Dorm Tower @ Berklee College of Music | 168 Mass Ave | Back Bay

[Boston02124]

I like last one^ u can barely see the Grand Marc building too bad that one was chopped down

 

[briv]

William Rawn should change his name to William Yawn. This is the last in a string of really banal buildings from him. His MIT dorms look like public housing and the W is a lifeless glass slab. I could go on.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I.M. Paid eventually cashed in on his name too. It's like an actor who won an Academy Award after a string of great movies and then does dreck for years; you already have the name, may as well make the money.

 

[cca]

That is not what is happening. There are clearly design teams there at the Rawn office. Some of his work has the high quality that one comes to expect, and some is of a lower quality. Also, you cannot take the client expectations and resources out of the the discussion. Rawn's office is not so high on the status list that they don't take bread and butter work that has bread and butter results. Below is my examples of the two levels of work that comes out of that office. The B-team work is still good ... but the A team work is remarkable.

A team:
- Tufts Gordon Hall
- Tata Hall
- Cambridge Public Library
- Swarthmore College
- Williams College Performing Arts

B team:

- W hotel
- Berkely dorm
- Wheelock dorm
- MIT dorm

 

[kz1000ps]

I would add Northeastern's west campus to the A list as well...Rawn did both the planning as well as the vast majority of buildings there and I think they're all solid stuff.

 

[itchy]

I'd move Tata Hall to the B list.

The building itself is not great. In its context, it's terrible. Harvard's Business School campus, which has a fantastic, cohesive core, is beginning to look more like the massively variegated (and massively hideous) Brandeis campus as its deans take "risks" with new types of architecture / buildings. Rawn's Tata Hall is one of the "non-team-player" buildings contributing to the growing cacophony of the HBC campus.

 

[cca]

I'd move Tata Hall to the B list.

The building itself is not great. In its context, it's terrible. Harvard's Business School campus, which has a fantastic, cohesive core, is beginning to look more like the massively variegated (and massively hideous) Brandeis campus as its deans take "risks" with new types of architecture / buildings. Rawn's Tata Hall is one of the "non-team-player" buildings contributing to the growing cacophony of the HBC campus.

Move it if you wish, your opinion is honored here, but I do think it is a very nice piece of work and like especially how it addresses the more traditional parts of the campus though its transparency.

cca

 

[cca]

I would add Northeastern's west campus to the A list as well...Rawn did both the planning as well as the vast majority of buildings there and I think they're all solid stuff.

Add to the list as you desire. The NE stuff does not stick in my head so much but I agree it is solid design work in general.

cca

 

[stellarfun]

Goody Clancy is back to Georgian brick for the new Chao Center at HBS, and the Chao Center will basically front for Tata, looking west to east.

 

[kz1000ps]

Oh boy have I got something special for you guys...

Watch this space in the following days! As usual I took entirely too many shots so it's gonna be some time before they're all edited but trust me, I got 360 views from all levels as well as a buttload of interior shots. Wheeeee I knew going to Berklee would pay off one day!

 

[GW2500]

^^ sex. ^^

 

[Boston02124]

nice! cant wait

 

[kz1000ps]

Now for the onslaught.

So I'm old friends with a pal who works in Berklee's real estate division and he messaged me out of the blue asking if I'd like to see the new building before it gets opened up for the new semester. OF COURSE I said yes and I got a full monty tour of the building, starting at the bottom and working our way to the top.

Anyway, these are the recording studios in the basement. They won't be ready 'til the summer.

Now we skip the ground level (which is all lobby, loading dock and retail space) and head for the cafeteria area on floors 2 and 3.

Stairs to the lobby.

The upstairs half...seating is split 50/50, with about 200 seats on the lower level and 200 above.

The stage...as my guy put it, the acoustics so far are pretty wonky so they're not sure how much they'll be using this space for performances. This first semester will essentially be a test period.

Mmmm fresh stainless steel...so delicious.

A very nice laundry room.

Fitness center.

Practice rooms on the same floor.

Roof of the podium.

The lounge on floor 5.

 

[kz1000ps]

And now we go up to the top.

The old Sherry Biltmore and Fenway Theatre aka Berklee's 150 and BPC

And now the aerial shots.

Quick reminder: all these can be viewed in glorious high resolution by visiting my Flickr page

A typical double.

Uppermost lounge...what a view!

That's it for now. One more batch is in the works and then that'll be it for me.

 

[hockey92]

What an awesome building for those musically inclined, I want to check those veiws out in person!
Thanks for taking/posting all those photos its good youve got a friend working there so you could get the grand tour and essentially pass that on in the form of photos to the rest of us!

 

[found5dollar]

This might just be the theater practitioner in me, but something is up with the grid over the stage in the dining hall. There doesn't seem to be any electricity run to it or any breakout boxes integrated in the pipe. The grid is hanging so low and is so far from any wall that running cable from the closest outlets, which im assuming has to be in the white soffit in the ceiling, is going to be so ugly. You can't bundle the cable along any of the support wires, since the plugs are not near them. It is just going to end up with dangling cables that cant be neatened since there is nothing to tie them too.

Weak.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

The inside of that building is 100X better than the outside. That dorm furniture looks to be really high quality stuff.
We should put a student there on the payroll to take photos of every project in Longwood, Boylston, NU and Kendall Square.

 

[BeeLine]

Thanks KZ, I'm thoroughly enjoying your photo dump and the buildings not half bad either. Seeing Boston's roof tops is always a turn on. Thanks much!!!!!

 

[kz1000ps]

Glad you guys like!

This might just be the theater practitioner in me, but something is up with the grid over the stage in the dining hall. There doesn't seem to be any electricity run to it or any breakout boxes integrated in the pipe. The grid is hanging so low and is so far from any wall that running cable from the closest outlets, which im assuming has to be in the white soffit in the ceiling, is going to be so ugly. You can't bundle the cable along any of the support wires, since the plugs are not near them. It is just going to end up with dangling cables that cant be neatened since there is nothing to tie them too.

Weak.

Good eyes. As I briefly touched upon, the acoustics in the room are weird--an undulating wall of glass is far from an ideal backdrop--and the Berklee folks are holding off on purchasing any real equipment until they actually have some performances in the place at which point they'll assess the long-term viability of holding shows there. It'd be a shame to not have events there what with the dedicated stage floor and all, but all that glass really cucks things up. Time will tell.

 

[commuter guy]

Terrific pics! Great views looking east over Back Bay.