401 Park Drive (née Landmark Center) | Fenway

[ccole]

Today:

 

[themissinglink]

8/21, from the Green Line

 

[Cortes]

When I think of "Landmarks"... I walk over there fairly often, and this always just takes the cake. On the "pg" idea, it reminds me of the children's books "Frog and Toad"; on the other idea...

I'm just very happy that they went where they did with this. If it was up to me, Samuels and Associates would fund an equally outrageous sculpture in the park that is to be constructed as part of the Star Market redev.

 

[DZH22]

8/29

IMG_3551 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_3583 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_3584 by David Z, on Flickr

 

[kingofsheeba]

9/1

 

[DZH22]

9/17 From Waltham

IMG_0093 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0094 by David Z, on Flickr

 

[DZH22]

10/9 From Woburn

IMG_0923 by David Z, on Flickr

 

[NorthshoreCity]

From Saturday, garage is gone and construction is in full swing by the look of it:

 

[king_vibe]

Never should have let them swap this to lab.

 

[curcuas]

Get them to build more residential across the street than currently proposed

 

[taketern]

 

[Czervik.Construction]

Looks like the Fenway Regal is set to close among dozens of Regal's across the country.

 

[Equilibria]

Looks like the Fenway Regal is set to close among dozens of Regal's across the country.

Oh for the love of... that's where the Alamo Drafthouse should be going! Maybe they'll be thinking a second location before too long.

 

[JumboBuc]

Looks like the Fenway Regal is set to close among dozens of Regal's across the country.

I assume Samuels will be happy to switch that space over to a non-theater use. Unlike the new theaters at North Station and in the Seaport, this space wasn’t recently purpose-built to be a movie theater. It’s probably therefore less appealing for another theater chain to take over and relatively more appealing to change to another use.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

I have heard that converting theaters to non-theater use is a pain, but hey, life science labs!!

I assume Samuels will be happy to switch that space over to a non-theater use. Unlike the new theaters at North Station and in the Seaport, this space wasn’t recently purpose-built to be a movie theater. It’s probably therefore less appealing for another theater chain to take over and relatively more appealing to change to another use.

 

[mdd]

Oh for the love of... that's where the Alamo Drafthouse should be going! Maybe they'll be thinking a second location before too long.

The Alamo Draft House is actually going into the former Icon theater in the Seaport. They have a big "coming soon" banner in the window now.

 

[DZH22]

2/26 First building is a bit sloppier than I expected, on top of being overly wide. The whole scale of the city is starting to feel thrown off with these huge labs. Only in Boston do we scream about height while signing off on every building that's as wide as a football field.

IMG_0726 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_0727 by David Z, on Flickr

 

[king_vibe]

The city should nix the next stage unless it goes back to residential.

 

[Beantropolis]

2/26 First building is a bit sloppier than I expected, on top of being overly wide. The whole scale of the city is starting to feel thrown off with these huge labs. Only in Boston do we scream about height while signing off on every building that's as wide as a football field.

Yes! I totally agree. The city is more than starting to be "thrown off" by these types of cartoonishly over-scaled, oafish buildings. It's been thoroughly disfigured at this point. These buildings are everywhere you turn in Boston. They look like they have been transported from an alternately scaled reality where everyone is 12' tall and the buildings are detailed like Playskool toys. They're completely incongruous with the rest of the city's fabric, evoking a sense of irreconcilable tension. The effect, to me, is extremely unpleasant, and ugly.

My question is, what is the rationale for this goofy scaling thing? It is so commonplace today that I have to assume it's part of some explicit design philosophy. Or maybe they are just trying to create aesthetically discordant cityscapes? These buildings have been so prevalent during this latest building boom. Sadly, they've already dramatically altered the city's character.

 

[stefal]

Yes! I totally agree. The city is more than starting to be "thrown off" by these types of cartoonishly over-scaled, oafish buildings. It's been thoroughly disfigured at this point. These buildings are everywhere you turn in Boston. They look like they have been transported from an alternately scaled reality where everyone is 12' tall and the buildings are detailed like Playskool toys. They're completely incongruous with the rest of the city's fabric, evoking a sense of irreconcilable tension. The effect, to me, is extremely unpleasant, and ugly.

My question is, what is the rationale for this goofy scaling thing? It is so commonplace today that I have to assume it's part of some explicit design philosophy. Or maybe they are just trying to create aesthetically discordant cityscapes? These buildings have been so prevalent during this latest building boom. Sadly, they've already dramatically altered the city's character.

The rationale is primarily an excel sheet that the developer then uses to tell the architect the only thing that's going to sell and make us money is a large floor plate.

It's also the developer's lack-of-will (and Samuel's is a really good developer at that) to deter from the pro-forma, since their lender will probably pull out if they can't meet X% return in Y years, as well as zoning and policy.

Simplifying it down to 2 sentences, but it's not some Architect's mission to break up the aesthetics of the skyline and cityscape.