Hall of Shame Nominations

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statler

statler

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Nominate any building, development or infrastructure project currently standing in Boston. Make a case for why you think this is one of the all time worst in Boston.

You may put in as many nominees as you wish, but the more information you provide (photos, news stories, critiques, etc.), the better the chances of it making the ballot.

Nominees so far:

1 Beacon
Congress Street Garage
O'Neill Building
Tremont on the Common
Midtown Hotel
Hotel Commonwealth
One Post Office Square
Methunion Manor
The Edward J. Sullivan Middlesex Superior Court building
Park Lane apartments
1-3 Center Plaza
Four Seasons
 
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A rogue's gallery of candidates for this dubious distinction. The two South End examples are the very worst because they defile a distinguished neighborhood.
 
Really random, but ablarc, may I ask where you've attained your wealth of urban knowledge? You seem to have a bounty of information, applicable to almost everything we talk about here! Are you a distinguished professor at one of our universities, or simply a very observant and contemplative person amongst the masses?
 
I think this needs to expand to all years, not just 2008 because otherwise it is the same exact thing as the worse development nomination.
 
It is all years, everything that was in place UP TO Jan. 1, 2008.
 
That's correct but now that I re-read it, I can't think of why I even put the Jan 1 date in there at all.
I'll edit it out. Hopefully that will clarify the criteria. Thanks for the tip.
 
Before I start my nomination, I would just like to make it known that I think that overall Boston is one of the greatest cities with some of the greatest architecture new and old. But obviously, they're not all going to be winners.

With that, I nominate 1 Beacon for the Hall of Shame. My reasons:
- a boring squat box (given)
- stands relatively alone
- bares what is arguably 1 of the most prestigious addresses (and which the building is known by).

However, there is hope for this building.
- Future developments such as the GC garage development could help build the canyon around 1 Beacon.
- A rare desicion, but a hat, spire, or coll antennae like 4 Times Sq could be added if the right owner got their hands on this building.
 
Beton Brut said:
I love that my office is in one of your examples.
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I think you mentioned you work at One Brookline Place right? When I interned at the Brookline Town Hall in the early 1990's there was a proposal to expand that complex over the MBTA right of way and build a street wall on station street. Recently, I think I read there were revised proposals. Any status on these proposals that you know of Beton Brut?
 
I work at Ten Brookline Place, the grim concrete office building that looks like a set-piece from dystopian cinema.

There was a plan (possibly discussed here at one point) to develop the parcel between One and Ten Brookline Place as a 9-story office building for Children's Hospital. A couple of single story buildings would be torn down and replaced as part of this project. My connections at CHB are pretty thin, and I do not know the status of the project at this time. I'll beat some bushes and see what I can find out.
 
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I'd like to nominate Ned Flaherty. Man that guy really pisses me off!!! Hats off to you, d*****bag!
 
Does it have to be a completed project?

Before I read the spew immediately above, I was considering whether I should suggest the debacle that is Columbus Center, or Filene's, to a lesser extent. Anything that remains an excavated, stalled hole in the ground, or a parking lot. (The Gaiety Theater is too old of a project to be nominated, right?)

Maybe a separate category that would cover anything any individual person or group has done to undermine or unfavorably influence Boston's planning process.

Oooo! Call it "The BRA's Poor Judgment Shame Award! *snickering*

Beton Brut said:
I work at Ten Brookline Place, the grim concrete office building that looks like a set-piece from dystopian cinema.

There was a plan (possibly discussed here at one point) to develop the parcel between One and Ten Brookline Place as a 9-story office building for Children's Hospital. A couple of single story buildings would be torn down and replaced as part of this project. My connections at CHB are pretty thin, and I do not know the status of the project at this time. I'll beat some bushes and see what I can find out.
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The best feature of this view should be the rail line with a station and associated uses that could define this end of neighborhood. Where is the station anyway?

If any building would require a New England Brickmaster makeover, facing the Village moreso that Route 9, this is my candidate. How did this design ever get by in Brookline?
 
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garbribre said:
The best feature of this view should be the rail line with a station and associated uses that could define this end of neighborhood. Where is the station anyway?
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The Green Line ROW is behind the long leg of the "L" (note the catenary lines). The "station" is a simple concrete platform (redone at great expense and greater delay) in the past year. The shelters are a pair of handsome wood-framed Craftsman-style sheds. The building's loading dock faces the station, separated by a chain-link fence.

garbribre said:
If any building would require a New England Brickmaster makeover, facing the Village moreso that Route 9, this is my candidate. How did this design ever get by in Brookline?
Click to expand...

In short, I don't know. It was built when I was building little Usonian homes with my Legos. I'll ask the building manager if I see him this week. My cynical guess: someone got paid off. Educated guess: this sort of building was a symbol of progress in the early 70s.
 
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Congress Street Garage (thankfully its going soon).

Why?

1.) Ugliest building in the city (imo)

2.) Barrier that cuts off the financial district from the Bulfinch triangle/North Station area

3.) Represents 60's brutalism at its absolute worst and most ostentatious

4.) Severs the "point" of the Bulfinch triangle

5.) Innefficient use (parking) of a huge downtown footprint

6.) Did I mention how ugly it is?
 
We have a winner!

Although it'd be cool to use the award as encouragement to tear down something not already slated to go. Like the hideous parking garage across from the Chinatown gate, for example.
 
I'd say that 90% of the buildings in that picture could be in the Hall of Shame. Start with Hurley (that's Hurley, right?) and Mass Medical.
 
Yup! The Hurley building, the O'Neill building, the low-rise portion of the JFK (heck, the whole structure!) - all buildings that we could gladly lose. But nothing tops the Congress Street Garage.
 
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