Avalon North Station | Nashua Street Residences | West End

stellarfun said:
In today's security environment, the O'Neill would not have been located where it is, so no future site where the building sits right on the street.
Click to expand...

Is that why it's surrounded by all those concrete balls?
 
DZH22 said:
Is that why it's surrounded by all those concrete balls?
Click to expand...
Yes. Even with those it is too close to the street.

191207566.jpg


This is the IMF building in Washington, one of them. (Its in the process of being gutted which is why the street is blocked off.) Two Secret Service cars on the street. There are these big granite planters between the sidewalk and the building, and bollards on the sidewalk.

214a403cb620c2996d_pum6bnx0s.jpg


Bollards next to Main Treasury in Washington. They've taken away parking and made that bike lanes. Bollards are typically placed close to the street so one can't readily open car doors on that side. A building is not important in Washington if its not surrounded by bollards.
 
And for example, the White House, which is not adequate for the job any more, and seemingly not secure from anyone with minimal climbing ability, should be turned into a museum! Probably have a Presidential residence/office in a castle on the grounds on the Naval Observatory?
 
tobyjug said:
And for example, the White House, which is not adequate for the job any more, and seemingly not secure from anyone with minimal climbing ability, should be turned into a museum! Probably have a Presidential residence/office in a castle on the grounds on the Naval Observatory?
Click to expand...

The Vice President already has dibs on the Observatory.

The President could move to Camp David. No one climbs over that fence and lives to tell the tale. Different guard force. :)

http://www.8thandi.com/campdavid.html
 
stellarfun said:
Many of the Federal agencies that are tenants in the O'Neill FOB are those with a lot of interaction with the public, so any new site has to be readily accessible via mass transit.

In today's security environment, the O'Neill would not have been located where it is, so no future site where the building sits right on the street.
Click to expand...

Which of course just punts the problem, because any transit accessible location will down the road appeal to development pressures. Like it or not, Government Center is well located and serves an important function. I've never liked the idea of a Seaport city hall for this very reason.

I wonder, though, whether something could be done to improve the street level, perhaps combined with a tower above the current structure. Likewise, City Hall could be fixed by building a new, better building in the plaza, followed by a tear down and some new structures on the current footprint.
 
The nice thing about cities is that they are long term projects. Far longer than our lifespans. I have no doubt that someday all the buildings in government center will be so obsolete that replacement is required. When that time comes something new and better will likely rise. There is no need for it to occur soon.
 
^^^ You are right. And if a "threat" can be addressed by cement balls and planters, it won't interfere with the property's natural economic life cycle.
 
meddlepal said:
The nice thing about cities is that they are long term projects. Far longer than our lifespans. I have no doubt that someday all the buildings in government center will be so obsolete that replacement is required. When that time comes something new and better will likely rise. There is no need for it to occur soon.
Click to expand...

The city may be a living, growing thing, but those federal buildings at Govt Ctr are absolutely hideous and the mending of the whole area should be a next wave major priority (like, twenty years, starting NOW) for fixing all those horrible wide roads like New Chardon, Congress and Sudbury, and the ugly buildings in the JFK, especially the long, low one. I have less hope that the ONeil will ever go anywhere, which is fine; it sucks but it can be surrounded and made more discrete by all the towers. We will not perfect everything, ever, but this is not a reason to be complacent about major blemishes.
 
Just walked by this again, one of the construction workers milling around was wearing a hoodie with an enormous Irish Republican army logo on it. Pretty shocking, having grown up here I'm used to your typical provincial Irish extremism but I've never seen anyone so blatantly wearing an IRA anything, let alone it work.
 
FK4 said:
Just walked by this again, one of the construction workers milling around was wearing a hoodie with an enormous Irish Republican army logo on it. Pretty shocking, having grown up here I'm used to your typical provincial Irish extremism but I've never seen anyone so blatantly wearing an IRA anything, let alone it work.
Click to expand...

Any info about the site itself? Is there a crane there yet?
 
They're getting there. Lots of activity, Im there twice a week and work is picking up, IRA supporters and all
 
This cement thing pictured in the 2nd to last post is now the foundation for some sort of iron scaffold of a stucture they were putting up today, not sure what it is.
 
FK4 said:
This cement thing pictured in the 2nd to last post is now the foundation for some sort of iron scaffold of a stucture they were putting up today, not sure what it is.
Click to expand...

Crane?
 
Must be, given how far from the garden it is.
 
The pool of water might be a dewatering basin if they are dealing with funky groundwater

*edited
 
Last edited:
Downburst said:
I'd say that looks like a crane base.
Click to expand...

Not clear as the bolts seem small [1/4"?] for a tall crane subject to strong lateral forces -- guessing it might be a pad for some ground equipment

for comparison courtesy of the Filenes Thread back about 9 months ago here's the pad for the larger of the two cranes for the Millenium Tower

Zoom to about 500% to see the foot pads up close

DigitalSciGuy said:
How about this?


LBGL6oL.jpg

9s4cCsh.jpg


From atop the 9th floor of the 33 Arch parking garage, per usual.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top