Copley Place Expansion and Tower | Back Bay

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Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

davem said:
If you want to pick some nits the technical term for demolishing a building but preserving the facade is facadism.
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I never knew this. I am going to start using the proper term now. Thanks!
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

davem said:
If you want to pick some nits the technical term for demolishing a building but preserving the facade is facadism. But you are correct, changing that 80s office block would be a reskinning or recladding.
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Since it's not actually one of the four standardized and accepted approaches within the discipline there, technically, is not technical term. Facadism, facadectomy, and facadomy are all used with about equal meaning. I'd add fucked up to the list Fs myself.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

statler said:
I never knew this. I am going to start using the proper term now. Thanks!
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Stat -- I think Robert Campbell coined or at least popularized the term when he wrote of the proposal for Exchange Place on State and Devonshire -- to replace the elegemt Boston Stock Exchange building by one bay of the old along State Street and the grafted Glass Tower heading along Devonshire

With transplanted marble staircase to nowhere includued within the wide-open glass lobby on Devonshire provided for full effect
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Will the retail space be geared towards the luxury market?
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Isn't the retail space just an expansion/renovation of the Neimans?
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

I asked a similar question earlier in the tread and I think the whole inside of the mall is getting a makeover. It is a temple of late 1980's luxury fabulousness - lots of brass and mauve marble with octagonal shapes everywhere.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Czervik.Construction said:
I asked a similar question earlier in the tread and I think the whole inside of the mall is getting a makeover. It is a temple of late 1980's luxury fabulousness - lots of brass and mauve marble with octagonal shapes everywhere.
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I walked through it recently. It definitely needs a contemporary makeover (it's so dark) that fits the luxurious retailers. Does Boston lack the prime retail space that attracts the luxury market retailers? It seems like you hear about a lot of brands looking for space, but they can't find anything that suits them.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Czervik.Construction said:
I asked a similar question earlier in the tread and I think the whole inside of the mall is getting a makeover. It is a temple of late 1980's luxury fabulousness - lots of brass and mauve marble with octagonal shapes everywhere.
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Minor nitpick but it's early '80s...completed 1983. Late '80s decor had moved away from brass and into white drywall and accent colors like neon blue, hot pink, teal, mauve...think MTV music videos.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

There is indeed new retail that is not part of Neiman Marcus.

RED is new retail. (YELLOW is Neiman expansion)
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Refer to the BCDC Presentation slides for additional renders and info: http://www.bostonredevelopmentautho...07-09-2013-bcdc-presentation-copley-expansion
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Czervik.Construction said:
...lots of brass and mauve marble with octagonal shapes everywhere.
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Reminds me of a simpler time. I worked in the Rizzoli behind the waterfall when I was in high school in the late 80s. I purchased my first architectural monographs there.

kz1000ps said:
Late '80s decor had moved away from brass and into white drywall and accent colors like neon blue, hot pink, teal, mauve...think MTV music videos.
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Or the late and widely published work of James Stirling...
 
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Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

I was one of your frequent customers.

I miss the magazine store across the way, too.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Can't wait until this thing finally breaks ground. Between this and the Christian Science Tower, the Back Bay skyline will see some nice change.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

tobyjug said:
I was one of your frequent customers.

I miss the magazine store across the way, too.
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ah yes, the magazine store. Probably the first time I have admitted this in 25+ years but as a young, male adolescent, myself and a few friends used to frequent that place for smut magazines decades before internet porn became ubiquitous. The horny 12-15 year old boys of today will never have a clue the lengths we used to go before the internet.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

BosDevelop said:
ah yes, the magazine store. Probably the first time I have admitted this in 25+ years but as a young, male adolescent, myself and a few friends used to frequent that place for smut magazines decades before internet porn became ubiquitous. The horny 12-15 year old boys of today will never have a clue the lengths we used to go before the internet.
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Lol, I can't imagine buying porn in Copley Place now!
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Wow, I remember Rizzoli. That place was fantastic, I used to go there with my parents when I was a little kid. There is still one near my place in NYC. I also remember that magazine store someone else mentioned. Always a lot of creeps in the back corner, pretending to look at car magazines, when actually looking at porn.

Beton Brut said:
Reminds me of a simpler time. I working in the Rizzoli behind the waterfall when I was in high school in the late 80s. I purchased my first architectural monographs there.
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Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

I love how this thread has devolved into a nostalgic discussion of Oui and High Society. Well done, lads!

Interestingly, the first time I ever saw one of Alvar Aalto's Savoy Vases was at the high-end home accessories store (NOT the Sharper Image) that was next door to Rizzoli. How strange that the sinuous curves of the proposed tower call to mind that vase...
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Beton Brut: Brookstone? Or perhaps Williams-Sonoma?
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Nope, Ron. It was a freestanding retailer of household goods, very high end. Way more luxe than Crate & Barrel.

Lots of Aalto stuff in there, like the tea cart and coffee & tea service. Magnificent silver and pewter items, Deco, Bauhaus. Unfathomably priced when I was in my late teens, and still way out of my price range in my 40s.
 
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