Hall of Fame (CHOOSE 3)

[briv]

REMEMBER TO CHOOSE 3!

Polls close 11:59pm on Feb 28.

A list of all previous winners can be found here: http://www.archboston.org/awards/

In no particular order:


1. Winthrop Building

2. Wigglesworth Building

3. West End's Last Tenement

4. Blackstone Block

5. Trinity Church

6. Tremont Temple

7. South Station

8. Public Garden Lagoon Bridge

9. North Square

10. New England Aquarium

11. MIT Chapel

12. Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, Mission Church

13. MIT Kresge Auditorium

14. Harvard Square Station

15. Fenway Park

16. Federal Reserve

17. Harvard Medical School Quad

18. Copley BPL McKim Building

19. Five Cents Savings Bank

20. Blackstone Square, South End

21. Batterymarch Building

22. Ames Building

23. MIT Baker House

24. State Services Center

25. 360 Newbury Street

 

[BostonUrbEx]

#4/Blackstone Block is a no-brainer, IMO. #5, too. And I didn't find it easy to come up with a 3rd so I fell back on Fenway... meh.

 

[datadyne007]

Trinity, MIT Chapel, McKim

Gotta get the historical ones in.

 

[czsz]

Bleh. Boston's historic architecture gets enough praise. I went with Harvard Station and the State Services Center.

Couldn't resist voting for the West End Tenement as well, though.

 

[Ron Newman]

Trinity, South Station, Five Cents Savings Bank. Though if Borders closes and is replaced by something boring (like another bank), I may regret that choice.

 

[statler]

Bleh. Boston's historic architecture gets enough praise. I went with Harvard Station and the State Services Center.

Bah. Maybe I'm taking this too seriously but I don't think age should be considered at all when making the selection. The buildings should stand on their own merit. And as much as I like SSC & Harvard station and think they deserve to be chosen (elected?, enshrined?) someday, they are not 1st ballot choices in this class.

 

[found5dollar]

1, 8, 24, because while some of the greatest well known architecture is nominated this year, i think this award should include buildings and structures that are amazing, but are usually overlooked.

 

[datadyne007]

Bah. Maybe I'm taking this too seriously but I don't think age should be considered at all when making the selection. The buildings should stand on their own merit. And as much as I like SSC & Harvard station and think they deserve to be chosen (elected?, enshrined?) someday, they are not 1st ballot choices in this class.

That was my kind of thinking too. A lot the other buildings deserve it too (like the SSC, and the Boston Five [which I nominated, but didn't end up picking]), but there are Boston treasures that are on this list that have stood the test of time and are amazing pieces of architecture, like the BPL.

It's hard to even pit Trinity Church against the SSC...

 

[DZH22]

1, 5, and 16 for me.

 

[czsz]

For the record, I don't think Trinity or BPL are necessarily "amazing pieces of architecture". They're both extremely beautiful, but they're not very original or thought provoking. Standard 19th century historicism referencing previous styles.

 

[datadyne007]

For the record, I don't think Trinity or BPL are necessarily "amazing pieces of architecture". They're both extremely beautiful, but they're not very original or thought provoking. Standard 19th century historicism referencing previous styles.

This board confuses me. One thread, everyone is raving about the past and the next thread people are calling it overrated.

The BPL courtyard is one of my favorite outdoor spaces in Boston and for that reason among others, I had to give it my vote. I love taking a break there in the spring/summer and using my laptop at a table (never at night, especially now, so I don't get stabbed). The reading room is pretty spectacular too and the facade is like a palazzo... the list goes on. I think the McKim building has withstood the test of time and is a valuable asset to the City of Boston.

 

[czsz]

If you love it for the above reasons, that's great. My point was only that there are different ways of thinking about what sort of architecture is worthy of praise / enshrinement.

 

[statler]

This board confuses me. One thread, everyone is raving about the past and the next thread people are calling it overrated.

Well, "the board' is actually a collection of autonomous individuals, each with our own thoughts, feeling and opinions on matters.

There are only a few case where the majority of members agree with each other (Columbus Center, Filene's, etc). Most of the time we are bickering about something.

 

[Beton Brut]

Winthrop, Ames, and the MIT Chapel.

 

[Joe_Schmoe]

Could have added the State House.

 

[briv]

The Last Tenement almost made it.

Now that most of the obvious choices are out of the way I think the future inductees will become more interesting.

 

[statler]

No Winthrop Building, No Peace!

 

[found5dollar]

^ she was only one vote away this year!

 

[dbhstockton]

For the record, I don't think Trinity or BPL are necessarily "amazing pieces of architecture". They're both extremely beautiful, but they're not very original or thought provoking. Standard 19th century historicism referencing previous styles.

By your standards, what work of "19th century historicism" could possibly warrant your consideration? These are two of the most beautiful buildings of the 19th century anywhere in America.

Actually, when you look back at architectural history, both buildings were very innovative, but in a 19th century context. They were ahead of their time and they greatly influenced the following generations of American architects. At Copley Square, you have the origins of both the Richardsonian Romanesque and the City Beautiful.

 

[czsz]

Richardsonian Romanesque - can any style that apes even the title of a medieval one be that original? Sure, Richardson put his own spin on it, but it's essentially the 7th century, recycled for the technical needs of the 19th.

City Beautiful - same as Richardsonian Romanesque, only aping classical Greco-Roman architecture instead.

The 19th century was actually a pretty terrible time for truly original thought in architecture. By contrast, 18th century Georgian architecture was extremely bold in its rejection of the baroque and rococo flourishes of the 17th.

Again, I think Trinity Church and the BPL are gorgeous. But if originalism is the standard, maybe we should be taking a second look at the Georgian-Puritan hybrid mold birthed by the Old State House and Faneuil Hall.