This building wins in many other locations, its lost here. When this building is finished we're going to be saying... "If only it was 15 stories taller." Great location squandered. I wonder how many great locations are left that we can squander before the city wises up and realizes opportunities that don't come around every year.
Great pics! Looking at that "design" I really think we would have been better off with a minimalist glass box with none of the extra "details" like that strange grid or random flag poll thing (in the renderings). The problem is the architects didn't have to balls to do such a thing, not in Boston anyway. The design we are left with is the most watered down snore fest on the Greenway (and that is saying something).
As the street level facade is being preserved, I don't think we can really complain too much. If the glass box went down to the street, we'd have a problem. But it doesn't, so as long as there are some decent tenants, this building is successful in my mind.
And personally, I don't mind the glass box. It's not great, it's not awful; it's not too detailed, it's not too boring. It's the Goldilocks tower.
I'm still loving this. The fact that I'm a huge sucker for just about anything which builds new on top of old may have something to do with it, but I honestly think they've done a nice job. The color of the glass in an entirely new building would likely be too dark and green, but it goes well with the brick. The whole thing looks nice.
It's not ground breaking or iconic (and we could certainly use something with those characteristics... garage projects please), but I think this building is close to perfect for it's location.
So you're suggesting the problem is that it's not enough of a glass box? How many pages of this website are taken up with criticisms of building's for being glass boxes?
Who knows the details on this project? The building in front is not the building on which the new high-rise is built, right? It's behind that, based on what I've seen. The building in front (with the Menino banner) is also being renovated but is it the same developer?
So you're suggesting the problem is that it's not enough of a glass box? How many pages of this website are taken up with criticisms of building's for being glass boxes?
I'm saying it doesn't have the balls to be a pure glass box and tries to dampen the effect by adding all these useless elements that do nothing for it.