BU Development Thread

Like all good modernism this only works when in pristine condition. But I hope this will be a precedent for historic modernist preservation.
 
jass said:
The COM building is a national embarrassment
Click to expand...
COM is not a STEM college. BU would not be able to pay for a new COM building through indirect cost recovery on federal research grants performed there.

Yes, it is an embarrassment for BU just as the CFA building is.
 
TomOfBoston said:
COM is not a STEM college. BU would not be able to pay for a new COM building through indirect cost recovery on federal research grants performed there.

Yes, it is an embarrassment for BU just as the CFA building is.
Click to expand...

Hey, hey. As an apologetic COM grad I can say I've never once been doused with raw sewage from a pipe explosion in the basement of that building. Unlike some of my CFA dormmates who had practice rooms in the bowels of that building up the street.

"Bowels" literally speaking. . .
 
There are plans to build a much needed addition to COM fronting Comm Ave. An entirely new structure would be ideal but this is still better than the present day conditions.
 
Live camera for the Integrated Life Sciences center, replacing a parking lot:

800x600.jpg


For those who despise the COM building, you can see how the new science building will partially obscure it from view.
 
^^ Intergrated Life Science Ctr. Page 62 item#1237
 
ErnieAdams said:
Too bad that the original Sert vision to which the LAW tower was restored only put those red panels on the narrow side and not on the wide side. The red is a nice accent and a good bit of branding for the university. The green panels are a whole lot of nothing by comparison.

All in all, though, they did a really good job on this complex.
Click to expand...

the windows look great, but are they going to clean the concrete? I just assumed they would, and it would have seemed to make more sense to do that first, before the window work... the concrete still looks pretty stained, I hope they clean it. Would make a big difference.
 
FK4 said:
the windows look great, but are they going to clean the concrete? I just assumed they would, and it would have seemed to make more sense to do that first, before the window work... the concrete still looks pretty stained, I hope they clean it. Would make a big difference.
Click to expand...

The concrete was refurbished during the renovation.

From the BU website:

Law Tower Renovation

The 18-story Law Tower underwent a complete renovation. The design faithfully rehabilitates most of Sert’s original tower while taking deliberate measures within the architect’s design vocabulary to make the existing building more acceptable to the 21st-century needs of its inhabitants. All windows were replaced with thermally insulated units reflecting the pattern and profile of the original building. The exterior concrete panels that define the building’s architectural aesthetic were totally refurbished. The tower was revamped with new mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, larger bathrooms, and modern facilities to house the School’s administrative departments, faculty offices, moot courtrooms, and writing programs. The spalled cast-in-place concrete of the existing building was repaired where needed and care will be taken to match existing color and texture as much as possible. Precast fins and other precast elements on the exterior were repaired or replaced as necessary. All exterior concrete was cleaned. Some of the full-story precast panels were replaced with glass in a manner consistent with the original compositional intent of the building façade.
 
^Huh. The concrete really still looks stained/with many imperfections to me. Not sure if it looks cleaner than before, and if it does it doesn't look as pristine as the way other brutalist buildings do when restored.
 
^are you talking about the photos or about in person - because it looks much better in the photos.
 
FK4 said:
^are you talking about the photos or about in person - because it looks much better in the photos.
Click to expand...

This. The photos here look great. In person, the renovation looks off to me.
 
Looks fantastic. Not all brutalist architecture is crap.
 
meddlepal said:
Looks fantastic. Not all brutalist architecture is crap.
Click to expand...

I have to keep saying what Ive said already - the photos make this look phenomenal and I love good brutalism, but in person the concrete still looks stained and dirty. They could have cleaned it better, but you have to see it in the sun in real life as the pics do not expose this. Good for photographer, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top