45 Province St | Downtown Crossing

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Re: 45 Province St

Naw - I'll admit to being wrong far more than I wish. In fact, it's a damn miracle I've accomplished anything at all.
 
Re: 45 Province St

What about criticizing the architect and developers? They are flesh and blood.

Speaking which. I know you don't like to do this but since you are the most qualified person to ask...

ablarc what do you think the reasoning behind the wall was?

I'm willing to give the architect the benefit of the doubt and guess it was forced on them by the developer as a cost saving measure.
Your thoughts?
 
Re: 45 Province St

What about criticizing the architect and developers? They are flesh and blood.
Chances are they don't read the forum.

I'm willing to give the architect the benefit of the doubt and guess it was forced on them by the developer as a cost saving measure.
Your thoughts?
Fire stairs are usually built without windows --in my experience so invariably that I believe it's covered by a code provision; when I get in the office tomorrow I'll look it up.

The solution to the blank wall problem is to run the stairs internally and wrap them in rooms that have windows.

In the days of modernist ideological purity, however, you actually looked for opportunities to run the stairs on the outside of an apartment building; it was referred to as "expressing the function" or "providing a vertical element." (See the buildings of Sert and Rudolph.)

Bruner and Cott are of the generation that was force-fed that dogma in school. I can imagine them doing it automatically.
 
Re: 45 Province St

Chances are they don't read the forum.
The solution to the blank wall problem is to run the stairs internally and wrap them in rooms that have windows.

How bout just covering the blank cement wall with a glass skin similiar to the windows that are already in place. Mount a framework, fill in with glass. They did this with the new Lowe's hotel going up here in Atlanta and it looks great!
 
Re: 45 Province St

As I said, the brand new BU dorm tower has giant windows in the stairwells (well at least the one I used, perhaps the others dont)
 
Re: 45 Province St

How bout just covering the blank cement wall with a glass skin similiar to the windows that are already in place. Mount a framework, fill in with glass. They did this with the new Lowe's hotel going up here in Atlanta and it looks great!

The technology certainly exists to fix this without radically remaking the building. The question on my mind is why there's not even a will, let alone a hue and cry?
 
Re: 45 Province St

the blank cement wall

I would hope that all posters on this board would use the term "concrete" in lieu of "cement" where appropriate. (cement is to concrete as flour is to cake).:)

cheers,
Mark
 
Re: 45 Province St

The solution to the blank wall problem is to run the stairs internally and wrap them in rooms that have windows.

In the days of modernist ideological purity, however, you actually looked for opportunities to run the stairs on the outside of an apartment building; it was referred to as "expressing the function" or "providing a vertical element." (See the buildings of Sert and Rudolph.)

Bruner and Cott are of the generation that was force-fed that dogma in school. I can imagine them doing it automatically.

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 plainly visible from the common and detracts slightly from the project. My guess is that they were locked into the plan, but really they should have realized how prominent it would be, and could have worked harder to create some applied element on that facade that would screen the blank wall.

But let's be honest, real world criticism (or baseball), this is like hitting a wall-ball double off the monster when you had a chance to hit one out. It's a good project (I'd quarrel with the height in this specific location and urbanistically what it does to Province St more than the blank wall itself).

Disclaimer: I've seen the plans, but do not work for Bruner Cott and have no association with the project.
 
Re: 45 Province St

Windows are expensive, thus the omission might have been an exercise in value engineering. In very tall buildings the stairs are seldom used beyond the fourth or fifth floors, so as far as common spaces, it's not like they have a major aesthetic priority.
 
Re: 45 Province St

At last, someone agrees with me. Thanks Lurker.
 
Re: 45 Province St

Toby is thirsty.

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A little dog used to be able to get a little drink here.

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Business doesn't look so good.

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"Hello....Hello!"

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"Anyone serving?"

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Let's see what's down here.

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Oh! Oh! An angry man with a white hat is shouting "no dogs allowed"!

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Think I'd better try the Delux...yip,yip,yip....
 
Re: 45 Province St

It's CERTAINLY better than the garage that preceded it ... but this building is so SECOND-RATE, I don't know where to begin.

And I'm willing to blame the architects. They are such HACKS!

Look at what they did on the Greenway.
 
Re: 45 Province St

Well, that was a nice view, once.
 
Re: 45 Province St

45 Province, looking handsome and downright diminutive among the fat kids:
45_province_skyline.jpg


Doesnt forgive the egregious sin it commits on its west side though-- i.e. the horrible 300+' blank wall it presents the entire Common, Public Garden and Back Bay.

Dont be so fast to apologize for this building because of its positive attributes. Maybe if we raise some noise about this (big black blank wall), they may fix it.
 
Re: 45 Province St

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Yeah, that black wall is pretty bad when you see it in person. Still I really dig this building.
 
Re: 45 Province St

Anyone have anny idea what this is about. I found it doing a goole serach on 45P.

"Building permit details: Location 45 Province
Issue date: April 10, 2009
Description: INSTALL ILLUMINATED PROJECTING WALL SIGN"

I wonder if it couldd be related to the big black wall.
 
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