Julie Hall | Brookline Ave | Emanuel College | Fenway

The no-cornice thing had to have looked better in the elevations than it does in real life; big misstep for me.
 
^^^
Never good. Try to be different in a different way please.

cca
 
Looks like an 80s Hilton. All thats missing is the lighted sign up top and the sea of asphalt.
 
Hey, Julie Hall, would you like me to take the Ab knife out of your back?

Aside from the cornice disappearing act, the consensus seemed to be that this was a good result overall and the brickwork was pretty nice, and that it meshed well at street level, etc.

This is a big win for this little school.

Granted it does sort of look like a 80's or 90's Hilton, Hilton Anatole in Dallas (minus cornice) for example:

Anatole-Daytime-w-Building.png
 
So this looks not only like one of Dallas' least-fortunate buildings, but also like one of Chicago's (Hyatt Regency)?

... Impressive!

124010-Large-lookingup-south-facade.jpg
 
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
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+1
This is undoubtedly an upgrade for the Emmanuel College community. The experience compared to the last Julie Hall will be night and day.

I'm hoping my alma mater eventually gives the same treatment to some of its freshmen residence halls... namely Speare Hall, Stetson West, and Stetson East.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
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The same could be said about almost any building in the world. Unless it's some architectural masterpiece or a soviet-era concrete bloc, people generally don't care what it looks like on the outside. That doesn't mean that they should be immune from criticism.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
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I agree.
____________________________________
I will note, however, that Harvard students, and other members of the Harvard community, vigorously objected to the original design for Berens Hall, a new addition to and part of Winthrop House. Too contemporary. Didn't fit. etc.

And it was changed.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/11/an-update-for-winthrop-house-renewal/

^^^^Images of the original and final design.

2-mill-plympton-proposed-small_605_1.jpg


^^^^^ As built, Berens is building at corner, and the building to its immediate right.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
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Pretty sure no one here cares about what some snotty pimple faced kid from Emmanuel thinks either. Works both ways :)
 
FenwayResident said:
The same could be said about almost any building in the world. Unless it's some architectural masterpiece or a soviet-era concrete bloc, people generally don't care what it looks like on the outside. That doesn't mean that they should be immune from criticism.
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This is a really important point. The vast majority of buildings have positive utility because they allow more people to live/work/play/take classes in Boston. With that in mind, why do we deny/cut down so many buildings?
 
^^ Because there is a large group of people who honestly believe that "allow[ing] more people to live/work/play/take classes in Boston" negatively impacts their quality of life.

I don't agree with them of course, (it's a clear case of 'I got mine, FU'), but they do exist and they can be loud/persuasive/influential.
 
FitchburgLine said:
This is a really important point. The vast majority of buildings have positive utility because they allow more people to live/work/play/take classes in Boston. With that in mind, why do we deny/cut down so many buildings?
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Because design is part of our collective self image, especial the design of our built environment. We want better design because it makes a better city which makes it a better place to live. There are so so so many pressures to just make "shelter" and paste on "image" in order to "sell" that there needs to be someone or some people who, even in their little corner of the internet shakes their collective fists at poor design choices. Why? Because we want to be proud of this place and we don't want it treated cheaply. Built a thoughtless profit grubbing shoebox made of ticky tack and you should deserve to hear a few know-it-alls having a fit.

Carry on AB ... Carry On.
 
we also have city Councillors that ramp up the extortion in exchange for each additional floor. That can have some positive benefit -- if the give/take is used in a rational process. Taken too far -- has a negative effect.

Columbus Ctr and Copley Tower are two fine examples where Councillors failed to be the grownups and tell the nutjobs, 'ok; time to top obstructing.'
 
cca said:
Because design is part of our collective self image, especial the design of our built environment. We want better design because it makes a better city which makes it a better place to live. There are so so so many pressures to just make "shelter" and paste on "image" in order to "sell" that there needs to be someone or some people who, even in their little corner of the internet shakes their collective fists at poor design choices. Why? Because we want to be proud of this place and we don't want it treated cheaply. Built a thoughtless profit grubbing shoebox made of ticky tack and you should deserve to hear a few know-it-alls having a fit.

Carry on AB ... Carry On.
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It strikes me as fantastically unlikely that setback requirements, FAR limits, parking minimums, use restrictions and a whole host of other regulations meaningfully contribute to the quality of design. In fact, they likely make it worse because if all a building has to do to appeal to buyers is get approved, design loses its value as a competitive advantage. Obviously people on AB can say whatever they want, my comment was more w.r.t mayors office, city council and BPDA.
(Also: profit grubbing? Nonprofit developers didn't build Beacon Hill, Back Bay, North End, all triple deckers, etc)
 
TomOfBoston said:
Pretty sure that Emmanuel College and the students who will live in Julie Hall give a rat's ass what AB denizens have to say about the building.
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People care about what their building looks like.

Take any 17 year old to BU. Point at Warren Towers, Myles Standish, and StuVi and ask them where theyd prefer to live. Just based on the outside, not knowing anything about the inside, the history of the buildings, etc.
 
jass said:
People care about what their building looks like.

Take any 17 year old to BU. Point at Warren Towers, Myles Standish, and StuVi and ask them where theyd prefer to live. Just based on the outside, not knowing anything about the inside, the history of the buildings, etc.
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Julie Hall is not Warren Towers. And Warren does have its fans.
 
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