Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

Re: Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

FK4 said:
Here are some shots of the theaters, one block down the road, in 1999:
modern.jpg

operahouse.jpg

paramount.jpg
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Wow, it's pretty wild to see how much better those all look now:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.353...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s5fVGV6NKYKBN6aT0H2zkHQ!2e0
 
BosDevelop said:
Is it me or does it seem like this Godfrey hotel gut job is taking forever. Seems like 20 story buildings have been built from the ground up quicker.
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Some hardcore renovation/gut jobs must be just crazy complicated. I'm not an architect but I wouldn't be surprised if renovations regularly take longer than just knock-it-down, build-it-fresh projects.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Some hardcore renovation/gut jobs must be just crazy complicated. I'm not an architect but I wouldn't be surprised if renovations regularly take longer than just knock-it-down, build-it-fresh projects.
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Gut jobs are nightmares, especially if the design team didn't have a lot of existing conditions info when the CDs were produced. Once you start tearing down walls and ceilings, you find all kinds of surprises that need to be addressed.
 
Often times this is true. Renovations have some downsides.

  • Takes longer (sometimes)
  • Time = Money so ... costs more (sometimes)
  • A new use has to squeeze into something that wasnt designed for that purpose
  • Old buildings do not perform to the standards we require today
  • ADA actually is a factor

cca
 
cca said:
Often times this is true. Renovations have some downsides.

  • Old buildings do not perform to the standards we require today

cca
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I have issues with this one, but mostly yes.
 
Bos -- nice reference shots of an area rapidly changing

These pics are like the shots of the Greenway area just after the underground opened and there was an urban desert, or the seas of parking lots surrounding the Courthouse

I'm predicting that over the next 2 years that whole DTX area will be redone to the extent that these photos will appear to be from an entirely different era

Most of the changes will be on the small detail scale with of course the MT & Burnham as the backdrop for the rest of the transformation
 
GAP opens today - from the BID weekly news letter:

Mind the GAP! A new GAP store opens tomorrow at
411 Washington St., the former F.Y.E./Strawberries location.



The 9,600-sq. ft. store, which is spread across three floors, will be open from 9 am to 9 pm, Mondays-Saturdays, and from 11 am to 7 pm on Sundays. The GAP is celebrating its debut with a 50%-70% off grand-opening sale, through Easter (April 5th). Please call the store at 617-348-9312 tomorrow for more information.
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Not that it's that bad today. I would love for the Downtown BID to next re-surface Winter Street. Actually, what I'd really love is for the basements of the buildings along Winter Street to have retail facing into the fare-controlled corridor underneath (or for the basements to be consolidated for the T to have proper storage/office space along that corridor.

I'm hoping flush curbs are next for Washington Street.
 
The history of Downtown Crossing would make a great doctorate thesis. Does anyone know if anyone has?

One of the oldest areas of Boston, one of its greatest "failures"(?).
 
underground said:
Personally, I have a hard time thinking Millennium Tower is going to "save" DTX when it's been impossible to get a seat in a DTX restaurant for the past five years. Not to discount that the tower isn't going to be an improvement and change the situation down there even more.
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I wonder if this might be more of a function of too few sitdown restaurants in the area. I Think DTX could support at least probably another handful.
 
statler said:
I wonder if this might be more of a function of too few sitdown restaurants in the area. I Think DTX could support at least probably another handful.
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The problem with DTX being so commercial-based for so long is that while it has a decent number of places to eat food, many are corporate lunch spots. One advantage of Latin America is that lunch is the primary meal of the day, meaning all of the lunch options are varied in both food style/ethnicity and price. Since the average US corporate lunch often consists of inhaling food as quickly as possible or eating at your desk, a place like DTX will need to catch up when it comes to the amount of "normal" eateries it provides.
 
tmac9wr said:
The problem with DTX being so commercial-based for so long is that while it has a decent number of places to eat food, many are corporate lunch spots. One advantage of Latin America is that lunch is the primary meal of the day, meaning all of the lunch options are varied in both food style/ethnicity and price. Since the average US corporate lunch often consists of inhaling food as quickly as possible or eating at your desk, a place like DTX will need to catch up when it comes to the amount of "normal" eateries it provides.
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Let's get a Flash Mob or Kickstarter or some such thing to bring back Lock Ober -- that just seems so appropriate for the $9M to $37.5M Uber-Penthouse crowd -- even better than room service -- you have their kitchen and a private upstairs dining room :cool:
 
whighlander said:
Let's get a Flash Mob or Kickstarter or some such thing to bring back Lock Ober -- that just seems so appropriate for the $9M to $37.5M Uber-Penthouse crowd -- even better than room service -- you have their kitchen and a private upstairs dining room :cool:
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Um, you were aware, per this month's Boston Magazine, that Yvonne's is opening in the old Locke-Ober in a few weeks? But hey, if not, I'm sure you can convince those restaurateurs to destroy the new restaurant they've just developed there, tear up their lease, and convince the old Locke-Ober owners to rebuild and reopen, no problem!

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurants/article/2015/04/28/locke-ober-yvonnes/

Also, the point about DTX skewing to corporate lunchspots is well-taken. Yet the notion it suffers from a lack of high-end (or even middlebrow) sit-down restaurants is daft. I've worked down there for several years so I've been to almost all of these places, at least for drinks if not meals.

49 Social
Blu
GEM
Good Life
JM Curley
Kingston Station
Marliave
Mast'
Merchant
Oceanaire
Ruth Chris
Salvatore's
Scholars Bistro
Silvertone
Stoddards
Teatro
Townsman
Central Bistro (old Petit Robert)
Serafina (old Radius)

Plus Yvonnes opening, plus assume a new high-end restaurant at Godfrey Hotel when it opens, plus the high-end restaurants at:

Ames Hotel
Hyatt Regency
Parker House
Ritz-Carlton

I mean, really...
 
DBM said:
Um, you were aware, per this month's Boston Magazine, that Yvonne's is opening in the old Locke-Ober in a few weeks? But hey, if not, I'm sure you can convince those restaurateurs to destroy the new restaurant they've just developed there, tear up their lease, and convince the old Locke-Ober owners to rebuild and reopen, no problem!

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurants/article/2015/04/28/locke-ober-yvonnes/

Also, the point about DTX skewing to corporate lunchspots is well-taken. Yet the notion it suffers from a lack of high-end (or even middlebrow) sit-down restaurants is daft. I've worked down there for several years so I've been to almost all of these places, at least for drinks if not meals.

49 Social
Blu
GEM
Good Life
JM Curley
Kingston Station
Marliave
Mast'
Merchant
Oceanaire
Ruth Chris
Salvatore's
Scholars Bistro
Silvertone
Stoddards
Teatro
Townsman
Central Bistro (old Petit Robert)
Serafina (old Radius)

Plus Yvonnes opening, plus assume a new high-end restaurant at Godfrey Hotel when it opens, plus the high-end restaurants at:

Ames Hotel
Hyatt Regency
Parker House
Ritz-Carlton

I mean, really...
Click to expand...

PLUS

Carrie Nation
Back Deck
Legal Crossing
 
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