"Dirty Old Boston"

“Our image for Eastern Standard was a place where mothers pushing a baby carriage, students, doctors, concert pianists, they’d all feel comfortable,” Keefe said.

Harker, a former partner of chef Barbara Lynch who was brought in by BU to run the restaurant, said he loved that vision for the square, and wanted to help make it a reality.

“They had a mission that was much more than a commercial enterprise,” he said. “It was agenda-driven, it was civic improvement, and it had a nobility to it.”
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This pretty much sums up why Kenmore Square is dead. Some people couldn't stand a little dirt and grime.
 
copleyoriginalplan.jpeg


Original rendering for Copley Place
 
Did anyone else notice on The Atlantic article that photo number 16 with the rowing crew that they are saying the photo is from 1977 but you can clearly see a completed One Post Office Sq in that photo, and that wasn't finished until 1981...
I'm now curious as to if the tower was finished long before it opened.
 
393b40 said:
This pretty much sums up why Kenmore Square is dead. Some people couldn't stand a little dirt and grime.
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I found that article to be downright offensive, in the way it was so dismissive of earlier versions of the Square, and how valuable they might have been to those of us who knew it back in the day.
 
jarvismj said:
Did anyone else notice on The Atlantic article that photo number 16 with the rowing crew that they are saying the photo is from 1977 but you can clearly see a completed One Post Office Sq in that photo, and that wasn't finished until 1981...
I'm now curious as to if the tower was finished long before it opened.
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It’s a mistake. Also in that picture are The Devonshire completed in 1983 and Exchange Place in 1984.
 
squidman1 said:
View attachment 12050

Original rendering for Copley Place
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I’m still a little sad they removed the fountain/art piece that was eventually built. It was hideous and delicious all at once.
“The developers, the wealthy Pritzker famiy of Chicago, Ill., commissioned Dimitri Hadzi, a well-known sculptor and educator based at Harvard, to create the site-specific work for the space. And when the mall opened, his enormous 60′ fountain fashioned out of marble and granite surrounded by (marble) benches was situated at its center, providing shoppers the opportunity to sit, rest, and enjoy the gentle gurgling of the water amidst the glitz.”
artsfuse.org

Arts Commentary: To Stay or Not to Stay? Copley Place’s fountain faces an uphill battle - The Arts Fuse

Today, the fountain at Copley Place feels embarrassing in some way; not its form or execution, but its very existence.
artsfuse.org artsfuse.org
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Ah, the old luxurious Copley Place, with its dated yet enjoyable yellow brick & red marble promenades. The place feels stark and strangely empty lately. It feels like somewhere I‘m not supposed to be in.

I also found videos of marble installation in Copley Place from around 83 or 84. It was on some stock footage site that I can’t put my finger on
 
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While we're on the subject of art at the mall, does anyone know what happened to the Boston Tapestry sculpture that used to be near the escalator by the Prudential entrance? As a kid I used to just stand there and gaze at it. I was never able to find any info on its current whereabouts.
 
Even if you’re still around and well, we’ll always miss you, Quest Eternal.
 
This very likely isn't the ideal place to post this (apologies if that's the case, mods), but THIS is a pretty stunning (and too brief) look at the changes in and around Boston Harbor in the past half-century.
 
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squidman1 said:
The place feels stark and strangely empty lately. It feels like somewhere I‘m not supposed to be in.
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Ive also always gotten that feeling... the interior is massive and yet the place is not very busy feeling at all. Compared to The Pru mall it feels like a dead zone (all of this preCovid of course)
 
It's also almost like the mall has no lighting at all. The grayscale color palette makes the place feel dark
 
I found a couple of 90s Prudential photos once from a designer site, but I think the link must've died.
 
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