Best 10 Projects of the Decade (2000-2009)

[briv]

CHOOSE 10

In no particular order (photo credits coming):

1. Blackfan Life Sciences Building

2. One Lincoln (State Street Financial Building)

3. Millennium Place

4. Mandarin Oriental

5. Rollins Square

6. 303 Third

7. 45 Province Street

8. MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Center

9. Trilogy

10. Jill Brown-Rhone Park

11. Landmark Center Renovation

12. Zakim Bridge

13. Courthouse MBTA Station

14. Opera House Restoration

15. Alston Public Library

16. Boylston Street Apple Store

17. North Point Archstone

18. Atelier 505

19. Battery Wharf

20. Brighton Community Boathouse

21. Northeastern Building H

22. Cambridge Public Library Addition

23. Central Square Theatre

24. Boston Children's Museum Addition

25. Fenway Park Improvements

26. FP3

27. Genzyme HQ

28. Harvard Northwest Science Complex

29. Harvard Memorial Drive Graduate Student Housing

30. Boston Institute of Contemporary Art

31. Logan Airport Terminal E

32. MacAllen Building

33. MassArt Dormitory

34. Richard E. Griffin Academic Center

35. 111 Huntington

36. Shapiro Brigham & Women's Hospital

37. MIT Simmons Hall

38. South Station Headhouses

39. MIT Stata Center

40. UMass Boston Campus Center

41. Cambridge Valentine Houses

Valentine Houses

42. Zero Arrow Theatre (need a better photo)

 

[briv]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2010)

Ron, Van and Ablarc, unfortunately those posts you posted with the previous version of this thread were lost. I made a mistake and had to delete the thread. Sorry guys.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2010)

What I posted before:

Millennium Place is the correct spelling of the two towers on Tremont Street. (Or Ritz-Carlton Towers.)

If you are not going to include the Paramount, then the decade-ending year should be 2009 rather than 2010.

 

[Pierce]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

I had no idea that the State Street building was from the last decade. Yikes, it looks like the stuff Philip Johnson and Burgee farted out in the mid 80s. It looks waaayyyyyy out of place with the rest of those above (except its partner 111 huntington, which looks very 1992ish). 111H seems to have closed a chapter on Boston development, there is a marked shift in expression after it was built.

Also that cambridge park is probably a great planning project in terms of the urban structure of cambridge, but its a pretty poor design project i'd say. It shoves all bike traffic out with cars, unlike the streetscapes a few blocks away near the Stata Center that deftly weave bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicular traffic into one corridor but each with its own discrete zone. I would suggest in 2011 a separate category for open space, best/worst. There is a standard of compelling contemporary expression at work in [most of] the building projects listed that this is not being held to this project only because this one is such a smart urban move.

EDIT: forgot about zero arrow--- who let him in here?

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

Zero Arrow was one of my nominees, as was Central Square Theatre. I like any project that adds live performance spaces, and these two are tasteful, contextual infills. The same bias caused me to vote for Atelier, Opera House, and ICA.

Wonder if 111 Huntington will win both Best and Worst?

 

[czsz]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

I can't believe all the votes for One Lincoln. I wonder if there are still a lot of "tall = good" people lurking among us.

Also: holy fucking shit is that photo of 45 Province amazing. HDR, I assume?

Briv, is it possible for you to add a vote? I forgot to put in one for the Brighton Community Boathouse.

 

[blade_bltz]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

The Fenway Park picture you chose doesn't reflect the full extent of the renovations. That very vantage point - second-deck, behind home plate - is no longer shielded in glass, as of 2005. (600 club/.406 club => EMC club).

^^ which is, I assume, a huge improvement for those well-heeled enough to sit there. I went on a Fenway tour as a kid, and remember feeling acutely disappointed when they brought us up to the 600 club. Like watching a game in an icky movie theater.

 

[ablarc]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

Couldn't vote for more than seven.

 

[ablarc]

Re: Best 10 Projects of the Decade (1999-2009)

Couldn't vote for more than seven.




Btw, as a nitpicker it's my duty to point out that 1999-2009 is eleven years, not a decade.

 

[briv]

CZ, I think I can add a vote for you for the Brighton Boathouse.

I also fixed the time frame.

Which ones did you vote for, Ablarc?

 

[bdurden]

I forgot all about Rollins Square (and I live right around the corner); perhaps a testament to it's success is that it fits into the neighborhood so perfectly. It's a little slice of back alley Paris right in Boston.

 

[ablarc]

Which ones did you vote for, Ablarc?

4,5,16,23,26,39, and 42.

 

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Rollins Square is also seen as a textbook case of how you do mixed income housing correctly (or as correctly as it can be done).

 

[Shepard]

Why do people like the Zakim Bridge so much? It's nice eye candy for cinematic Boston flyovers, but Golden Gate Bridge this ain't. What does it actually do for the city? Isn't anyone peeved that its sole purpose is to get cars downtown, and that we'll never be able to walk or bike over it?

 

[Ron Newman]

I like it as a sculptural landmark that you can see from many different places on the ground (not just in the air). I don't resent it for being inaccessible to pedestrians and bikes, since it's right next to the Charles River Dam crossing which accommodates them just fine.

 

[czsz]

What's wrong with eye candy?

It's become a nice landmark for Boston (this city is chronically short of really recognizable feats of architecture and engineering) such that it's even featured in Amtrak ads.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

2 One Lincoln
14 Opera House
19 Battery Wharf
35 111 Huntington

I wish 33 Arch Street was on here, it's my favorite building.

But luckily One Lincoln is my second favorite.

And I think the other 3 votes I made were nicely done as well.