Circle Cinema Redevelopment | Cleveland Circle | Brighton

Sitting at a red light

49911152032_f3ba9bcb52_b.jpg
Wow, that turned out really well.
 
I agree it looks nice but I find it funny because it is just a dressed up 5 over 1 format that everyone loves to bash otherwise!
 
The dressing it up is the key part.

Yeah. Bash the timidity of too many other new-construction bland boxes occupying prime real estate at the corners of Squares who never try to do the same. Or the PNF process that begats them pounding all creativity-obscura out of the dressing too early on in the game. It's always those buildings that have that indelible "je ne sais quoi" touch that feel most like home amongst their surroundings. Especially in this area that so celebrates its localism quirks. How many landmarks became Landmarks because of something a little bit subversive / a little bit kitschy just like that? Sometimes a wee bit of randomness chucked in ends up being the X factor that ties the whole room together.
 
“Sitting at a red light”..... any one else singing that to some ‘Tull?
 
For the record, the company that manufactures these vintage, Victorian-timey clocks is based in our very own Medfield.

Pompous pretentious pedants will look at their website and sneer, "look, they're contributing to the literal Disneyfication of America by designing all of the Disney world theme park clocks!" But that's what makes them pompous pretentious pedants; screw 'em, these clocks are fabulous, I think.

Other than this one in Cleveland Circle, I've seen (many times) the one in Downtown Crossing adjacent to the Jewelers Building--which is optimally cited for a variety of reasons--along with one situated at the approach to the Newton Corner rotary. Which strikes me as a far more puzzling location, but, eh, whatevs.
 
For the record, the company that manufactures these vintage, Victorian-timey clocks is based in our very own Medfield.

Pompous pretentious pedants will look at their website and sneer, "look, they're contributing to the literal Disneyfication of America by designing all of the Disney world theme park clocks!" But that's what makes them pompous pretentious pedants; screw 'em, these clocks are fabulous, I think.

Other than this one in Cleveland Circle, I've seen (many times) the one in Downtown Crossing adjacent to the Jewelers Building--which is optimally cited for a variety of reasons--along with one situated at the approach to the Newton Corner rotary. Which strikes me as a far more puzzling location, but, eh, whatevs.
there's another one not far from cleveland circle, right outside the brighton police dept. my aunt is on a few community organizations in brighton and was instrumental in getting both of those installed.
 
Hear hear! ^^^ I thought the theater, itself, was a pretty cool building. While I'd stop short of calling what's now there "iconic," I think it clearly demonstrates that *any* effort to distinguish one pre-fab panel, cookie-cutter building from another goes a loooooooong way. Also -- and related -- Boston has long been pretty weak in the "cool signage" department. More creative and "fun" lighting and signs would be great IMHO. Not everywhere (not suggesting a giant 3-D neon pig-shaped sign above a BBQ joint on Newbury, for example), but we're definitely on the lower-end in that department.
 
Hear hear! ^^^ I thought the theater, itself, was a pretty cool building. While I'd stop short of calling what's now there "iconic," I think it clearly demonstrates that *any* effort to distinguish one pre-fab panel, cookie-cutter building from another goes a loooooooong way. Also -- and related -- Boston has long been pretty weak in the "cool signage" department. More creative and "fun" lighting and signs would be great IMHO. Not everywhere (not suggesting a giant 3-D neon pig-shaped sign above a BBQ joint on Newbury, for example), but we're definitely on the lower-end in that department.


Amen, Chris. It doesn't apply to all places throughout the city, but Cleveland Circle is simply the perfect spot for getting creative and going "iconic". The streets there need paving and the place can be jazzed up. I've long thought it horribly undersold as a destination.
 
Bi-annual kz check in on this one...

I share your admiration for this one, KZ, but based on comparing your 8/2021 and 3/2022 photos there's something even more critical here:
Any development that actually takes down its giant "now leasing / now open / YES, THIS IS A POOL" banner after less than two years automatically places itself in the topmost echelon of Boston developments in my book.
 

Back
Top