GrandMarc Residence Hall (YMCA) @ Northeastern U | 291 St. Botolph Street | Fenway

Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Thanks Van. And just in case it isn't perfectly clear, the rain was heavy and horizontal, and I was soaked by the time I walked from the Pru to Mass Ave (kz no happy)

Here's a few more from yesterday

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Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

I wish they would somehow reconfigure Huntington Ave in front of Symphony Hall so that attendees could enter through the front of it instead of the side (or does its interior configuration preclude that from happening?).

I don't know why the Mass Ave overpass is "cut" the way it is - Huntington on either side (in the tunnel) seems excessively open to above.

Cover it over on both sides as much as possible - this improves the streetscape in front of Symphony Hall and also on the other side - good for when they build on the Christian Science Plaza.



 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Might be the GL tunnel below. Admittedly, I have always wondered how they squeezed all that stuff in that one spot.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Huntington side of Symphony Hall opens into their bar, so I don't think it'll be reopened as an entrance anytime soon. You can walk out that way though. I did on Tuesday.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

There is a small entrance as well. I used it number of times...
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Speaking of this intersection, I was around the area most of this evening and I noticed the lights were on flashers the whole time, even through rush hour.

I've never seen it so uncongested at that time.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

It was on flashers last week too (when I took my above pics) though it was pretty congested at 4 pm that day, granted it was the day before Thanksgiving.
 
Backing for the silver portion of the curtain wall is going up. This is the portion of the exterior which features offset windows.



 
And my final batch for the year. Home for the holidays. I look forward to seeing how this will progress the next few weeks.





 
It's a bit of an ugly duckling now and has some of the unfortunate precast panel splotchiness of NU's International Village, but I'm thinking it'll come together and be presentable enough. Dimella Shaffer usually does a good job.
 
It seems like after NU completed West Village, they decided to make everything hideous, just to balance things out.
 
Oy is this one a dog: pre-fab "brick-looking" panels, exposed floor plates, stripped-down lowest-common-denominator modernism, and offering little if anything to non-students.

I can't wait to see Boylston Place lost to another low-budget dorm like this.

Talk about lose-lose propositions...
 
sheesh the cladding is so ugly. why couldn't they use that nice aluminum cladding that they used on West Village H? Or actually spring for something inspiring like the MassART dorm?
 
Apparently, sticking aluminum cladding on 1/3 of the building is satisfactory enough for Northeastern.

The overall appearance IMO is improved by the windows and the fact that the non-metallic facade is complete, but the color really is atrocious.
 
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