BU Data Sciences Center | 665 Commonwealth Avenue | BU Central

[Equilibria]

Splitting this off, since the PNF and IMPNF have now been posted (and since we're now at about 5 pages of dedicated chatter on the general BU thread).

PNF: http://www.bostonplans.org/document...ngs/boston-university-data-science-center-pnf

IPNF: http://www.bostonplans.org/document...s/boston-university-data-science-center-impnf

EDIT: Deep in the PNF I see that the actual street address will be 665 Commonwealth Avenue. Could a mod please change that in the title?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

Splitting this off, since the PNF and IMPNF have now been posted (and since we're now at about 5 pages of dedicated chatter on the general BU thread).

PNF: http://www.bostonplans.org/document...ngs/boston-university-data-science-center-pnf

IPNF: http://www.bostonplans.org/document...s/boston-university-data-science-center-impnf

Thanks!

 

[cca]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

Stacked Boxes is the new Jenga

Jenga was the new Half Twist

Half Twist was the new Ribbon Floor/Wall Blend

Ribbon Floor/Wall Blend was the new Misaligned Windows.

It just gets better folks ...


cca

 

[datadyne007]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

This would fit right in in KPMB's native Toronto which has superblocks full of this clunky garbage (including what I think was essentially an all-glass clone of this building), which would allow its poor massing to fade into the urban fabric. That's not the case here at BU.

 

[odurandina]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

Globe finally has it up.....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/busines...nces-center/jkx3yTmZA35Ur4srcTEWgM/story.html

 

[393b40]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

I want to like it... but ugh. Hopefully the BCDC gives them some good guidance because this thing is going to get built one way or another, but it's just too jarring in its current form.

 

[The EGE]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

What a waste of a ground floor. No retail, and likely to be zero pedestrian traffic after about 5 pm. Does BU not understand that they exist in a city where students are walking on the sidewalk?

 

[jass]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

1 men room stall per floor? How is that legal?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

1 men room stall per floor? How is that legal?

There are 2 stalls and 2 urinals in the mens rooms on each upper floor. 248 CMR 10.10 Table 1 allows you to substitute 50% of the mens toilet fixtures required (in this case 4) for urinals.

Levels 1 & 2 have fewer occupants, so there are fewer fixtures required on those floors, so the gang toilets have 1 toilet, 1 urinal.

 

[whittle]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

What a waste of a ground floor. No retail, and likely to be zero pedestrian traffic after about 5 pm. Does BU not understand that they exist in a city where students are walking on the sidewalk?

RIP Campus Trolley

1 men room stall per floor? How is that legal?

I count 2-3 per floor.

 

[bdurden]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

1 men room stall per floor? How is that legal?

The arguments get weaker and weaker.

 

[bdurden]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

What a waste of a ground floor. No retail, and likely to be zero pedestrian traffic after about 5 pm. Does BU not understand that they exist in a city where students are walking on the sidewalk?

It’s an academic building - not a mall.
Also, it’s replacing a parking lot.

 

[chrisbrat]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

It’s an academic building - not a mall.
Also, it’s replacing a parking lot.

this

 

[stellarfun]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

This is BU's answer to Simmons Hall, except Simmons doesn't dominate the skyline.

 

[estyle]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

Someone on reddit posted this building (Museum aan de Stroom):

I am a huge fan of Neutelings Riedijk (despite being unable to pronounce Riedijk) but wasn't familiar with this one. Seems like someone at KPMB is also a fan.

It's interesting how this is almost the opposite of the Data Center proposal. In that one, a smallish tower is made to appear fatter than it actually is. In this rendering, a fat building is made to appear lighter than it actually is.

 

[statler]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

It’s an academic building - not a mall.

It's an apartment building, not a mall. It's an office building, not a mall. It's a parking garage, not a mall...

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

This is BU's answer to Simmons Hall, except Simmons doesn't dominate the skyline.

That's a fair comparison in terms of the "otherness" presented by this building's presence on Comm Ave. With that said, the interior appears to be far more pragmatic and program driven (with some level of flexibility/mutability in consideration of future uses). Simmons Hall's confrontational and bizarre exterior give way to interior spaces that share a common thread with conceptual art. I've never loved it, though I broadly admire Holl's work. I've always wondered how the students like it, and how it's evolved since it opened 16 years ago.

 

[Rover]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

Someone on reddit posted this building (Museum aan de Stroom):

I am a huge fan of Neutelings Riedijk (despite being unable to pronounce Riedijk) but wasn't familiar with this one. Seems like someone at KPMB is also a fan.

It's interesting how this is almost the opposite of the Data Center proposal. In that one, a smallish tower is made to appear fatter than it actually is. In this rendering, a fat building is made to appear lighter than it actually is.

THIS would be a big improvement.

Regarding retail I concur with the sentiment that its an academic building and not a mall. There is little need for new retail on BU's campus as the edges of it (aside from the part that's on the river) already have abundant retail be it Kenmore Square, Audobon Circle, or West Campus after Babcock St as well as a few blocks of Comm Ave starting with the Target store.

 

[sidewalks]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

shrink the floorplates by 50% and go up ten more floors.

 

[ccole]

Re: BU Data Sciences Center | 700 Commonwealth Avenue | Kenmore Square

For what it's worth, I hated this design when I first saw it a couple years ago, but it's grown on me quite a bit since then.

In the BU Today article, they claim this will be the tallest building on campus at 297'. I feel like StuVi2 is taller, but I can't find a single document online that contains the actual height of that building - anyone know where I can find it? Also, the text in the PNF says the building will be, "...305 feet, [approximately] 70 feet higher than the School of Law." However, the cross-section diagram puts the top of the building at 291'.