50 Post Office Sq (Fomer Verizon Building Tower)

Re: Verizon Building Tower

Re: being an untested area for residential condos

I think the thing to remember is the small area of land that encompasses what we'd think of as "Downtown Boston." Even though the individual street corners can feel like they're miles apart, we're talking about an area that you can walk straight across in half an hour. I mean, I walk from my apartment in the North End down to the Fenway all the time. The point here being, it's not so crazy to think housing can succeed here because there's plenty of successful housing only a few blocks a way. Case in point, look at how successful the Archstone and the Ritz have been in Chinatown or how successful the Devonshire has been. Those are buildings that many people originally said would never succeed because they're in, GASP, DOWNTOWN CROSSING AND CHINATOWN!!! THE HORROR!!! But all it takes is a handful of people to think slightly outside the box and you've got a successful building. Especially nowadays when the options for people looking to invest in developing, fringe neighborhoods are rapidly decreasing.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

I always thought the most-lucrative job in the world would be a gig changing the names on phone companies' (and banks') signs.

Bell => AT&T => NYNEX => Bell Atlantic => Verizon (is that right?)
BayBanks => Bank of Boston => BankBoston => Fleet => Bank of America
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

JohnAKeith said:
Bell => AT&T => NYNEX => Bell Atlantic => Verizon (is that right?)
Click to expand...

Close. You missed one.

Bell => AT&T => New England Telephone => NYNEX => Bell Atlantic => Verizon
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

Minor improvements that should make a big difference in appearance. Very nice.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

Everyone knows those renderings are on on the High St side (back of the building), not the side that faces Post Office Square, right?
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

statler said:
Everyone knows those renderings are on on the High St side (back of the building), not the side that faces Post Office Square, right?
Click to expand...

I think the Post Office Square side looks pretty great as it is (though I'm glad they're fixing the crown). The High Street facade is visible from the Greenway, which may help explain the renovation.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

Yikes! A humongous yellow brick wall, with a stick-on, out-of-context glassy entrance? Is that new addition some kind of core/elevator building? It looks OK, but this is stylized rendering. The reality will likely be much more brutish/heavy.

Can't imagine the back of the building and it's harbor views is going to be a solid brick wall with a one large decorative panel.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

They aren't adding new anything except the panel and the new glass lobby. The blank wall (it's sandstone, not yellow brick) is there right now. It houses a stairwell, server rooms and restrooms.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

yeah its a total waste of a great view. I was walking down that stairwell and can envision the walls opening up to great views as you go down the stairwell. will be agreat new asset to the new tenants.

I sadly will not be able to reap the benefits.

The addition in the back is a total mess. It is one Huge Wall with NO window. So the artist rendering does open it up a bit in the middle floors.
And the glass back addition. They would demolish what is a 4 / 6 car garage that is out there now. It serves no purpose that I know of. It is only used by the security people like corporate security and so it does not make sense to keep using that as a garage.
Hence the glass addition. I like it.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

This soon followed:

Please be advised that the Boston Redevelopment Authority (the ?BRA?) will be holding a community meeting regarding the proposed improvements to 185 Franklin Street, which is located in the Financial District, on Thursday, October 15, 6:00 PM ? 7:30 PM, at the BRA, 9th Floor of City Hall, Room 900/BRA Board Room (after 5:30 PM, please use the Congress Street entrance/exit of City Hall). The Proponent, 185 Franklin Street Investment, LLC and CV 185 Franklin I LLC, filed a Project Notification Form (?PNF?) with the BRA on September 30, 2009, regarding the proposed improvements. Pursuant to Article 80 of the Boston Zoning Code, the proposed project is undergoing Large Project Review.

The proposed improvements include expanding and renovating the existing lobby areas, converting first floor office space to retail space, converting an existing basement space to a parking garage for up to 110 cars, as well as exterior enhancements to the existing building fa?ade and roof structure, supporting utility work and certain sidewalk improvements.

In connection with the PNF submission, there is a 30-day comment period, which ends on November 2. Please send comment letters to:

mail to: Kristin Kara
Senior Project Manager
Boston Redevelopment Authority
One City Hall Square, 9th Floor
Boston, MA 02201

fax to: 617-742-7783 or

email to: kristin.kara.bra@cityofboston.gov.

Thank you.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

I may be wrong, but from what I understand, these old NE Telephone buildings were designed to accommodate substantial expansion under the presumption that equipment space needs would only continue to grow in the future. They didn't anticipate the miniaturization that would happen in the second half of the century and end up actually requiring far less space to do much more. I hear most of the space designed in the early 20th century to house equipment for the telephone co is largely empty and unnecessary today.

