Avalon North Station | Nashua Street Residences | West End

I would say that fashion and music have had more changes over that time period than architecture especially fashion. There have been tons of changes with fashion. Architecture has changed some for example a building with the art nouveau-esque detailing that 111 w 57th street has would never have happened 2000-2009, but at the same time there are still many buildings that could just as easily have been built in 2003 or 2016 and this isn't just Boston.

San Francisco got this "gem" recently for example (hmmm that seems like a familiar style)

240px-45_Lansing_Street%2C_San_Francisco.jpg
 
DZH22 said:
2002 seems a lot more similar to 2017 than 1975 was to 1990. Maybe history will uncover a greater differentiation in the 2000's-2010's than I am giving it credit for.
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Well, obviously. That's because 1975 and 1990 are 15 years apart while 2002 and 2017 are...

...

Oh god.
 
redo;

There is a huge difference between 1973 vs 1983, 1975 vs 1990 in Boston. ...The differences between 2002 vs 2017 are subtle because we're the #1 slowest American city to embrace change.

The differences between 2002 vs 2017 in New York is nearer to as much as 1975 vs 1990 because designers not only have so much more to work with, but for a host of reasons (not the least being economics).... change + pushing the limits of design is the norm: it is expected, demanded and embraced.

In Boston, the practice is thwarted.

Exciting, tall/thin massing also continues to be thwarted in Boston. Have you seen what Seattle is getting? MY GOD......

Nevermind the shape of 1 Bromfield. Our community won't come together to accept a tall thin tower at 1 Bromfield to break up the '70s horror... Even after the BRA asks the developers for more tall, thin towers..... the BCDC apparently didn't get that memo. Well, at the unveiling of 1 Bromfield, they said they did. Perhaps they didn't think anyone would actually take them up on it.

You also saw what happened to Accordia. Critics coming out now against the shadow on the Common are right are right about 1 thing; we didn't need all that sq ft and tax revenue from the Winthrop Garage site. We should have gone for Accordia. (imo), the community would have embraced that design, and thinner shadow pattern more than what we have now... MP's design, while being a very respectable skyscraper, isn't as great a fit for our small downtown and streets. That's not really their fault though. We owe that to all the other fatties. This does nothing to break that pattern; whereas Accordia's design nearly totally rescued the Downtown skyline....

533 Washington and 51 High Street as well as the Huntington back in the Fenway could well be the next great ideas tossed in the dumpster.
 
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i like the top (to the right, in this pic) being lit so bright. i haven't seen that feature in person yet.
 
chrisbrat said:
i like the top (to the right, in this pic) being lit so bright. i haven't seen that feature in person yet.
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Perhaps a bit oversaturated due to the length of the exposure? It doesn't appear that bright in person, at least not with one's eyes dilated for the amount of ground light around the building.

But I agree: it *is* nice.
 
For those of you who haven't noticed, Avalon North Station's LED strip on the *north* side of the building is lit; it came online either 21 or 22 Apr.

What is odd? That the bottom third is noticeably thicker, and brighter, than the upper two thirds. With proper technique, you can confirm this with a light meter. (My inspection was on 23 Apr so they might have synchronized the sections' outputs since this posting on 24 Apr.)
 
Maybe this is a bit premature, but I'm worried about the retail in there. Obviously things will look different once a few places open up; but It's a dead zone right now (that shot with one guy might as well be taken at 9am- nobody passes through there) and I don't know that pedestrian foot traffic patterns will really entice a lot of businesses to open up (let alone remain in business) in those spaces.

It's not intuitive for most pedestrians or train passengers to find their way in there. Most foot traffic comes from along Causeway street or Canal Street. The pedestrian passage under Avalon dumps pedestrians from the Garden right out onto Nashua near the Lomosney Way intersection. It's a dead zone. You've got the least active (and that's saying a lot) side of the O'Neil, lined with FPS SUVs, a whole lot of road/driveways, and a hulking parking garage (and of course, the last tenement). It's not, and probably never will be, a big pedestrian corridor. I think that will be an issue.

It's beautiful (aesthetically), and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't feel great about it. I don't think the Hub will help much either since this will essentially be a disconnected appendage as far as shopping corridors go.
 
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