Liberty Mutual Tower | 157 Berkeley Street | Back Bay

Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Seems like any semblance of intelligence within Boston's preservation community has gone to sleep...
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How so? The Salvation Army building was neither old enough, distinctive enough, nor architecturally interesting enough to attract their attention.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Ron Newman said:
How so? The Salvation Army building was neither old enough, distinctive enough, nor architecturally interesting enough to attract their attention.
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If anything it looked like a bomb shelter
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Ron Newman said:
The Salvation Army building was neither old enough, distinctive enough, nor architecturally interesting enough to attract their attention.
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Ron, you just made my point for me.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I don't know. I tend to lean pro-preservation and I have no great love for the proposed project, but I'm just not feeling the loss on this one.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

There is no loss. The building was at best inoffensive. It did nothing for the neighborhood, looked run down, and was in no way architecturally interesting. Lots of buildings can and should be torn down if a new project comes along and the owner agrees to sell. The intersection of Columbus and Berkeley will be a better place with the new building. If any effort should be placed on affecting this project, it should go toward improving the proposal, not preventing it.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

i am just a little puzzled that they have begun taking down building,s but all that i have seen is about 3 sketchy renderings and that is it... where are the rest of the plans?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I'm with you.

I wish the plans for the new building were just a bit more solid. The last thing this city needs is another empty lot.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

HenryAlan said:
There is no loss. The building was at best inoffensive. It did nothing for the neighborhood, looked run down, and was in no way architecturally interesting.
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Similar sentiments were in evidence among members of the Landmarks Commission regarding the fate of this building.

I really don't have a skin in this game, although I do agree that the street presence of the Liberty Mutual proposal is piss-poor. I'm looking at this in a wider context, about worthy 20th Century buildings that the preservation community would consign to the dustbin of history.

Can we at least agree that this little building addressed the corner better than Liberty's proposal.

175_berkleley_pnf_5.jpg


You see any doors here? Why not take advantage of the corner? Fail.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Beton Brut said:
Similar sentiments were in evidence among members of the Landmarks Commission regarding the fate of this building.
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Ehhhhhh.... A classic, well dressed, pre-war building with a perfect street presence vs. and faux-deco 1950's concrete stump that is neither a good example of art deco, nor a good example of 1950's period architecture, nor does it have a particularly good street presence.

Are there any concrete buildings you don't like? ;)

That said, the new building isn't really an improvement, more a lateral move.

I just hope LM doesn't get cold feet at the last second and decide to 'land bank' the lot.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

My mistake, don't know why I thought it was concrete.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

No worries, statler.

I like the Deco-via-Gothic window details. Does anyone think Liberty's middling stump will feature stonework of comparable quality?

File under WTF:
Beton Brut said:
Makes me think of Radiohead's "Go to Sleep," subtitled "Little Man Being Erased."
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Apparently, Thom Yorke and the lads are into historic preservation. (I swear to you, I've never seen this clip before today -- I didn't even know they released a video for this track).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe6X9fLLp0Y
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I want a view easement to the old painted "Salada Tea" sign.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I can't see comparing the Salvation Army building to the Arlington Building. That one is considerably older, has historic significance as a long-time home of Shreve Crump & Low, and is just an all-around more architecturally interesting structure.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

The 100 year-old Benjamin Franklin Smith Printers building is a modest, but pretty handsome brick building that would be untouchable if it were located a few blocks in any direction, which would put it in the South End, Back Bay or Bay Village. It's also representative of Boston's historic scale, or increment of building. It's being demolished to make way for a loading dock entrance. Is this a good trade?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

^ "Death by a Thousand Cuts".

It's too bad "Boston" buildings will soon only be relegated to NIMBY ghettos overlooked by less protected blocks' soulless replacements. Incrementally, we've arrived right back at Ed Logue's superblock dream.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

What Briv said. It's stunning to me how little attention has been given to the Ben Franklin buildings in this thread. It's like the Salvation Army building is a red herring and everyone's biting.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

czsz said:
^ "Death by a Thousand Cuts".

It's too bad "Boston" buildings will soon only be relegated to NIMBY ghettos overlooked by less protected blocks' soulless replacements. Incrementally, we've arrived right back at Ed Logue's superblock dream.
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Exactly. American planners often seem to employ a dull gardener's approach toward preservation. "Yes, we'll have that one aromatic old fashioned rose as a specimen, but everything else must be everblooming!"
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Beton Brut said:
No worries, statler.

I like the Deco-via-Gothic window details. Does anyone think Liberty's middling stump will feature stonework of comparable quality?

File under WTF:


Apparently, Thom Yorke and the lads are into historic preservation. (I swear to you, I've never seen this clip before today -- I didn't even know they released a video for this track).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe6X9fLLp0Y
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Neoscape makes music videos now?

or

That is like the video equivalent of a Liebskind building-- way too young to look that dated.
 
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