Lyrik Back Bay | 1001 Boylston Street (Parcel 12) | Back Bay

Lyrik at 7:15 @ night (9/11/2024)
 

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09...-like-stay-new-citizenm-hotel-over-mass-pike/

To quote The Lizard King,

"The cars hiss by my window/Like the waves down on the beach..."

(Also, as sublime as that perspective of the Pike is, that shot also vividly captures just how cramped--if not downright claustrophobic--160 sq.-ft. feels. Realistically, that's slightly LESS than a cube farm of 4 cubes in a standard office configuration, based on measurements I just took... this coming from someone who otherwise cherishes the aesthetic of tiny apartments, when done thoughtfully...)
 
Give it a try, even for just 1 night. Citizen M does a great job on the guest experience. The room is for sleeping, changing, and bathing only, and the public spaces are excellent (at the ones I've been to). There are workspaces, bars, a cafe, and lots of access to the city. Solid prices at ~$200/night too.
 
I really like how this whole project is turning out, but I am completely baffled by people getting excited for the views of the highway. The Pike is.... ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, but....just baffled.

It reminds me of growing up in Illinois, stopping to get fast food in a rest stop built over the tollway. Maybe the Midwest was just ahead of the curve on this one.

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ritchiew said:
I really like how this whole project is turning out, but I am completely baffled by people getting excited for the views of the highway. The Pike is.... ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, but....just baffled.

It reminds me of growing up in Illinois, stopping to get fast food in a rest stop built over the tollway. Maybe the Midwest was just ahead of the curve on this one.

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I was actually a bit sad when I visited because I know my late son would have loved watching the cars and trucks go under the building. I'm also a racing fan who likes just watching cars go, so I found it kind of zen.
 
ritchiew said:
I really like how this whole project is turning out, but I am completely baffled by people getting excited for the views of the highway. The Pike is.... ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, but....just baffled.
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It is a very subjective and individual thing. I actually like highways, depending of course on the context.
 
Charlie_mta said:
It is a very subjective and individual thing. I actually like highways, depending of course on the context.
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Oh yeah, totally subjective, so I don't want to dwell on my negativity if other people are enjoying it. From some of the pictures and comments posted here, I was starting to guess I was the odd one out on my opinion about highway views. That's fine. Just surprising.
 
ritchiew said:
Oh yeah, totally subjective, so I don't want to dwell on my negativity if other people are enjoying it. From some of the pictures and comments posted here, I was starting to guess I was the odd one out on my opinion about highway views. That's fine. Just surprising.
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The Mass Pike through Boston isn't extremely impactive visually, in my opinion. Much of it is becoming increasingly decked over, and the highway generally was threaded fairly carefully through the urban fabric in the 1960s. helped by the pre-existence in the corridor of 4-track major railroad line which the city built itself around in the 1800s..

But I am biased, as I've always liked highways and highway construction, riding for miles on my bike when i was a kid to track the construction of I-93 through Medford and Stoneham, and my dad taking me to other highway construction projects around the Boston metro area at the time. I became a civil engineer largely because of those experiences. I feel the same way about, and had similar experiences with, transit construction projects. We all know there are horrendous expressways and freeways that separated and destroyed parts of cities, especially minority and low income neighborhoods which were purposely targeted, and I'm happy the Inner Belt, SW and NW Expressways were never built, but aside from that, there are some interesting highways out there.
 
Charlie_mta said:
The Mass Pike through Boston isn't extremely impactive visually, in my opinion. Much of it is becoming increasingly decked over, and the highway generally was threaded fairly carefully through the urban fabric in the 1960s. helped by the pre-existence in the corridor of 4-track major railroad line which the city built itself around in the 1800s..

