I think the highrise portion is fine, maybe even a bit bland. It’s just that the street level is a complete mess. Why would anyone want a hospital to look like this?
MGH Ragon Building | 55 Fruit Street | West End
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Yea I agree. As I said before it looks like they got all of the correct pieces, but then assembled them in the wrong order on the base, making it look jumbled. Yet again architects trying to make something stand out and be unique vs just making something thats nice and makes the area around it a better place to be.
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Not only that but theyre going to demolish these beautiful brick buildings in order to fit it.
6/21/25 cont.
There was a short time where they were going to fudge a piece of one of these buildings into the corner, but they gave up on that pretty quick.
Those buildings aren’t even real brick. Prefab panels.
That's part of this half thats under construction; see Beelines progress photo below. I believe that's then going to be clad with the previously disassembled Winchell School facade, which is on the Blossom / Parkman corner. (As previously noted, the brick MGH professional building fronting Cambridge pictured isn't historic, as it only dates to 1990.)
As of 6/21/25.
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Yea I didnt say it was historic, its just a decently nice building on an otherwise pretty dystopian street wall on that side of cambridge st. Thanks for pointing out they added that little brick corner back on tho lol, I hadnt realized it was back in there. Just another piece that looks like its part of a puzzle that was assembled wrong.
I walked by this building today. They built up the corner to look like the Winchell School. They just need to add the brickwork over the concrete.
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^ That last one at the bottom right is a very cool shot!
This tower really gives off an old school vibe.
This tower really gives off an old school vibe.
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I'm sure this has been answered somewhere earlier in this thread but I can't find it so I'll ask - what's up with the big hole in the side?
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I'm surprised at how dead silent AB is on this. It'd be one thing if this turd was plopped out in the far reaches of Seaport or Assembly or Waltham, but it's super visible from all over in one of Boston's most picturesque areas. And the fact that the typical post in this thread gets maybe one or two likes shows people just aren't paying attention to this project, to which I ask how the hell can you NOT notice it at this point? It looks like a wayward air conditioner from the Volpe Center wandered across the river. Did people use up all their hate bandwidth on the Hurley? I simply don't get the radio silence here.
I know hospitals get endless hall passes for their architecture, but even by those low standards this thing is really, stupendously ugly.
I know hospitals get endless hall passes for their architecture, but even by those low standards this thing is really, stupendously ugly.
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Most of the posts on this page are shitting on how it looks.
More-so the base vs the tower, as the tower isnt necessarily thaat ugly its just bland, boring, and anonymous. I think the tower itself just doesnt elicit that strong of a response as its basically designed in a lab to just be a background building that will blend in with everything else and disappear. Maybe they need to name this style sterile boring hospital background building chic. The day its finished though it will basically disappear into the blob of downtown and be forgotten about for the most part imo.
More-so the base vs the tower, as the tower isnt necessarily thaat ugly its just bland, boring, and anonymous. I think the tower itself just doesnt elicit that strong of a response as its basically designed in a lab to just be a background building that will blend in with everything else and disappear. Maybe they need to name this style sterile boring hospital background building chic. The day its finished though it will basically disappear into the blob of downtown and be forgotten about for the most part imo.
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That's a mechanical floor - I suspect it's the planned access point for HVAC equipment that the lookahead says is being delivered and installed.
Its not attractive, but I personally don't find it really objectionable? While I think the facade would have been more attractive if it was simply simplified, (as in... I would prefer a literal glass cube) my personal take on it is the good it provides outweighs the sins of its appearance. Urbanistically, I prefer this current Phase 1 to the prior surface parking lot fronting Cambridge St, (even if it eliminated the historic buildings on the site), Phase 2 eliminating the above ground Parkman Garage, and providing the best impetus for Red-Blue in a while by provisioning a integrated headhouse.
This forum in general tends to be way too forgiving with hospitals. This building sucks, it's a turd, it's unimaginative, and it says everything about the parent organization this healthcare monster has become. MGB is a cold, unfeeling, corporate monster that is utterly laughably a "non profit" that no clinician at either hospital wanted other than the few who hold MBAs. I think people are way too rosy-eyed and uncritical here about the ways in which healthcare, and also scientific research/lab space etc, are industries and not necessarily benign or positive forces in every way. I agree with you, kz: this building sucks. It looks fatter than the Volpe and it's literally next to the oldest and most historic neighborhood in Boston. But because "they treat sick people there" you're a demon if you dare to criticize.
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I think "because they treat sick people there," is a good reason to hold back on the criticism. The best building for patient services is the building we should get, even if it offends certain aesthetic considerations. And yes, I defer to the hospitals to make those decisions.
As an MGH patient I’m thrilled that this facility will be there if I ever need it and I suspect the vast majority of other MGH patients would agree. As far as I’m concerned, all that matters is the comfort of patients and their families and the quality of care. I couldn’t care less about the architectural sensibilities of the people walking by outside.
What you say is true in an ideal world, but again, the uncritical acceptance of anything healthcare institutions do, which includes, prominently, expansion projects, is what I find concerning on here. Simply because a hospital treats patients does not mean that everything that hospital does is good nor does it mean that all of the care provided is good. Patients suffer and want treatment but what is the right treatment as measured by longer term outcomes and overall value of the care provided are the ways real healthcare is measured and these rarely align with patient preferences (which, like it or not, tend to be highly distorted by a number of non medical factors). ChatGPT can give a better concise summary of the problematic ways in which American healthcare institutions operate than I can, if you care to educate yourself about these issues. But none of this is black and white. Hospitals aren’t evil, but when healthcare is a commodity, and when the mechanism for approving medical devices and drugs flows through a highly corporate and capitalist system, there are many different interests at play and this has direct bearings on the finances and priorities of hospitals, particularly and especially of the biggest and most academic healthcare institutions. And none of this is completely irrelevant to the question here, which pertains not only to design and architecture but also the broader question of how is this institution being a good neighbor and a good player in the local environment and city? I certainly agree that when push comes to shove, if we are talking about absolutely indispensable, high value care that benefits all and not the few, or that otherwise has proven its value in public health analyses, of course that should take precedent over design if it must be one or the other. But the reality is far more complicated. A major driving force for this new building and the finances behind it is the desire, which fundamentally was driven by financial interests, for the new, hyper-corporate MGB to have its own cancer center, which is why DFCI bounced. Was this really necessary? Does the city need a second cancer center of this magnitude, especially from an institution in which there is almost zero primary care available—the type of care that the people of the region actually need, far more than any specialists—at any of its hospitals or clinics? Does it not bother you that beneath all the good intentions and smiling patients who are helped, there are vast sums of money and competition for patients as customers and insurance reimbursements, and that unlike in any social-democratic system, where cost controls rein in this tendency, in our healthcare system, the sicker the patients, the better it is for the hospitals?
In any case, in this particular instance, we’re talking about a $2 billion dollar project. I’m sure there are an army of finance advisors and managers who can justify this cost, but I don’t think anyone is being unreasonable by wondering whether or not more concern for the imprint these buildings will have in an incredibly prominent location is something that the hospital should have been pressed a little harder on.
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And then if MGH had gone all out on the design and materials and placed form over utility you would be whining about it looking like a five star hotel(like the new UCSF building). Our system is a million miles from perfect but it’s really not going to change so better to make the best use of what we have than sit on the sidelines and bitch with a holier than thou attitude.