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Back to the Future! Haymarket is getting back what it lost when the street was stripped on one side to build the central artery.

In all fairness, East Cambridge is in many ways a poor man's Back Bay. Most of the housing is early to mid 19th C, built for workers in meat packing houses, candy factories, and other Lechmere/Kendall locales. I was born in 5 Fifth Street in what would have been thought of as substandard...

Who can guess: of the two facades on either side of Crate and Barrel, which one was created a few decades ago to match the other, thus creating symmetry where there hadn't been since the 19th C? And does anyone have a picture of the original look?

From Copley Sq to Mass Ave, at least. Retail doesn't pick up until after Symphony Hall.

I see your point, yet Huntington at this end has gradually been filled with similar height buildings creating a boundary wall of sorts. This new building continues the theme till Mass Ave. I see the same efforts on Boylston Street in the Fenway going down from the Victory Gardens all the way...

I love the way it mimics the Parkman Bandstand as an overarching, protective canopy that is easily accessible. There's something about being surrounded, protected by an element that comforts the soul. And I see that that the pavement around it has changed from the original plan. A real...

Maybe because it was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, usually known for his neo-Gothic churches. Inside it's quite plain, open and bright.

This end of town is getting some really neat and varied tall architecture. Spread the joy!

A few issues need addressing that were problems from the very beginning. First, they used slate as part of the paving pattern. Slate flakes with the water and cold and creates tripping hazards. Second, the plane trees were a disaster....they got infected with something and most had to be...

I have to agree. MGH has NEVER had the street/pedestrian in mind for any of its buildings. The more they've crept closer to Cambridge Street, the scarcer buildable land has become for the services they need to provide, including parking. Hospitals are often seen architecturally as monuments to...

I highly recommend watching the video. Great narration and explanations! I recall when the whole area was a swampy no man's land...what a transformation!

Looks great! Fits right in and fills a gap!

Exactly my point Charlie. I agree totally with you (I left the Washington Street shopping off my comments for the reason you cite). The areas spared of the most vicious urban renewal (after swaths of the South End had been already razed) were kept intact by default, not by imagination. We could...

Maybe I'm not getting this...how does an underground garage get redeveloped when there are several stories of buildings already built over it? Or is the Hyatt, et. al getting torn down first? Talk about a failed location from the very beginning, starting with the ridiculous, dark, rat-trap mall...

Yes, everything you said plus I recall what downtown looked like...a run-down, sooty area filled with a lot of unkempt buildings. Scollay Sq. was a mess (recall the Combat Zone, only seedier). Many buildings had only ground-floor occupancy (look at the Ladder Streets today). What used to be...

At this point the plaza has been used pretty consistently for large crowd gatherings that would otherwise overtax the Common grounds. What it needs is more activity: food trucks, open markets, etc. Trying to undo the whole thing with a building program is not feasible IMO, especially when you...

It's the not-so-great Corridor. Remember the promises behind 75 State Street's grand hall? Dead, boring, lifeless, vast and at least colorful?

It appears the innovation will solely be within.

My thought exactly. Usually renders start out great (or thereabouts) and end up crappy with architecture-dumb-down. I've been wanting to see more really good architecture in Roxbury given the horrible way in which this part of Boston has been treated socially and economically since the 60's...

Still trying to appreciate the cubic carbuncles on the Verizon tower. I can't wrap my aesthetic brain around them. Maybe they'll be used for a good purpose and not just to reward upper management types.