My point is, I believe the addition to this building was designed to accommodate future expansion, and at least a few additional stories, ala Tufts Dental School, could be sustained pretty easily. Then again, it looks like they've decided not to go that route so I guess it's irrelevant either way.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

I can't understand how they couldn't make the math work on a tower here.
The location is about a good as you can get in the CBD. If they add Class A office space it should be a gold mine.
*shrug*
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

539w.jpg

Verizon plans to donate "Telephone Men and Women at Work," which was taken down after the company sold the building. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)


Mural?s removal stirs outcry among lovers of history, art
By Meghan E. Irons, Globe Staff | October 2, 2009

The mural graced the old Verizon building in the Financial District for more than a half-century, a towering illustration that paid homage to the men and women who toiled as telephone operators, connecting distant relatives and dear, old friends.

But Verizon sold the building last year and quietly took the mural down over the summer as part of the sales agreement. The removal has triggered a storm of protest among local preservationists, who worry about the loss of a significant piece of New England history, as well as the future of the Art Deco building where it long resided.

?We are outraged about the removal,?? said Tony Fusco, president of the Art Deco Society of Boston. ?This is undoubtedly the most important mural of its kind in Boston.??

Fusco said the removal is tantamount to stripping the murals out of Rockefeller Center in New York or the Boston Public Library.

?It is that important,?? he said.

Verizon said it removed the mural at the request of the new owner, Commonwealth Ventures, a Connecticut-based company that wants to renovate the interior of the building, including the lobby, where the mural was located.

Philip G. Santoro, spokesman for Verizon, said the company recognized the historical significance of the mural and hired a specialist to carefully remove it. Verizon plans to donate the artwork, he said.

The mural is now in storage, its destination unknown.

Santoro said Verizon has consulted with representatives from several museums across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, on how to properly preserve the mural and relocate it for public display.

?Since the building was sold last year, Verizon has undertaken an extensive process at considerable expense to carefully remove the mural from the lobby and preserve it until we find a new home for it,?? Santoro said.

An announcement on where the large mural will be located is expected in coming weeks, he said.

But Fusco is miffed that neither Verizon nor the new owners contacted area preservationists to confer about the mural or the historical significance of the building it occupied at 185 Franklin St., on Post Office Square park.

Sarah Kelly, executive director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, said the mural is a well-known artwork.

?A lot of people feel that this is an important piece of art,?? she said. ?It tells the history of New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. and the emergence of the telephone. It?s a really dramatic and significant mural, and that is why this has created some alarm.??

Going forward, Fusco said, he is hoping the companies can be persuaded to return the mural to its original setting.

The New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. commissioned Dean Cornwell to craft the mural in 1947. It took him three years to create the oval structure, which is 160 feet long by 12 feet high with 197 life-size images, Fusco said.

Commonwealth Ventures, which did not return a call for comment yesterday, notified the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday of its renovation plans, which include upgrades to the building?s fa?ade and lobby and the addition of retail space.

Kelly said her group has not seen the renovation plans but is concerned, in general, that renovations can damage the architectural integrity of Art Deco skyscrapers.

?This is a highly significant Art Deco building,?? Kelly said. ?And Boston doesn?t have a great number of them. We want to make sure that any restoration is done in a sensitive manner.??

Meghan E. Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

It is a terrific mural but I dunno how 'important' it really is...try to preserve it because it's nice not because of some trumped up historic-artistic worth.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

^^ Agreed. As much as I loved working in that building it is architecturally middling at best.

An art deco tower built in 1949 can't be all that important.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

Bubbybu Re: Verizon Building Tower

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is a terrific mural but I dunno how 'important' it really is...try to preserve it because it's nice not because of some trumped up historic-artistic worth. "

Something tells me Ron Newman might have something to say about this.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

I can't see why a company could not preserve the mural and take advantage of its presence as part of the PR. When the old Federal Reserve Bank building was converted to a hotel, the hotel, to its credit, preserved the N.C. Wyeth paintings in the old board room, as did the Bank of Boston preserve a series of N.C. Wyeth murals and placed them in its lobby (the "pregnant" building on Congress St.).
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

Modernism is back in vogue. All those fussy things need to be swept away.
 
Re: Verizon Building Tower

lol, until historic fussiness is back in vogue!
 
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