Charles St. Jail Hotel

A building under construction here today made me think of the jail again. And I had a hunch about the cupola.


Sure enough, they reproduced the cupola of the Charlestown State Prison, not the Charles Street Jail!

fig94.jpg


DOH!
 
Nice find!

Now compare it to this:
CSJail-05.jpg


Anyone involved in architecture/construction: Could this thing be clad in a stone facade? It would still be cheap & tacky but slightly less cheap & tacky.
 
Arched windows

One minor nit about this project: the design of the arched windows on the wing that connects the hotel to the hospital building is different than on the other wings. This wing was restored first, and the window design seem more like a restoration than a replacement, and is much nicer as a result.
 
Is that new hotel building clad in granite?
 
No, it's clad in dark red brick.

Does anyone know why brick cladding is often added from the top down? That always puzzles me.
 
Briv, I'm not sure why, but the brick came out looking grey in that last picture. Check the second pic I posted to see a close-up of the facade mockup for the new portion.

Chumbolly, I was wondering the same thing.
 
chumbolly said:
Does anyone know why brick cladding is often added from the top down? That always puzzles me.
Click to expand...

It's called top/down construction. It is the best way to finish a building, minimizing the damage from subsequent contractors walking through finished areas and creating punchlist items. As they work there way down the building there should be little to no traffic on the upper floors.

*Getting the masonry installed allows the windows to be installed which gets the floor 'weather tight', allowing for the finish trades to start.
 
To the inquiry about the brick being applied from the top down...

On today's buildings such as this one, it's more of a decorative brick, not a structural brick. it's made from the same material, but it's not nearly as thick and is essentially "glued" (for lack of a better word) to the side of the building. Because the this decorative brick is not integral to the actual structure, it can be applied from either the top or the bottom.

Now, if the building were and ACTUAL brick structure, there is absolutely no way they could be laid from the top to the bottom. i'd love to see a mason try it though.

hope that helped
 
I think that looks pretty good ... better than what I was expecting, anyway.
 
Great windows. The jail restoration is turning out spectacular.

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0704140182S.jpg
 
BTW, regarding the cupola....in a new book on the architect, Gridley J. F. Bryant, his original plans, illustrated in the book, called for a cupola very similar to the new one, with windows that would bring light into the inner recesses of the jail. A smaller cupola with clocks, and the reduction of other details, replaced the original plan as a cost-cutting measure. So it appears to be a case of "back to the future". Hopefully if Gridley is watching, he'll feel vindicated!
 
Padre Mike said:
...in a new book on the architect, Gridley J. F. Bryant, his original plans, illustrated in the book, called for a cupola very similar to the new one, with windows that would bring light into the inner recesses of the jail. A smaller cupola with clocks, and the reduction of other details, replaced the original plan as a cost-cutting measure. So it appears to be a case of "back to the future". Hopefully if Gridley is watching, he'll feel vindicated!
Click to expand...
Maybe, but I doubt his original design was as gauche as what has just been built.

Picture?
 
Today. Mass Eye and Ear Infirmiry makes a guest appearance as the tower addition's toupe, and note how well it works with the overall ensemble.

img0839cd6.jpg
 
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