Amazon Office Tower I | 111 Harbor Way (Seaport Square Parcel L4) | Seaport

4/22 from Blue Hills

IMG_8048 by David Z, on Flickr
Damn—this perspective looks like if Manchester, NH had a thriving life sciences and tech startup community. Amazing how Seaport’s skyline alone rivals that of the Merrimack Valley legacy cities. Money talks.
 
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I’m not sure about others, but now that the form is more or less complete I think this building’s design is elevated above both the “stack of books” and “glass box” monikers many have lamented in recent years. The subtly offset hexagonal floor plates every couple levels add a refreshing dynamic of texture from all vantage points one looks at this, and the illusion when viewing from corners makes the height to width ratio appear greater than we’d otherwise see from a boxy office design in the neighborhood. This, the other approved L parcels, and the completed Harbor Way-adjacent developments are on track to make for an exciting, car-free experience when the completed Harbor Way Pedestrian Spine is fully realized from Summer to Seaport Blvd. I’m very pleased with how this is coming along.

It’s weird I woke up this morning and felt like giving the rare architectural critique, but there you have it. 🤷‍♂️
 
Wow! Those are some big beautiful badass trees that are getting planted!

I recently commented on the sad state of Boston street trees in another thread, so I'm also impressed by the quality of the trees being planted here. Regretably, nice as they are, they bring up my other big complaint about the types of trees being planted in Boston.

For me a major function of street trees is to provide canopy and shade to make walking much more pleasant in warm sunny weather. My favorite examples in Boston are the trees on Stuart St. by the Hancok tower and the ones formerly on Atlantic Ave. by South Station (photographed below by kz).

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The Seaport trees, impressive as they are, strike me as the functional antithesis of what street trees are supposed to be for. Does anyone know if this is just the current trend in landscape design or there are more practical reasons for planting them? (Hope this isn't a stupid question. I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to trees and landscaping)
 

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