commuter guy
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TC,
I was mistaken and thought 88 Kingston was part of the One Lincoln redevelopment. A couple of floors were added to 88 Kingston in very recent years. See tobyjugs 2nd pic in his Dainty Dot post:
http://www.archboston.org/community/showpost.php?p=52953&postcount=275
88 Kingston is the building next to One Lincoln on the corner of Kingston and Essex. Tobyjug's photo shows the Essex street side.
Construction of One Lincoln resulted in the demolition of the Bedford Street Mechanical Garage and another building at 85 Kingston. The mid rise portion of One Lincoln that borders Kingston Street, where 85 Kingston once stood, was newly constructed as slightly updated take on a traditional "Boston-like" red brick commercial building. Although the old garage was an true eyesore, the demolished building at 85 Kingston was better aesthetically than what was constructed and the project would have been better if it could have remained. I think neighborhood streetscape is much better because the 88 Kingston building was not part of the redevelopment too.
I do agree that that narrow facade pasted on the side of 88 Kingston Street looks akward, but that is not the original location or scale of the facade. A sliver of the facade was pasted on the side of building as if it was a piece of decor. Overall, in most cases I think Boston fares better when most of its historic streetwall and scale remains. I think downtown Boston would be worse off today if all the aformentioned facadectomies did not occur and the buildings were built without saving the facades.
Yes, the final outcome of facadectomies is often less than perfect, as with Exchange Place, but it's almost always better than the proposed alternative.
I was mistaken and thought 88 Kingston was part of the One Lincoln redevelopment. A couple of floors were added to 88 Kingston in very recent years. See tobyjugs 2nd pic in his Dainty Dot post:
http://www.archboston.org/community/showpost.php?p=52953&postcount=275
88 Kingston is the building next to One Lincoln on the corner of Kingston and Essex. Tobyjug's photo shows the Essex street side.
Construction of One Lincoln resulted in the demolition of the Bedford Street Mechanical Garage and another building at 85 Kingston. The mid rise portion of One Lincoln that borders Kingston Street, where 85 Kingston once stood, was newly constructed as slightly updated take on a traditional "Boston-like" red brick commercial building. Although the old garage was an true eyesore, the demolished building at 85 Kingston was better aesthetically than what was constructed and the project would have been better if it could have remained. I think neighborhood streetscape is much better because the 88 Kingston building was not part of the redevelopment too.
I do agree that that narrow facade pasted on the side of 88 Kingston Street looks akward, but that is not the original location or scale of the facade. A sliver of the facade was pasted on the side of building as if it was a piece of decor. Overall, in most cases I think Boston fares better when most of its historic streetwall and scale remains. I think downtown Boston would be worse off today if all the aformentioned facadectomies did not occur and the buildings were built without saving the facades.
Yes, the final outcome of facadectomies is often less than perfect, as with Exchange Place, but it's almost always better than the proposed alternative.