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

You can say that again! When the original was done I rushed out to see it and nearly had a conniption. It was like a tacky plastic Barbie play castle blown up to human scale.
Is the Hotel Commonwealth the only time in history (at least that I know) where the BPDA (BRA) required the developer to reclad the building because they did such a horrible bait and switch?
 
From today:

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Yup. On such an iconic location, Boston gets a mild serving of boiled meat............

If it's going to have to lose it's character and quirkiness at least Kenmore Square should have been made to come ALIVE. Instead, it is destined to be a missed opportunity.
 
It's not even remotely attempting to look like brick.
 
Its a “sampler” because its a sample of the facade. The window width is 4x as wide on the actual structure. Looks to be about 2x as tall also. Should break it up much more.

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Not sayin its great, but the sampler is not an accurate representation of the scaling. A little window with 4 faux brick panels slapped on all 4 sides looks horrible, it will be better than that at least.
 
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I have mixed feelings about it. It's not like the facade was ever going to be real brick masonry.
I'm more disappointed (still) by the bland punched windows that make it look like an office park building. This "brick" is 100x better than the default metal panels we could have gotten.
 
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I hope this doesn't end up looking like the king of boring brick buildings: the transportation building in Park Sq. Too safe a facade for such a potentially important location.
 

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