"Dirty Old Boston"

[Charlie_mta]

That looks like a college student center.

Yeah, it is pretty antiseptic and boring. Everything has to look like a lab these days.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Mass Ave at Rice Street, N Cambridge, back in the day:

 

[RandomWalk]

Mister Donut is now the very car oriented Eastern Bank.

I like how the trolley wires align with the slope on the sign.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Mister Donut is now the very car oriented Eastern Bank.

I like how the trolley wires align with the slope on the sign.

I love the Mr. Donut sign for its iconic fifties look. It should have been preserved as a cultural treasure.

 

[Arenacale]

Went back through the Everpresent drive and pulled out some more things. Random, but I figured people would be interested.

First, M St. Park probably mid- to late-'90s.

Baby me on the old letter animals at the Castle Island playground. These were Not Safe (my sister put her teeth through her lip falling off of one) but had a lot of charm.

Me, a little older, on the FAO Schwartz bear in it's original location at Boylston and Berkeley.

Finally, a couple of photos from inside the Museum of Science during one of the first ever First Lego League competitions, must have been 1998 or so. I was an Ogel from the Paraclete Center in Southie. The robot didn't do very well but we got a trophy for best presentation, since we seemed to be the only group to take it seriously. No one, not even Lego and First, really knew what they were doing at that point, it's been awesome to see it grow into what it's become over 25 years later.

 

[kz1000ps]

From the January 1990 issue of Architecture Magazine: https://usmodernist.org/AJ/A-1990-01.pdf

Addendum: work brought me two blocks away from here this past Monday so I swung by and did a little walkaround. I know these hardly qualify as Dirty or Old so this is the last I'll bring them up in here

The library really isn't mentioned in the article and I wasn't intending on paying it any mind until I was standing right there staring at it, and I decided to go in....

Well I certainly wasn't expecting that! Some completely untouched 1989 postmodernism....

They just asked that I not get any patrons in the shots, but otherwise I was free to wander

And back outside

^^ Had to avoid the residents very slowly unloading their car right there. Also note that house at the end of the property ^^

Hooray for architectural cheekiness!

 

[RandomWalk]

We should have “80s then and now” and “90s then and now” thread.

 

[Arenacale]

Visited another library book sale today and came home with this gem from 1987. Was about to pass on it but saw the Museum of Science pic at the end and then had to have it. There's a whole bunch of Harvard aerials in this one, for whatever reason, but it's the mid-80s era Boston that I find so compelling.

 

[RandomWalk]

I miss the old school Bancroft gallery at the Museum of Science. The classic NASA hardware mockups. Mathematica occupying one side of the ground floor, instead of hidden behind the Vandegraff.

 

[stick n move]

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[kz1000ps]

More finds from 1980s Architecture Magazine scans

 

[Charlie_mta]

More finds from 1980s Architecture Magazine scans

I LOVE Corbu's Carpenter Center. I used to walk up its bisecting ramp and down the other side every afternoon on my way from my high school to Harvard Square, way back in the 1960s. Such a cool building inside and out. Brutalism done the right way, not sticking out like a sore thumb as the ones at GC, but instead scaled rightly into its context perfectly.
A masterpiece.

 

[Arenacale]

Was that Congress Street building sinking at all? My dad always told us it was whenever we were by it.

 

[commuter guy]

Was that Congress Street building sinking at all? My dad always told us it was whenever we were by it.

303 Congress St developed unexpected structural problems and had to be suddenly evacuated. It was demolished and rebuilt in the mid 1990s

 

[Charlie_mta]

The pre-1963 (1962?) Red Line cars. I was in 8th grade when these were replaced by the Bluebirds in 1962 or 63. I remember riding for the first time with my best friend in 8th grade on the new Bluebirds out of Harvard Square, and I was absolutely amazed at how quiet they were compared to the old cars in this photo.

 

[stick n move]

I always wondered if those were covered in coal dust?

 

[shawn]

I miss the old school Bancroft gallery at the Museum of Science. The classic NASA hardware mockups. Mathematica occupying one side of the ground floor, instead of hidden behind the Vandegraff.

Is Mathematica still there? I hope so, but it was the worst f'n room to get assigned for the Cub Scouts sleepover.

 

[Arenacale]

Is Mathematica still there? I hope so, but it was the worst f'n room to get assigned for the Cub Scouts sleepover.

It's down in the bottom section of the Theater of Electricity, where Virtual Volleyball used to be.

We got assigned to the temporary Sharks exhibit for our sleepover in the main gallery in the West Wing. As long as we weren't by the T-rex I was fine.

 

[stick n move]

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[type001]

I need to frame this photo!

This photo tells a great story. The recent advent of steel production fueling the advancement of skyscrapers in the early part of the century.

The Custom House has always been my favorite building.