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Your story and mine aren't so different, Charlie; thank you for sharing yours. Life has taught me that great art rewards curiosity, and that curiosity is more valuable than any imaginable treasure. The Carpenter Center is like a compendium of Corbu's career, an assemblage of his ideas...

Asked and answered. :-/

I wasn't aware that that this was an EBCDC project -- thanks for the added insight, BeeLine. That said, I'm with Poolio -- there's something to be said for simplicity and directness.

I suppose you're right. Sometimes I drift back to glib marketing writer I tried to be half a lifetime ago. And I understand that the desperation of speculators to make a fast buck in an overheated market is the real generative force behind this truly weird looking project. There is an awful...

^^

Thank you for pointing this out. As we debate the potentially seismic shift that might take place with the advent of autonomous vehicles, the change in how and where we work stands to have a far greater impact to urban form and the vitality of our business districts. Though I generally reject...

The intent of the second paragraph of the post at the top of this page was to allow for this sentiment. Broadly, reaction is a visceral concept. Hard Modernism is a highly reactive strain of architecture.

In short, absofuckinglutely. There is no way to decouple the psychic connection between the industrial-scale vandalism of the Ed Logue Era and the misunderstood and maligned architecture that replaced Scollay Sq. and the West End. The havoc raised by Logue and his staff in Boston was far more...

I've appreciated the thoughtful responses and memories folks have shared above. Hard Modernism isn't for everyone. The way something is understood graphically is very different from how it's experienced spatially. Comfort, repose, and wonder are in the mind and body of each one of us, and are...

Indeed. Farce-itecture.

^ Assuming that the BPDA signs off on this, would you care to hazard a guess on how long it'll be before the owners have to pony-up to reclad at least some of the facade?

Strictly speaking, voters didn't approve casino gambling. Their elected officials did. I was part of the repeal process that ultimately failed. We all know how difficult it is to put toothpaste back in the tube... ^ The truth, unvarnished.

Building on Charlie's reference to subjectivity and the forces that drive the formulation of tastes and the gravitational draw of aesthetics, I consider music a prime indicator of visual and spacial preferences. Wright said that "Architecture is frozen music," so it's no great leap of logic...

BeeLine, thanks for the pics of the job-site of **the most maddening and thoughtless project currently underway in East Boston. Also of interest, from Boston Magazine. ** It must be noted, The East Boston Times is edited by the brother of the attorney who represents the developer of 9 Chelsea...

I suppose the chunky I-beam aesthetic of the facade references Miesian Modernism. But if Mies is Led Zeppelin, then this project is a shitty wedding band hacking through side three of Physical Graffiti.

You should see what Eversource wants to do in East Boston, adjacent to a park, playground, and in a flood zone.

^ There are certain elements of it that remind me of the State Transportation Building, built right around that time.

Fair enough. The Japanese refer to this as wabi-sabi, perfection defined by imperfection. But take a look at the rippled white panels (top row) in BeeLine's photo: This isn't an antique bowl or lichen-pocked stone wall. This is new construction. The ripples are evidence of poor material...

Who doesn't love a redemption story?

Precisely. Checkout the boat shed in the foreground of BeeLine's photo: Its weathered cladding is infinitely more interesting than this new construction. Nothing wrong with the contrast. But there's plenty wrong with the execution. And this is the result of an engineered, industrial process...