Liberty Mutual Tower | 157 Berkeley Street | Back Bay

Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Is anyone else reallyyyy excited to see what the final product will look like? I'm really hoping this comes out beautiful, I have high hopes. I don't expect it to engage the street much at all, but I think it will be a timeless addition.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

BostonUrbEx said:
Is anyone else reallyyyy excited to see what the final product will look like? I'm really hoping this comes out beautiful, I have high hopes. I don't expect it to engage the street much at all, but I think it will be a timeless addition.
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The design is quintessential Boston. I think it will represent the historical Liberty Mutual company perfectly.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

briv said:
Yep. Wide and stumpy.
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I'll admit, there was a double meaning to that comment. Yes, it's wide and stumpy. The facade does look like a beautiful 1930s insurance company tower though.

(and yes, the building is a corporate building and will not engage the street at all... cater to the 1% blah blah blah boo hoo)
 
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Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Office buildings don't cater to the 1% in the same way that luxury condos do. They are warehouses for 99 percenter jobs. And I agree, this will look like a classic insurance building in a neighborhood filled with such buildings. It will fit/fill in nicely. It would be nice if it engaged the street a bit more, but nod doing so is hardly unusual for an office building, and it's not as though anything preceding it engaged the street either.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

I don't remember if this one was ever posted. Here's the campus:

lm-2.jpg

From cbt's website

As you can see, it will connect to the existing Stuart St building.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Very nice pictures Boston02124. The colors are great, nice camera angles as well. Thanks for posting.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

notice how that rendering makes it look like the buildings that contain flash's and viga will dissappear? I'm guessing that was LibMutuals original aspiration.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

HenryAlan said:
Office buildings don't cater to the 1% in the same way that luxury condos do. They are warehouses for 99 percenter jobs. And I agree, this will look like a classic insurance building in a neighborhood filled with such buildings. It will fit/fill in nicely. It would be nice if it engaged the street a bit more, but nod doing so is hardly unusual for an office building, and it's not as though anything preceding it engaged the street either.
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Henry -- actually this kind of Office campus has a wide range of employees with a wide range of incomes and net worths

I'll bet that as it is the Global HQ for a major financial corporation that there are plenty of 15%, 10%, 5% and even some 2% by income classification working in that complex -- from the wikipedia and based on somewhat old data -- 2005 US Census:

$ range number in (1,000s) percentile -- i.e. % with less or equal income
$250,000 and above 1,699 98.50% were below -- essentially the 1% cut
$200,000 to $249,999 1,325 97.13%
$150,000 to $199,999 3,595 93.96% -- the 6%ers
$100,000 to $149,999 11,940 84.07% -- the 15%ers
$87,500 to $89,999 984 79.63% -- the 20%ers
$45,000 to $47,499 2,700 50.40%

National Median $44,389 50.00% -- by definition the 50%ers


From the wikipedia: " Liberty Mutual Group... is a diversified global insurer and the third largest property and casualty insurer in the United States... It is the 82nd company on the Fortune 500 list for 2011..... Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it employs over 45,000 people in more than 900 locations throughout the world. As of December 31, 2010 Liberty Mutual Group had $112.35 billion in consolidated assets, $95.4 billion in consolidated liabilities, $17.0 billion in policyholders' equity,and $33.2 billion in annual consolidated revenue. The company, founded in 1912....LMG owns, wholly or in part, local insurance companies in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, India, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, and Vietnam. "
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

^^ Oh,, for the freaking love of Jesus... ^^

Anywho...
In regard to height, I dont have much of a problem with it. It's of comparable rise to the local area and is as tall as Liberty Mutual needs it to be. They are the only tenant, so why build higher?
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

whighlander said:
Henry -- actually this kind of Office campus has a wide range of employees with a wide range of incomes and net worths
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I've had a lot of bankers as clients and they say the same thing, even sympathizing with the OWS people since it's only very few of the top people who make that kinda scratch.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

whighlander said:
Henry -- actually this kind of Office campus has a wide range of employees with a wide range of incomes and net worths

I'll bet that as it is the Global HQ for a major financial corporation that there are plenty of 15%, 10%, 5% and even some 2% by income classification.
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That was essentially my point -- these buildings service a wide range of people, they create jobs across the income spectrum. Whereas a luxury condo creates a few low level jobs, and nothing more. So, trying keep on topic, this kind of building is really good for the city.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Except that as an insurance company, the street level is dead.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

^^^
That would make it better, definitely, but it's still better than, say, the Clarendon.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

HenryAlan said:
So, trying keep on topic, this kind of building is really good for the city.
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So can a luxury condo be -- why shouldn't MA have high-quality, comfortable residences for people who can afford them (i.e., not me)? Quality of the housing stock in a given city is a large point of consideration for an internationally mobile person considering where in the world he can move to; cities building modern apartments for the internationally mobile will attract more business, engineering and entrepreneurial talent than those that think "luxury housing" is somehow bad. No sought-after engineer or programmer wants to live in Novosibirsk or Lagos.

And if you really do have a pathology or neurosis that tells you that anyone who has been successful in a lucrative profession deserves to wear a scarlet "A" on his chest, then you can find consolation in the fact that luxury apartments bring in large amounts of tax revenues (you know, the thing Boston is low on...), that they increase the overall supply of housing stock and thereby help relieve upward pricing pressure for all buyers/tenants, and that they don't require the city's taxpayers to hand their money over to them.
 
Re: Liberty Mutual plans major Boston expansion

Hey guyz we've entered a time machine and landed all the way back in the year circa 2012!!! January 13 by my best guestimate!
 
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