MGH Ragon Building | 55 Fruit Street | West End

BeyondRevenue said:
That design style says "This bar code isn't reading right. Guess I have to key it in. <pause> Crap. <picks up intercom mic> CAN I GET A PRICE CHECK ON MARGINAL FACADES?"
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There’s no reason for it look stately and rational. It’s not like it’s a hospital or anything.
 
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These buildings have all the humanity of a electrical box. It's incredible how ugly most hospital architecture has become. It's as if these institutions have made it part of their corporate mission to deface the public realm. I can't decide whether it's incompetence or sabotage.
 
Beantropolis said:
These buildings have all the humanity of a electrical box. It's incredible how ugly most hospital architecture has become. It's as if these institutions have made it part of their corporate mission to deface the public realm. I can't decide whether it's incompetence or sabotage.
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It's a hospital. Much of the interior is geared towards the quickest and most efficient movement of human beings possible. I'm as critical as anyone regarding instances of inhumane and featureless architecture (hello, blue glass boxes), but for hospitals, I give a pass.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
Am I missing something? Looks like nothing has happened in 10 months. Also, is that Louis CK crossing Blossom Street?
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My (very amateur) guess is that the possible most cutting edge medical facility of the remainder of the 21st century has some very hefty foundational infrastructure (not to mention a possible Blue Line Station/entrance)?
 
When I was there in September for an appointment it was extremely busy with construction activity and it looked as though they had dug down at least a few levels and there’s also what looks like a large trench presumably for utilities dug under the street connecting to the building sort of across the driveway from Wang.
 
Little Easter Egg there with the T logo, but isn't that pretty far east for where the future Blue Line station will be? Not particularly inspiring, but hey it's another hospital building in the West End...better than the old gas station.
 
I don't begrudge them the prominent signage at what is basically their new front door, but is the subtitled signage really necessary for this? The renders show it reading:

Massachusetts General Hospital
Founding Member, Mass General Brigham

That seems... Pretty redundant at best, and is kinda self-evident? I know it's actually in their logo, but still, you can simplify for signage. Ford doesn't need to put Ford Motor Company everywhere, the blue oval conveys everything you need to know. It may be different if it was still Partners Healthcare, but the MGB rebrand was wholly to leverage their name recognition, so it's a lot of words that don't communicate anything. At least have the subtitle be something, anything else - the building name once it has one even.

also, while I'm on this topic, while I get why they're using the really anodyne MGB/Partners logo that really just looks like an icon representing "bank", they could still use the shield for at least some visual distinctiveness.
 
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It looks like half of the buildings height is mech floors. Theres a huge portion at the top and above the podium. Theres like 13 floors of usable space and like 10 mech floors.
 
Stlin said:
I don't begrudge them the prominent signage at what is basically their new front door, but is the subtitled signage really necessary for this? The renders show it reading:

Massachusetts General Hospital
Founding Member, Mass General Brigham

That seems... Pretty redundant at best, and is kinda self-evident? I know it's actually in their logo, but still, you can simplify for signage. Ford doesn't need to put Ford Motor Company everywhere, the blue oval conveys everything you need to know. It may be different if it was still Partners Healthcare, but the MGB rebrand was wholly to leverage their name recognition, so it's a lot of words that don't communicate anything. At least have the subtitle be something, anything else - the building name once it has one even.

also, while I'm on this topic, while I get why they're using the really anodyne MGB/Partners logo that really just looks like an icon representing "bank", they could still use the shield for at least some visual distinctiveness.
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💯 agreed. The systemwide MGB rebrand of Partners is terrible and was unnecessary. The teal shield motif already reinforced the institutional affiliations while maintaining individual identity. Combining the names of Mass General and Brigham to name a third entity that includes both of those (and other hospitals, healthcare plans, urgent cares, etc.) is extremely confusing even for people with full understanding of the entities. Having them all homogenize their logo is equally confusing, as now MGH, BWH, Faulkner, and so on all have the same "bank" logo on LinkedIn and their buildings. What a waste of money for a downgrade across the board.

It may not surprise you to learn that even today, 4 years after the rebrand was announced, MANY internal systems still use the name "Partners". I mean, what are you gonna do, change every computer asset tag sticker? Change every system-wide login URL from "partners dot whatever" to "massgeneralbrigham dot whatever"? Of course not. So people who work at these places constantly say "Partners" this and that, instruction PDFs that didn't need updating except for the new PHC name haven't been updated, but thousands are spent on new horrible signs like this.
 
Justbuildit said:
Little Easter Egg there with the T logo, but isn't that pretty far east for where the future Blue Line station will be? Not particularly inspiring, but hey it's another hospital building in the West End...better than the old gas station.
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Nope, that's the spot. This is the far end of the platform from the Red Line headhouse.
 
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