Lobby Renovation/Addition | 175 Federal Street | Financial District

All this talk of changing the podium is fine, but when I look at that render all I see is a tootsie roll in desperate need of a full-blown recladding.
 
Its an improvement overall I guess. Better streetscape, activity on the greenway. But, although I'm not one for "sculpture" buildings, I kind of liked this one.


meddlepal said:
The worst building in downtown Boston
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Its up there, but c'mon. Worse than the State Service Center? O'Neal building? TOTC?
 
looks like they’re adding a simple lit crown
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shmessy said:
“For sure”????

That’s a great deal of certitude for the only person in this thread (so far) who doesn’t like these changes. Just sayin’.

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I don't like the changes either. This lobby is incredibly bland. The pro is that it activates the street level plaza a bit, but at the cost of eliminating the one interesting feature of the building. The change is not going to make it a good building, just a less interesting shape.
 
HenryAlan said:
I don't like the changes either. This lobby is incredibly bland. The pro is that it activates the street level plaza a bit, but at the cost of eliminating the one interesting feature of the building. The change is not going to make it a good building, just a less interesting shape.
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It's going to make it a lot better to walk next to and into. In that sense it's a win. The interesting shape is only worthwhile from a distance, and only at ground level...
 
It's an improvement. This thing is offensive to pedestrians as-is. Re-cladding would be better, tearing it down and starting new better yet. An improvement to the podium is a win nevertheless.
 
aww. I'm usually always advocating for making things more pedestrian friendly but at the same time, not every corner needs 'coffee shop activation'. Having this unique architecture so accessible is important and acts as its own form of activation. I remember when my dad, a construction worker in the city, would take me into Boston as a little kid (..i'm still little tho) and this building always stuck out to me and gave me an early appreciation for architecture... it is jarring and cool.
 
Well it's no surprise Boston doesn't have much respect for it's modernist legacy. Something was bound to happen at some point and this is that point. The silly crown thingy should definitely go away, it's just salt in the wound.
 
Brad Plaid said:
Well it's no surprise Boston doesn't have much respect for it's modernist legacy. Something was bound to happen at some point and this is that point. The silly crown thingy should definitely go away, it's just salt in the wound.
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Honestly this one has always felt like a knock off of 100 Federal which is much better. I'm totally ok with this reno.
 
I think it's funny that the base of this building is so utilitarian and sealed off that they can't even do interior stairs for the new base. At least, that's how I interpret the inclusion of the exterior staircase.
 
Brad Plaid said:
Well it's no surprise Boston doesn't have much respect for it's modernist legacy. Something was bound to happen at some point and this is that point. The silly crown thingy should definitely go away, it's just salt in the wound.
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What legacy does this have exactly? It's a horribly human scaled building contributing nothing to the pedestrian experience, on one of the busiest corners in the city.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Honestly this one has always felt like a knock off of 100 Federal which is much better. I'm totally ok with this reno.
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Van -- not really -- Maybe from a visual-only perspective its derivative -- but from the structural -- its in an entirely different universe

The magnitude of the Truss holding up the upper tower for the Fiduciary Trust building is way beyond what needed to be done to bulge a few floors out on the Bank of Boston. In One Hundred Federal -- the majority of the floor area sits over the foundation -- in 175 Federal -- the reverse is the case

The Truss is the reason that if they are redoing the base -- they should expose the Truss -- its as vital to the building as the exterior diagonals on the JHT in Chicago or One Boston Place hereabouts

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They both have the smaller base and larger upper section that overhangs the sidewalk thing going on.
 
mdd said:
What legacy does this have exactly? It's a horribly human scaled building contributing nothing to the pedestrian experience, on one of the busiest corners in the city.
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I think the juxtaposition to its diagonal neighbor, 160 Federal, is quite compelling in this regard.

160 Fed. has nearly a dozen (when you count its High St. face) intimately-scaled storefronts. Everything about its architectural motifs invites, compels, beckons--you want to linger on every last detail, from base to crown. It is a glorious celebration of humanism and a love letter to rich, properly apportioned adornment.

175 Fed., meanwhile, is a dour stone-faced soul-crushing monolith. Everything about it repels, alienates. It rejects humanism thoroughly. I would argue that its monumentalism is, in fact, fascist.

Last but not least, it's notable for how 175 Fed. so miserably fails at being minimalist while nearby Brutalist gems such as 70 Fed. and 10-24 School do it so well. The descent from the zenith of Boston's Brutalist heyday to this--accomplished in a mere decade--is thoroughly depressing to behold, if you ask me.
 
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