AvalonBay Tower (Jacob Wirth's) | 45 Stuart Street | Downtown

am i supposed to believe that this building establishes some kind of positive standard? it's awful and executed with a terrible material palette. interesting footprint that was wasted by reducing the design to essentially two bland boxes smooshed together. who wants to live in a building that looks like a 80's hartford highrise? time to demand more, boston
 
tvalg said:
am i supposed to believe that this building establishes some kind of positive standard? it's awful and executed with a terrible material palette. interesting footprint that was wasted by reducing the design to essentially two bland boxes smooshed together. who wants to live in a building that looks like a 80's hartford highrise? time to demand more, boston
Click to expand...

I don't know if anyone thinks this establishes a "standard" but if you're looking for examples of mind-numbing blandness, I think you can find more exemplary offenders elsewhere in the city. Should we always demand better? Of course, but I find this pleasant/engaging enough to look at.
 
tvalg said:
am i supposed to believe that this building establishes some kind of positive standard? it's awful and executed with a terrible material palette. interesting footprint that was wasted by reducing the design to essentially two bland boxes smooshed together. who wants to live in a building that looks like a 80's hartford highrise? time to demand more, boston
Click to expand...


Exteriors are for people who don't live in the building. Quite frankly if I'm buying or renting in one of these towers I want as much money spent on interior as possible. This isn't like buying a house where appearance does matter for aesthetic and resale value reasons.
 
meddlepal said:
Exteriors are for people who don't live in the building. Quite frankly if I'm buying or renting in one of these towers I want as much money spent on interior as possible. This isn't like buying a house where appearance does matter for aesthetic and resale value reasons.
Click to expand...

if you think the extreme value engineering apparent on the exterior of this isn't also reflected on the interior, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. and as you say, the exterior is for people who don't live in the building; that's to say, *everyone else in boston*, which is why i find it disheartening that as this building reaches completion, the tone in this thread is an unconvincing celebration of a building that is remarkably ordinary.
 
I am assuming the garage entrance off Stuart St. is for public parking, in that the garage will not be exclusively for residents. If the garage was for residents only they could have done it like the Kensington.
 
stellarfun said:
I am assuming the garage entrance off Stuart St. is for public parking, in that the garage will not be exclusively for residents. If the garage was for residents only they could have done it like the Kensington.
Click to expand...

Garage is for both residents and some public parking (same number of public spaces as in the former surface lot). It is a valet only garage; ground floor space is staging -- car elevators are in the back part of the building near LaGrange.
 
tvalg said:
which is why i find it disheartening that as this building reaches completion, the tone in this thread is an unconvincing celebration of a building that is remarkably ordinary.
Click to expand...

Spent much time in Boston lately, and by that I mean sometime since 1960? Remarkably ordinary is pretty damn good by our standards for the past, oh, half century or so of highrise architecture. "Remarkably ordinary" is not just one, but a few notches above what's recently gone up just next door here (the Kensington). Have you seen the offal we're puking up in the Seaport?

Frankly, if it weren't for what's happening around Fenway now, I wouldn't necessary believe Boston capable of anything beyond "remarkably ordinary" highrise infill architecture. Take it from someone in a city where at any given time there are about 50 remarkably ordinary residential infills sprouting up - AvalonBay Tower could be so, so much worse.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tvalg View Post
which is why i find it disheartening that as this building reaches completion, the tone in this thread is an unconvincing celebration of a building that is remarkably ordinary.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of us were very worried this was going to be a real piece of crap and the finished product exceeded expectations. I think we all know its nothing earth shattering, it does have a very office building vibe for being residential.
 
Suffolk 83 said:
I think a lot of us were very worried this was going to be a real piece of crap and the finished product exceeded expectations. I think we all know its nothing earth shattering, it does have a very office building vibe for being residential.
Click to expand...

I often wonder how much of the office building vibe is the fact that the developer originally proposed an office building for the site and got shot down.
 
Suffolk 83 said:
I think a lot of us were very worried this was going to be a real piece of crap and the finished product exceeded expectations. I think we all know its nothing earth shattering, it does have a very office building vibe for being residential.
Click to expand...

i honestly don't mean this sarcastically, but if you were to describe a hypothetical situation, how might this building be more of a piece of crap? there's not many places to run with that...
 
tvalg said:
i honestly don't mean this sarcastically, but if you were to describe a hypothetical situation, how might this building be more of a piece of crap? there's not many places to run with that...
Click to expand...

It could be the Kensington right next door. You do not have to run very far.
 
i honestly don't mean this sarcastically, but if you were to describe a hypothetical situation, how might this building be more of a piece of crap? there's not many places to run with that...
Click to expand...

What Jeff said. Also, waterside place in the seaport.
 
shawn said:
Spent much time in Boston lately, and by that I mean sometime since 1960? Remarkably ordinary is pretty damn good by our standards for the past, oh, half century or so of highrise architecture. "Remarkably ordinary" is not just one, but a few notches above what's recently gone up just next door here (the Kensington). Have you seen the offal we're puking up in the Seaport?

Frankly, if it weren't for what's happening around Fenway now, I wouldn't necessary believe Boston capable of anything beyond "remarkably ordinary" highrise infill architecture. Take it from someone in a city where at any given time there are about 50 remarkably ordinary residential infills sprouting up - AvalonBay Tower could be so, so much worse.
Click to expand...

Shawn -- no offence but Tokyo had the "Ahem" advantage of being an established important city provided with a nearly "clean sheet" about 70 years ago courtesy of General Curtis Lemay and the Boeing Corporation

images
Great+Boston+Fire-Modern+Overlay.jpg
mapgreatfireof1872-1.jpg


Boston's last sheet cleaning happened in 1872 in the Financial District due to the Great Fire -- the buildings erected in the next two decades are now some of the classics which we all want to see preserved and used as inspiration
 
Maybe my tone didn't come through too well in my last post: I only meant to imply that Tokyo also craps out volumes and volumes of banal filler, and compared to some of that junk, AvalonBay actually isn't half bad. I'm not sure the clean slate provided by WWII has had any impact on the architectural / design quality of the city's filler residential highrises; space to play with or not, it's (visually) bad stuff. Generally better at street activation and years ahead in terms of transit integration, but visually? No good.
 
^^ But all equipped with Washlets (or their equivalent) so I'll take that trade...
 
^^ Ha! I didn't have the balls to use mine for the first year at least; now I never want to use paper again.
 
^ Look at all that fantastically weird shit happening in the foreground, i can't get enough of it - the street level of kneeland street and the block or too headed north into chinatown is such a bonkers hodgepodge, i hope it lives forever while the new generic, sanitary density fills in above it...
 
CSTH said:
^ Look at all that fantastically weird shit happening in the foreground, i can't get enough of it - the street level of kneeland street and the block or too headed north into chinatown is such a bonkers hodgepodge, i hope it lives forever while the new generic, sanitary density fills in above it...
Click to expand...

Agreed! The juxtaposition is outstanding. It reminds me of what I like best about New York City.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top