Kenmore Square North (WHOOP) | 533-541 Commonwealth Ave | Fenway

Trying to get my head around why this is so shit...

Preservation/Rehab/Facedectomy - Universally good ...to preserve pre-war urbanism.

Going tall and flashy to give Kenmore a better and bigger sense of space - Perhaps not everyone's agreed, but I would be on board with that.

Boring brick turd - Universally bad... Especially because they took their catalog of mediocre proposals and chose all the worst elements
 
Well, it is certainly a lost opportunity on many fronts... at this point it is a lost cause it seems.

I hope that Citgo goes belly up and the brand goes away and we get a defunct sign that eventually people come around to replacing.

And we lose a bit of interesting architecture on the corner to be replaced by something really lacking.

Hope that BU can come up with something good across the street to replace the surface parking and old HoJo that makes us not notice this anymore.
 
mssrro said:
Update: BCDC gave its approval on November 6, and the BDPA is set to vote tomorrow (15th).

Revised renderings: http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/b0011523-ff90-410f-a09b-8efb4b5d441c

SI6IQbYh.jpg
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Looks like an office park in Rt 128. This city is so disgustingly and disappointingly corrupt - it really is utterly demoralizing. The fact that there is such absurd lack of any standard and the approval processes are completely opaque - it's disgusting. This is exactly why Trump was elected - god knows how many public salaried hacks exist in these agencies like the BRA and BCDC, and yet they do absolutely nothing at all except rubber stamp whatever the political and monied forces behind various projects dictate. They have ZERO to do with actual design, urbanity, good policy... Repulsive. The heart of Kenmore Sq and they fucking approve this shit. These people should be thrown in prison.
 
Hey sorry, I didn't follow. What about this is exactly why Trump was elected? Spoiler alert: the swamp's not exactly getting drained.

--

Anyway, I doubt it's worth giving up. Write the Herald, write the Globe, write city Councillors, mayor's office... your voice matters.
 
This thread pisses me off enough already so let's not add politics on top, eh?
 
If there's scorn to be heaped upon this shit-pile, let it be in the name of John Silber and the BU leadership two decades ago. The University purchased 541 Commonwealth, subsequently allowed it to fall into uninhabitable ruin, all the while using their outsized political influence to make sure that the north side of Kenmore Square remained outside of the Historic District.

I attended three meetings to save 541 Commonwealth; every meeting featured a "local voice" parroting a University-sponsored "nothing to see here, nothing worth saving" message. If intellectual dishonesty were a crime, these asswipes would be breaking rocks at Leavenworth.
 
Beton Brut said:
If there's scorn to be heaped upon this shit-pile, let it be in the name of John Silber and the BU leadership two decades ago. The University purchased 541 Commonwealth, subsequently allowed it to fall into uninhabitable ruin, all the while using their outsized political influence to make sure that the north side of Kenmore Square remained outside of the Historic District.

I attended three meetings to save 541 Commonwealth; every meeting featured a "local voice" parroting a University-sponsored "nothing to see here, nothing worth saving" message. If intellectual dishonesty were a crime, these asswipes would be breaking rocks at Leavenworth.
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BB, I appreciate the perspective, but the bloated entities I’ve alrsady ranted about are a really serious problem. Boston could be so much more than it already is if only there were good institutions and leadership at the local level. As it is, we have a worthless mayor and bloated bureaucracies everywhere we turn. And now we’ve lost Ayanna... thankfully, we have Michelle Wu whom I hope to god will take down Marty next cycle.
 
Kenmore has already lost part of its soul when Hotel Commonwealth got built.
This just wraps it up into a 'keep walking, nothing to see here' package.
 
Mike said:
BPDA on twitter shows a different rendering, says it's moving forward but doesn't say it was approved


DsFJUo5XcAc809t.jpg:large



https://twitter.com/BostonPlans?lang=en
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Further back in the thread there is a graphic that labels that render as the Sept 25 version and the latest is the Oct 30 version... I think the sequence is partly intended to show the facades are changing, but really not making much difference overall... pretty much a choose your vanilla facade picture book. I think I like this Sept 25 version a bit better than the 1980s retro office park look of the latest version.

The thread to me is pretty pointless. Not going to get anything more than a mediocre new building here with a dumb old sign on top that has become a city landmark in embarrassingly ignorant bad taste.

My hopes for the architecture of the square rest on something very good going up across the street at the BU surface lot and old HoJo building and garage and I simply hope that this new building won't detract from the BU structure that goes there.
 
I'll join in by saying this Oct 30 version is pretty bland. And I absolutely wish the corner building could be saved. But aside from that one building, Kenmore has never really been a place of vibrant architecture. What has always made Kenmore interesting was the vibrancy of the surrounding neighborhood. Redsox games 81+ days a year, all the music venues (fewer now, but still an element of the whole), and the people attending or supporting such events were always the reality of the square. The buildings themselves never really did much other than define the edges of the space. In that respect, nothing much changes from these buildings except maybe more people will inhabit the area.
 
jass said:
DC hasnt built something this bland in decades
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Just got back last night from taking my wife to the Josh Groban/Idina Menzel concert at the Capital One Arena downtown and I must agree. That area is so built up over the past 20 years and the architecture is FAR better than this or most of what is going in the Seaport or Northpoint.

Whatever the hell the BRA is now (BCDC? BCA? ABCDEFG? Ellomenopee?) should be sued for malpractice. Kenmore Square has MEANING to Bostonians, dammit.
 
One positive is that at least it's not all glass. That felt worse to me.
 
I still don't get this. Why not a facadectomy on the bottom corner building, and make the podium double height floors. Then go 4-5 times as tall. Developer majorly profits, building is saved, Kendall gets a signature tower, and the whole thing just looks BETTER.
 
Ok, I actually liked the previous version, but this absolutely awful new version has made me realize the flaws of the old version and I now hate that too.

This is all just architecture at its worst.
 
DZH22 said:
I still don't get this. Why not a facadectomy on the bottom corner building.....
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Because you can't leave the wall up.

You have to cut it into squares and re-assemble it with additional bricks added to accomplish the new floor to floor height/s.

To do this will be INSANELY costly.

They need to do it anyway.
 
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