General Electric HQ (Necco Buildings Reno) | 5 Necco Street | Fort Point

Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I like it. I don't love it. It's "innovative," but doesn't quite go overboard. Given the contrast that the brick provides and the visibility of the channel-front location, I would have love to see some titanium cladding a-la Gehry, but this is nice and the glass works.

Lrfox -- Titanium is so yesterday -- we've got Zinc and Silicon Carbide :cool:
 
Re: General Electric HQ | Necco St.| Fort Point

Please note: The official address for the project is 244-284 A Street, not Necco St. as I and others had guessed. Can the thread title reflect this?

EDIT: Thanks!

Equilibria -- that address is strange -- heading down A from Summer its past the Parking Garage other side of Necco St. from the original Brick Necco buildings -- so is there going to be a GE guard shack on A just past where Necco joins A?
https://goo.gl/maps/K1VusUrYvDB2
 
Re: General Electric HQ | Necco St.| Fort Point

Equilibria -- that address is strange -- heading down A from Summer its past the Parking Garage other side of Necco St. from the original Brick Necco buildings -- so is there going to be a GE guard shack on A just past where Necco joins A?
https://goo.gl/maps/K1VusUrYvDB2

I doubt it's a guard shack, probably just a more easy-to-find address on a bigger road. Also, I wonder if GE has had thoughts about acquiring adjacent sites to build a bigger campus over time. If so, those buildings would actually front A, allowing the whole thing to share a single conceptual location.

It's also conceivably possible that GE has designs on renaming Necco St... that would be another reason to keep the address on A.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

+1

I agree. This works for me even if there is a lot going on. I also really like materials they are planning on using for the cladding.

Before it's over, maybe a couple of minor changes, otherwise it's wicked cool.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

Before it's over, maybe a couple of minor changes, otherwise it's wicked cool.

I'm not so sure about even minor changes. They want to start construction within six months.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

This

VfpM8NW.jpg


looks like it was inspired by the BU Life Sciences building

0UNEut0.jpg


combined with the crown of 888 Boylston.

qGd23dW.jpg


A combination of two very pedestrian buldings. I expected more from GE's headquarters.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

You're missing the best angels

rendering3_1024.jpg


rendering__2__1024-6193.jpg
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

That isn't even close to Mars!

From 3.5.4 Signage
The New Building is envisioned to have a large GE Monogram on its roof which will be approximately 30 feet by 30 feet in size and will sit on top of the mechanical penthouse of the New Building. GE’s Monogram, the company logo enduring over a century, is intended to show the company’s presence in Boston. It will be visible to Downtown Boston and the Financial District


There were earlier renders that has the solar veil all the way to almost the ground on the south elevation
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I'm not so sure about even minor changes. They want to start construction within six months.

Equilibria -- They want to start work on the brick buildings in the next 2 to 3 months meanwhile the full MEPA process will go forward on the New Building
[my formatting]
Anticipated Project Schedule
The Project is intended to be completed in two phases.

The first phase of construction includes preservation and rehabilitation of the existing Brick Buildings to commence in the 4th Quarter of 2016.
The anticipated occupancy of the Brick Buildings is the 1st Quarter of 2018.

The second phase of construction will begin in 1st Quarter of 2017 with occupancy anticipated in the 3rd Quarter of 2018.

By the way other than on the front cover
244-284 A STREET
BOSTON, MA 02210
in all 860+ pages [which I briefly scanned -- some parts very briefly] I could find no mention of an A street address
everything was Necco Court or Street

It looks that the Primary entrance is from the Harbor Walk or GE Plaza -- neither has much to do with A Street
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I expected larger.

I like the natural vegetation at the water.

Looks like rowboat service to airport will be available
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I hope I don't induce a whighlander rant here, but I was curious about what sort of solar photovoltaic capacity would be built into the solar veil and checked the BRA filing:
The on-site Solar Photovoltaic (“PV”) System for the New Building will generate clean energy for building consumption/supply back to the grid. The PV system is forecast to reduce overall utility loads by an estimated 157 kwH and associated GHG emissions.
"[R]educe overall utility loads by an estimated 157 kwH" doesn't make any sense. People ALWAYS get the terminology / units mixed up on this sort of thing, but I'm surprised to see such a mistake in a filing such as this. A 157 kW (not "kwH") solar array would be roughly 10 - 11k sf, so that sounds about right. This could be expected to produce about 173 mWh of energy annually at that location - a far from trivial amount.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

You're missing the best angels

rendering3_1024.jpg

I'll grant you that this side is a vast improvement over the one I posted, but to my eyes the proportions seem awkward. It just looks top-heavy and unbalanced.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

This building is spectacular. They've done an outstanding job here. I love the setup and I love how big the logo is, honestly.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I'll grant you that this side is a vast improvement over the one I posted, but to my eyes the proportions seem awkward. It just looks top-heavy and unbalanced.

It's the fact that it's cantilevered that keeps this from being just another PWC glass box. Well, that and the wooden fins.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

holy shit, they totally nailed it...it's both perfectly contextual and daring

My thought exactly. This is unbelievably good!
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

I'll grant you that this side is a vast improvement over the one I posted, but to my eyes the proportions seem awkward. It just looks top-heavy and unbalanced.

This will be filled in around in the coming years so it will blend in more eventually while still being visually interesting.


On another note are there plans to connect this new harborwalk to the existing piece in front of the childrens museum by going under summer st and congress? This along with a ped bridge over the channel to south station will be huge for the area.

In my head I see this becoming a great destination especially once the post office is gone. This looks great, the South Station expansion along with opening of dot ave will add more retail across the channel. I see some liberty wharf types being built here and this becoming a great inlet to visit on a boat and park and hit a restaurant/bar in the future. Since it it directly connected to the harbor you could take a boat from the south shore head into the channel stop and grab some food maybe take in a public concert/show, and then take off and head back home or even to a different part of the city like the casino. The harbor walk will most definitely extend down both sides of fort point in the future and this will be an amazing area.
 
Re: General Electric HQ | 244-284 A Street | Fort Point

Bravo, GE, it's a spectacular building and bravo Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston for the tax incentives (investment) that brought GE here (and more importantly the brain power of Boston/Cambridge and the metro area), an investment which the city and state will recoop in many ways, not just monetary. Looking forward to seeing the completed complex and visiting the GE museum, an attraction all it's own.
 

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