Hall of Fame Nominees

[briv]

Members are encouraged to nominate an existing building, park or piece of infrastructure in the Boston area that they believe makes a positive, integral contribution to the built environment. These deserve special recognition and possess attributes worthy of emulation in future projects.

There will be three new inductees.

Previous inductees:

2009
Design Research Building
Custom House
Comm. Ave. Mall

2008
New John Hancock
Christian Science Center
Rowes Wharf

 

[Pierce]

I nominate Harvard Station. Though its wrinkles are deepening in its middle age and there is some very notable deferred maintenance, it is an incredible piece of work, and I can't fathom what sort of logistical acrobatics were involved in executing it.

I would also have nominated Back Bay Station if not for its worsening air quality issues. It isn't the subterranean spaghetti bowl that Harvard is, but it has an urban grandeur while deftly juggling many other scales of use.

 

[found5dollar]

I nominate the Winthrop building, the Lagoon Bridge in the Public Gardens, and the State Services Center.

 

[Beton Brut]

I nominate Harvard Station. Though its wrinkles are deepening in its middle age and there is some very notable deferred maintenance, it is an incredible piece of work, and I can't fathom what sort of logistical acrobatics were involved in executing it.

In the era when SOM was often bogged down in Modernist orthodoxy and reactionary Post-Modernism, Harvard Square Station is a brilliant response to an inscrutable challenge. The other stations on the Red Line extension are all worthy of accolades. I remember my first trips "out" to Harvard Square as a young teenager (when the extension was new); my punk rock friends wanted to hang in The Pit, but I was more interested in exploring the station. The swirl of ramps calls to mind Wright and Lautner; Zaha's new MAXXI in Rome has the same spacial vibe.

 

[statler]

I nominate the Winthrop building [...]

Second.

 

[kz1000ps]

Batterymarch Building: one of of the few Boston buildings to whole-heartedly embrace art deco.
360 Newbury: Gehry's first work in town.
South Station.
The Blackstone Block.

 

[Lrfox]

Top Three (for me):
Tremont Temple
North Square
Fenway Park

Others:
Mission Church (don't want to include another religious structure in my top 3)
Harvard Med Quad (Longwood Ave).
Blackstone Square
Acorn Street

 

[czsz]

Is Haymarket an appropriate nominee?

 

[Suffolk 83]

Zakim Bridge, Ames building, Boston Public Library

 

[statler]

The State House. That Bulfinch guy was pretty good.

 

[Ron Newman]

Trinity Church
Old City Hall
The brick plaza in the middle of Davis Square, for its success in drawing people to congregate there in warm weather months

 

[Shepard]

Despite its egregious neglect, and separating out the surrounding plaza, I'd like to nominate City Hall.

 

[kennedy]

Zakim Bridge, Ames building, Boston Public Library

Second.

 

[datadyne007]

BPL McKim Building, The Boston Five flagship, Zakim Bridge

 

[kz1000ps]

Second the Boston Five.

 

[datadyne007]

Second the Boston Five.

Probably one of the most brilliant reuses in history.

http://www.kmwarch.com/project.aspx?cat=7&id=4

 

[palindrome]

Second Ames.

 

[unterbau]

Federal Reserve Tower
Boston Aquarium (Interior)
Saarinen Chapel/Auditorium MIT
Baker Hall MIT

Second:
BPL
Boston Five Cent
Harvard Station (i wish other stations were even half this good)
Trinity Church
Fenway

 

[BostonUrbEx]

The streets in the Silver Line tunnel. They're smoother than black ice.

 

[CDubs]

The Wigglesworth Building (89-93 Franklin St.)