superb, but it just appeared a bit out of place in that particular view.
 
I liked all the "after" images except one: The Liberty Mutual office tower at 157 Berkeley Street.

A less clunky, less white building would have gone well there. In addition to it's hulking clunkiness, the rounded corners don't go with anything in the rest of the view.

It's praised on this site. i do like it. i prefer it at night.

i don't love its Vegas a/r. We're the leader of horizontal, vertically challenged towers, Soviet-era superblocks, etc..... And we still build 'em. We're North America's anti-Vancouver.

They build 415' in Vancouver. But 'they' look taller still.
 
An ode to the circle of life in Boston architecture:

The other day I stumbled upon some old pictures of the original Boston Garden complex, complete with the Hotel Manger/Hotel Madison building and commercial building that flanked the Garden. All are now demolished:
north%2Bstation.jpg

5ea37d1ecf01784ac6b9df054c33bf3a-460x293.png


And by the way, here's a very cool video of Hotel Madison being demolished in 1983:
https://youtu.be/Ml8Vkr0ARu0

And here are a couple of neat articles on the history of the hotel:
http://news.wgbh.org/post/bright-and-dark-days-bostons-madison-hotel
http://thewestendmuseum.org/the-hotel-mangermadison/


But then I couldn't help but sense (in addition to nostalgia) that we're just coming full circle on this same parcel: train station/arena/hotel/office building. History repeats itself - it's kind of eerie. The only real difference is modern architecture and a lot more height.

project_huboncauseway_1024x576_01_1474499135_1024x576.jpg


Anyway, I tip my cap to Boston of yore.
 
Last edited:
Another one of the hotel coming down - with both Green Line and Causeway Street views before, during, and after.

The O'Neill was a bad replacement, but as a whole the city has come a LONG way from these dreary days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJYImWB2rNk
 
I love how my post celebrating the Boston Garden complex of yore turns into shitting on the O'Neill bldg. I suppose that's to be expected.

I guess I was hoping for it more to be a celebration of how iconic Hotel Manger was when it opened in 1930. And to express hope that the new Hub on Causeway complex can be anywhere near that when it opens in a few years.
 
The O'Neill building is hideous and pretty much ruins Causeway Street. Shitting on it? Of course.

As for the Madison Hotel, it was a great building, and the facade at least should have been preserved and incorporated into a new building on site. Instead we got the O'Neill; 1980's office park architecture at its worst.

I do appreciate the pictures, and thank you for them.
 
Ugh. Two art-deco skyscrapers and a beautiful stadium demolished to make way for crap. I want to see O'Neil demolished and replaced with some nice towers and a park.
 
The stadium was garbage by the time it was demolished. The one thing I miss is how close the fans were. The upper levels stuck out over the court so even in higher levels you were right there. Made it loud as hell.
 

Back
Top