Boston Properties Office Tower | 888 Boylston Street | Back Bay

Plaza almost finished - I'd guess it's probably a week away from complete. Pavers being installed, benches being outfitted. I believe there is still a lighting feature they have yet to begin implementing.
 
goldenretrievers said:
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Goldenretreivers -- is that one of those "Concrete Canyons" that we are always fearing as part of the on-going Manhatinization of the Hub ;)
 
I'm not out to pick nits here but there's another way this fails that nobody seems to have mentioned yet. The interaction with the Hynes party wall is quite bizarre. I don't have a good picture to illustrate this but when you stand by the plaza now you see the blank yellow brown brick wall of the Hynes continuing all the way back adjacent to the tower. It kills the cohesive street wall effect that, on the other side, seamlessly ties the new Pru entrance to the Mandarin. Why couldn't the westernmost side of the pedestal have been raised to match the roofline of the Hynes? You wouldn't have this problem of cohesion if it did.

Edit: you can sort of see what I mean in goldenretrievers photo above - from a different perspective than the one I mentioned as most jarring.
 
Shepard said:
Plaza almost finished - I'd guess it's probably a week away from complete. Pavers being installed, benches being outfitted. I believe there is still a lighting feature they have yet to begin implementing.
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When does the top part get finished?
 
Not to beat a dead horse but drove by this again today and it hurt to look at. That being said the pike parcels will block it from the pike and you will mostly either see this from Cambridge or Boylston which is fine. Street level is weird but overall I would say above average with regards to really engaging the pedestrians.
 
Big, mature trees being planted today in the middle of the sculptural benches. Must be 20-30 feet tall.
 
Shepard said:
Big, mature trees being planted today in the middle of the sculptural benches. Must be 20-30 feet tall.
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So the mature tree trend on Boylston Street continues. That, at least, is nice (like at the BPL).
 
Are they going to bring back the "Quest Eternal" sculpture?
 
Plaza from last Saturday:



I'll swing by in a bit and take a few more.

Re: Quest Eternal - a resident asked that of the BP folks at the St Botolph St RA meeting. BP's reply was that they're still looking for an 'appropriate location' for the sculpture.
 
More from last hour:
We have windmills:




And the latest on the plaza:










And I can't seem to find a thread related to general updates in the Back Bay, but it looks like the Pru makeover/whitewash has reached the entrance to 101 Huntington:
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
Plaza from last Saturday:

Re: Quest Eternal - a resident asked that of the BP folks at the St Botolph St RA meeting. BP's reply was that they're still looking for an 'appropriate location' for the sculpture.
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DigitalSciGuy -- I'd take him over to near Big Bill at City Hall -- give them a ball and see who can score over the other guy :rolleyes:

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Street level is looking great, which at the end of the day is what matters...unless its at 111 fed where it calls for an icon. I really hope Boylston is now in a transition tree-wise and the street would look great with a bunch of matured trees added to the already great streetscape.
 
stick n move said:
Street level is looking great, which at the end of the day is what matters...
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For me, the only significant street level problem is the fake-ness of the inverted columns. I can't un-distract myself from a sense that they are not actually holding anything up (e.g., the thin metal bar at the top). My overall take on this project is that it looks good (except for the columns) at very close locales, it looks horrendous at middle distances where the mechanical penthouse looks egregiously disproportionately huge compared to the rest of the building (it would even make a cambridge biotech building with 3-stories of mechanicals blush), but from very far viewing locals it looks fine again (e.g., interesting texture added to Back Bay skyline). It's those middle distances that just kill this project.
 
Yea i agree im not defending it, it looks horrendous, im just saying from directly in front of the tower the street level is at least decent.
 
Different strokes for different folks. I really like this building (the glass, the crazy top) and how it meets the street. So unusual, so un-Boston like, which is one of the reasons I really like it, it's so unusual! A quick question, in the planters, are the metallic round objects lights to illuminate the trees?
 
They seem to be, because the renders show tons of lighting at ground level.
 
bigpicture7 said:
For me, the only significant street level problem is the fake-ness of the inverted columns. I can't un-distract myself from a sense that they are not actually holding anything up (e.g., the thin metal bar at the top).
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The Inverted Columns are functional though inside the white shiny tubes there is structural steel connected directly to the beams helping hold the walls up directly above the upside down triangles were used to allow for larger spaces for the entry I am assuming.

As can be seen in this picture aside from the corner columns those are then only support beams on the front of this building. Photo credit goes to beeline

 
Huh, how about that...

What a weird treatment - to wrap the structural steel in white faux tubing, and give it that weird white bracket at the top.

I can't tell if discovering that the v's are actually structural makes me like it more or less...its still a really awkward treatment, even if its not purely ornamental...
 
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