"Dirty Old Boston"

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When was the new england mutual life insurance building expanded to its present form? Cant seem to find much about the addition
 
parkave said:
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When was the new england mutual life insurance building expanded to its present form? Cant seem to find much about the addition
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My best recollection is the original building (in your pic) opened in 1941 (replacing a previous building), and was amended/expanded with a stylistically similar addition in 1967 to create the brute force, full-block, kinda Art Deco-ish massing it is today.

I have some photos of the transition of the site on an old laptop, but my charger died and I need to visit the Apple Store. Oy.
 
parkave said:
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When was the new england mutual life insurance building expanded to its present form? Cant seem to find much about the addition
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Just to add, it is clear when touring the current building, the differences between the original northern mid-rise versus the later addition over Boylston are stark. Both, in terms of construction materials as well as means/methods and efficiency in the use of plenum space.
 
stick n move said:
It would be cool if they restored it back to its original form.
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So like... demolish the entire addition that wraps the center structure and probably accounts for the majority of the building's SF?
The original was pretty, I just don't see how they would ever go about "restoring" something so heavily added onto. It's pretty nice as is imo
 
stick n move said:
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I used to love going to Lechmere Sales on First Street. I would go there to get record albums at a reasonable price. Aging myself, I remember buying Rubber Soul by the Beatles there when it first came out, among many other records. The store had a feel for the local market, which was destroyed when Montgomery Ward bought them out. They ran the chain into the ground which led to the bankruptcy and closure of the First Street store as well as the rest of the chain.
 
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I wish we had kept the fort point channel in this state and built the southeast expressway on an elevated viaduct over the tracks.
 
stick n move said:
I wish we had kept the fort point channel in this state and built the southeast expressway on an elevated viaduct over the tracks.
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I agree. Even today the Central Artery presents a barrier between the South End/South Cove and the Fort Point Channel. The highway was located in the 1950s when the powers-that-be didn't give a rip about expressways dividing a city.
 
DZH22 said:
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Love the density. When I see that photo, I imagine how Boston could have turned out without the 1950/60s urban renewal projects, without the Central Artery, and without Storrow Drive. Such a present-day Boston would have looked much like the above photo, except that it would include many talls and super-talls scattered along the high spine, supported by a more robust transit and commuter rail system. Maybe someday we can still reach that.
 
The location of Logan would still affect the maximum height of large swaths of the city.
 
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