Boston Skyline

[ablarc]

 

[kmp1284]

The only thing worth looking at in that photo is the QE2. You have far too much free time on your hands.

 

[ablarc]

Thank you.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Can I use this??

 

[riffgo]

It looks very remeniscent of the New York skyline in the early twentieth century....no flat-topped buildings. I, for one, am very grateful you took the time to do this.

 

[BarbaricManchurian]

Except for 2IFC, the buildings don't actually seem to really enlarge the skyline. It oddly doesn't look any more impressive than what is there currently, which shows to me that Boston's skyline is already actually pretty good.

 

[eaalkaline]

i disagree. it took me a couple mins to confirm that it was in fact boston. i think this looks great ablarc, a big improvement over the 500 ft "skyline" boston currently has

 

[Arch101]

Oh, look! THERE'S the "World-Class" city that Menino keeps talking about. If only.....

 

[czsz]

Ablarc, you must have stumbled into a wormhole to an alternate universe. In Boston's real future, the Shadow Law succeeds and the Boston skyline is flattened. Even the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall gets melted down to build a golden community drinking fountain on the Ned Flaherty Memorial Mass Pike Greenway.

 

[blade_bltz]

Ditch the lame London Eye ripoff and I'm cool with this. There's no point, it will be put to shame by the one in Beijing anyway (that is, unless you're like me and think all ferris wheels NOT found at carnivals/county fairs should be torn down)

Do we have an original photo for comparison?

 

[Mike]

 

[Patriots_1228]

do all cities use factories as cruise ports? or is that just us?

 

[JANAM]

That's spectacular! It's not a matter of if this happens but when, my guess is about 50-60 years.

 

[ablarc]

It looks very reminiscent of the New York skyline in the early twentieth century....no flat-topped buildings.

Like this:

picture posted by Troyeth on Wired New York.

Most of above pix from New York in Black and White.

Except for 2IFC, the buildings don't actually seem to really enlarge the skyline. It oddly doesn't look any more impressive than what is there currently, which shows to me that Boston's skyline is already actually pretty good.

i disagree. it took me a couple mins to confirm that it was in fact boston. i think this looks great ablarc, a big improvement over the 500 ft "skyline" boston currently has

Harkens back to colonial days, when Boston?s skyline was punctuated with spires.

Actually, when we react to a skyline, we?re assessing scale or relative size, not absolute magnitude. In other words, we?re comparing the size of things. So it?s the size disparity between buildings that makes us feel awe at the size of the big ones.

This is illustrated by the following two pictures taken fifty years apart from the Empire State Building:

Though there are far more tall buildings in the second shot, they don?t stand out. Hence no mysterium tremendum.

You can?t see how much bigger they are than other things because they?re all in the company of other similar-sized things: buildings of about the same height (including almost all the ones in the earlier photo, which still exist). The problem is compounded by the fact that glass flattops deprive you of the scale markings that punched windows provide to denote floors.

And so, your brain --always seeking the simplest explanation for what the eye sees-- chooses to interpret the second image as smaller objects closer to the vantage point. Do you see how the skyscrapers in the second view appear to be closer? That's what also makes them seem smaller. (If they're closer to you and take up the same field of vision, the brain reasons, they must be smaller.)

Above two photos posted by Derek2K3, Wired New York.

Oh, look! THERE'S the "World-Class" city that Menino keeps talking about. If only.....

Well, from a distance it looks almost as impressive as Manila or Panama City.

Ablarc, you must have stumbled into a wormhole to an alternate universe. In Boston's real future, the Shadow Law succeeds and the Boston skyline is flattened. Even the grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall gets melted down to build a golden community drinking fountain on the Ned Flaherty Memorial Mass Pike Greenway.

LOL!!

Ditch the lame London Eye ripoff and I'm cool with this.

Yeah, I did this a while ago, and would probably omit the wheel today.

Do we have an original photo for comparison?

Thank you, Mike.

Can I use this??

Fine by me, but I didn?t take the photo; all I did was doctor it, so most of it isn?t mine. And I forget where I got it (probably on the old SkyscraperGuy Forum). Maybe you?ll get lucky and the photographer will materialize on this forum. :flash: I bet it's Mike.

The only thing worth looking at in that photo is the QE2. You have far too much free time on your hands.

You?re probably right on both counts; I?m sure some folks? wives concur on the second point.

Doubtless it would be too kind to refer to us forumers as even flaneurs, particularly since we?re virtual flaneurs at best, impotent, pitiful babblers --mere wraiths of the internet, phantasms?

Maybe you could call us flamers.

I, for one, am very grateful you took the time to do this.

Thanks, it didn?t even take an hour; but I think kmp is right: I should find better things to do with my time.

 

[KentXie]

EDIT: I skipped ablarc's reply so ignore comment

 

[Mike]

I posted the original picture on SSG six years ago, but I'm not the person who took it ... I forget exactly where I found it.

 

[czsz]

Harkens back to colonial days, when Boston?s skyline was punctuated with spires.

An urban theorist (I think it might have been Jane Holtz Kay) once categorized the Boston skyline by era:

- During the early colonial period, church spires were dominant. This was a period of religious fervor.

- During the late colonial period, church spires were crowded out by ships' masts as commerce became more ascendant.

- The State House dome rose above them all during the period of the early republic, one of civic activism.

- Later, the view is occluded by early skyscrapers like the Ames building as commerce grows in importance again.

- But by the early 20th century, the Custom House dominates the skyline as a hallmark of the Progressive era.

- And in the late 20th century, commercial skyscrapers come to dominate the skyline again as the era of neoliberalism takes hold.

Not exactly a scientific theory, but if it's any indication, perhaps we should look into expanding the State House again?

 

[justin]

^Ablarc, why is your first picture a Boston skyline (as opposed to Cleveland or Abu Dhabi or Lagos)?

justin

 

[ablarc]

I don't understand your question, justin.

Do you mean the first picture in the thread or the first picture in my last post? If the latter, could you be mistaking New York for Boston? There is a slight resemblance to Back Bay in the foreground grid; and the skyscraper-laden tip of Manhattan bulbs out just like Boston's Hub --with the harbor beyond and the East River playing the role of Charles. A curious formal coincidence.

Maybe you were referring archly to another formal coincidence: the fact that skyscrapers --being mostly clothed in non-vernacular garb-- make diverse places look similar from a distance; but the same could be said of mountains, bodies of water, clouds, and passing airplanes. Macroscopically, it's a globalized world; microscopically, less so.

Or are you implying that I could have started with Lagos or Cleveland and gotten a near-identical result? Their configurations are different enough so that's unlikely. And furthermore, the new 'scrapers are placed in specific Boston locales you can probably identify by deconstructing the montage.

Anyway, clarify please.

 

[ablarc]

That's spectacular! It's not a matter of if this happens but when, my guess is about 50-60 years.

Things will have to change for that to happen. Between the Custom House (1913) and the Pru (1960ff), Boston built exactly one skyscraper of substantial height: the old Hancock Tower (1947).