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I know there's an irrational love of the skyscraper on this board, but apart from a few exceptions most of the world's great cities are not defined by their tall buildings, but by the texture and quality of urban districts. Other than a overriding penchant for "more height" by most posters, why...

Re: Atlantic Wharf (formerly Russia Wharf) City Water Taxi is a great way to get across the harbor. $10 to or from Logan (though be advised that you then have to get a shuttle bus to/from the terminals). It's not really faster than a taxi and about the same as the T depending on where you're...

You make be correct that the developer misread the market. But on some level their motivations are unimportant, and the building that remains is what counts. And in the interest of building a real city that is urban, having a range of housing options in diverse parts of Boston is only a good...

Re: South Boston Seaport The Baltimore tourist numbers may be skewed by the number of Red Sox fans that migrate there for a game at Fenway Park south. But I would guess that nobody would argue that Baltimore is a city in better shape than Boston. Other than Inner Harbor and Fells Point most of...

I for one think it looks good in that last photo. Reasonably integrated to the original building, but clearly a modern addition, pointing in a new direction. Copying the original would have been pure pastiche and it's difficult to draw inspiration from much of anything around there, unless you...

Lack of "subtle beautiful detail" is more than likely a product of the value engineering phase.

The initial critique that prompted my statement that 'the problem is that the street was only thought of in terms of cars and not public realm' was about the desolate and lifeless streetscape in this photo. The conversation has spiralled a bit (which is good in a forum), but I'm sorry...

Street design in Boston (and the US in general) is extraordinarily far behind, principally because streets are conceived of as the domain of cars, not public realm. Big problem. My guess is that the city assumed they would force the developers to add the trees when the parcels are developed...

Awkward, perhaps. But significantly better than what was there before. Some posters in this forum clearly have a blind hatred of Alucobond, but otherwise I think the addition of a new material and new composition help this building overcome the relentless concrete cladding that previously existed.

What do you think is crappy about the design of the N End park parcels? Clearly they're not perfect, but in my opinion, they are the best designed pieces of the RKG. The bermed-up planted area to the west does a nice job of screening the traffic, and the fountains are fine. The trellis is a...

Re: 45 Province St If you've seen the floor plans, there was no way to internalize the stairs and wrap it with rooms. The parcel is just too narrow. I'd say that this is one of the better residential buildings in the city, but it has an unfortunate design flaw (core on the exterior) that is...

I have to say that based on the renderings on C7A's website, this would be one of the best new buildings in Boston. (Doubtful that reality will match the renderings, but one can dream.) Sorry, Bubbybu, but I think that glass facing the Greenway and a combination of masonry and glass on the...

Re: Jimmy's Harborside Development It seems like a very nice addition to the area since (at least based on the renderings) the architect isn't using any beige precast blah like the 4 building directly behind it. The scale and massing seem appropriate and it will be the first project in the...

FP3 is easily the best project in Boston to open in the last year. It is bold, exciting and urban, and yet fits in very nicely with its context. The Apple Store is decent aswell, although a glass cube in my opinion is less modern and less interesting than the massing and compositional interplay...

Re: Mandarin Oriental That was a Rem Koolhaas/OMA building. Somewhat sculptural and interesting, though I would imagine completely dehumanizing if one were standing in the 'plaza' next to it. http://www.oma.nl/ Anyway, if you look on their website and look up the hotel, there are some...

Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage. Since this thread it getting spectacularly off topic, then it should be noted that it was the car that killed most cities, not rent control.

Re: New tower at Aquarium parking garage. I am quite sure that I will be in the minority on this one, but this project is rather underwhelming. I won?t criticize the architecture too much, since we only have one poor quality rendering to digest. Are posters fawning over this because it has a...

Re: MIT - Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research The dialogue between this building and the Koch biology building could be quite interesting. It looks like we may even get an urban plaza on the corner in a part of the city where most of the buildings are fashioned after a suburban...

Are you basing this off of the rendering posted above? A bit hard to tell from that whether it is cheap, white, or trashy really isn't it? What exactly is the critique of the project? The addition of a few floors at this intersection is a good move, but much more than that, adding an...

A 23-story tower here is asinine. Why are developers in such a rush to destroy the fabric that makes this district so unique? What a spectacularly myopic concept. I'm all for new development and for the evolution of both the city and this neighborhood, but there are so many empty parcels and...