But I am biased, as I've always liked highways and highway construction, riding for miles on my bike when i was a kid to track the construction of I-93 through Medford and Stoneham, and my dad taking me to other highway construction projects around the Boston metro area at the time. I became a civil engineer largely because of those experiences. I feel the same way about, and had similar experiences with, transit construction projects. We all know there are horrendous expressways and freeways that separated and destroyed parts of cities, especially minority and low income neighborhoods which were purposely targeted, and I'm happy the Inner Belt, SW and NW Expressways were never built, but aside from that, there are some interesting highways out there.
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The Pike is relatively benign until you get Chinatown. The wide canyon of the Pike plus the cut of I-93 did major damage to that part of the city (aided by BRA Urban Renewal on both sides of the Pike). And throughout the city the air quality near the Pike is horrible (deadly levels of PM 2.5).
www.cafehresearch.org

CAFEH

www.cafehresearch.org www.cafehresearch.org
 
JeffDowntown said:
The Pike is relatively benign until you get Chinatown. The wide canyon of the Pike plus the cut of I-93 did major damage to that part of the city (aided by BRA Urban Renewal on both sides of the Pike). And throughout the city the air quality near the Pike is horrible (deadly levels of PM 2.5).
www.cafehresearch.org

CAFEH

www.cafehresearch.org www.cafehresearch.org
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Totally agree. As much as I think some of them look kinda cool, I personally wish the expressways and turnpikes of the 1950s through the present had never been built at all, and instead we had kept intact and further developed the passenger and freight rail network we had in the 1930s. Our cities and nation would have been a lot better off in many ways.

(edited to fix a minor typo)
 
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Charlie_mta said:
Totally agree. As much as I think some of them look kinda cool, I personally wish the expressways and turnpikes of the 1950s through the present had never been built at all, and instead we had kept intact and further developed the passenger and freight rail network we had in the 1930s. Our cities and nation would have been a lot better off in many ways.

(edited to fix a minor typo)
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Unfortunately, I think the decline of US rail was mostly driven by the power of big business and the associated politics. In the 1950's, companies like Chevrolet, Ford, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Goodyear, Standard Oil, Amoco certainly had no interest in further development of the rail network.
 
cooper said:
Unfortunately, I think the decline of US rail was mostly driven by the power of big business and the associated politics. In the 1950's, companies like Chevrolet, Ford, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Goodyear, Standard Oil, Amoco certainly had no interest in further development of the rail network.
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Agree. Also, the dye was cast for urban expressways when Robert Moses in the 1930s and 40s planned out a network of limited-access multi-lane "parkways" for NYC as well as several all-purpose expressways, launched by the "Futurama" exhibit at the 1939 World's Fair in NYC, an exhibit sponsored by GM. Then Los Angeles followed suit in the early 1950s, building the first extensive network of urban freeways. Those developments set the urban expressway template for US cities.

Futurama from the 1939 World's Fair:

Futurama_diorama_detail.jpg
 
ritchiew said:
I really like how this whole project is turning out, but I am completely baffled by people getting excited for the views of the highway. The Pike is.... ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, but....just baffled.

It reminds me of growing up in Illinois, stopping to get fast food in a rest stop built over the tollway. Maybe the Midwest was just ahead of the curve on this one.

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Off-topic, but Illinois is one of the few places in the US where these exist. I believe they're very common in Europe. I'm not sure how the cost pencils out with duplicative rest stops on each side vs. one more expensive building, but they certainly look cooler both inside and out.
 
ritchiew said:
I really like how this whole project is turning out, but I am completely baffled by people getting excited for the views of the highway. The Pike is.... ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that, but....just baffled.

It reminds me of growing up in Illinois, stopping to get fast food in a rest stop built over the tollway. Maybe the Midwest was just ahead of the curve on this one.

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For me, it’s not so much the view of the Pike, but the idea of reclaiming the space. Before, it was just this vast void in an otherwise pretty hopping part of town. Now you can enjoy a semi-public space suspended above the Pike. The void is gone and the two sides of the Pike are stitched back together. That, for lack of a better term, is exciting.
 
Smuttynose said:
From this past weekend. Not a bad sunset from up here —

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You somehow caught not one, but two couples snuggling up to watch that sunset. That's about the best statement of success you could get for that public amenity.
 
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