American Repertory Theater | 175 North Harvard Street | Allston

Some other angles of the building.

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https://m.box.com/shared_item/https://bpda.box.com/s/f2ry17ipe1qx0pj2eb2kpzoglokslwmw
 
BCDC: https://bpda.app.box.com/s/u6xavr0jvmrazwq82kqxnjuiyclguud7

It's got so many of the right ideas - masonry, evenly spaced windows, and then it shanks it with these modernist forms, same as the MIT grad housing does.

Architects need to stop trying to "deconstruct" and "reimagine" and just do what has been beautiful for hundreds of years.

Compare this to 819 Beacon or 41 Berkeley...
 
That's going to be a huge number of new residents living in Barry's Corners. Prep for demolition of the existing 175 N Harvard building starts on July 5th with the structure coming down in Oct. I live in the Continuum, we were sent a packet by Harvard.

I'm a bit sad because I love their current/old building in Harvard Square, I hope they find some use for it and don't tear it down.
 
Beantropolis said:
The new ART building looks like a poultry processing facility. Harvard is clearly unconcerned with providing any kind of positive aesthetic experience to anyone who has to look at this crap on a regular basis.
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It's unfathomable how crappy Harvard's new building architecture is these days. If Northeastern can build an ISEC, how the hell did Harvard, with all it's endowment billions, build it's minor league-ish SEC? And I fully agree with you about the ART, Beantropolis - - shockingly awful - - The City of Boston builds nicer BPL Branch Libraries than this Saddam Hussein bunker. Such an amazing opportunity in Allston for Harvard over the next several decades with such a wide expanse of land, and I fear it is currently in the wrong hands, aesthetically.
 
shmessy said:
It's unfathomable how crappy Harvard's new building architecture is these days. If Northeastern can build an ISEC, how the hell did Harvard, with all it's endowment billions, build it's minor league-ish SEC? And I fully agree with you about the ART, Beantropolis - - shockingly awful - - The City of Boston builds nicer BPL Branch Libraries than this Saddam Hussein bunker. Such an amazing opportunity in Allston for Harvard over the next several decades with such a wide expanse of land, and I fear it is currently in the wrong hands, aesthetically.
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I think that a quote originally about Prince is applicable here: “Harvard has been living in Harvard World for quite some time now.” It isn’t even that they’re out of touch (which they are) it’s that they do not share the common human reality experienced by 99.999% of the world.
 
Ouch. That residential feels oppressive. However, it is a change from the alucobond, offset window, and colossal order aesthetic that pervades so much housing today.
 
Well, it's an improvement on the prior drafts, and there's a hint of an appealing aesthetic here. Maybe a few more attempts and they'd get it?
 
It looks like a better version of Zinc, which is on my shortlist for most hated buildings in Boston. This has similarly oppressive proportions, but with a pleasing brick cladding, compared to the bolder/cheaper/complete failure that is Zinc.
 
It looks like some interesting brick detailing. Something seems off with the current proportions - I would go with a different proportion for the windows and I think it'd be a lot better.
 
DZH22 said:
It looks like a better version of Zinc, which is on my shortlist for most hated buildings in Boston. This has similarly oppressive proportions, but with a pleasing brick cladding, compared to the bolder/cheaper/complete failure that is Zinc.
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So weird to read this just now. I'm not really a big "fan" of Zinc, but I walk or drive by it pretty much daily and... I dunno, it's fine. I guess I have no strong feelings one way or the other. It's better than the mass of falling-down, decaying buildings that define (or certainly used to define) much of the larger Inner Belt area.

ANYway... as I was waiting to cross McGrath to begin the walk home from Twin City, two girls/ladies who were waiting for the inbound bus were talking about how much they LOVED the building.

That's all.
 
As of 12/31/23
 

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