Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

I notice in this rendering that Washington street is fully closed off with posts/barriers. I am cool with that but I imagine that some of the businesses on the street that rely on deliveries would not be so pleased.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Some posts are retractable to allow for vehicle passage during certain hours.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Fantastic. My brain is starting to hurt imagining this... what an upgrade to that lousy stretch of DTX (aside from Chacarero)! I like that set of steps to sit on, just like the TKTS booth in Times Square.


statler said:
XNC3Mau.jpg


I'm glad that head house is getting redone. I don't mind stealing good ideas from other cities but that may be a bit too 'on the nose'.

Also, it's not the best angle but I can already tell I'm really going to miss the 1905 facade.
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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

DominusNovus said:
I can't think of one thing that Roche does better than Wegman's.
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Does the Wegman's staff automatically (without asking) carry your groceries to your car for you? Roche Brothers does. I doubt they will do that downtown but that is a unique amenity.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Semass said:
I notice in this rendering that Washington street is fully closed off with posts/barriers. I am cool with that but I imagine that some of the businesses on the street that rely on deliveries would not be so pleased.
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It seems to be more than that - there doesn't appear to be any grade separation between street and sidewalk, turning the entire street into a pedestrian plaza. This set-up has the potential to be like Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, the best public open space I've ever experienced. Set up some sponsored, free-to-public live music during the lunch hour during the summer and watch the office folks come out and enjoy it!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Equilibria said:
It seems to be more than that - there doesn't appear to be any grade separation between street and sidewalk, turning the entire street into a pedestrian plaza. This set-up has the potential to be like Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, the best public open space I've ever experienced. Set up some sponsored, free-to-public live music during the lunch hour during the summer and watch the office folks come out and enjoy it!
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It's an Americanized Woonerf. I actually talked to the landscape architect at the approval meeting and she didn't know what a Woonerf was. I said well, ya created one!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

I hope they do get rid of the grade separation on Washington. It keeps it from feeling like a true pedestrian zone. I see a lot of people walking on the sidewalk like they don't know you're allowed to walk down the middle of the street. Another problem is the random cars I occasionally see driving down the street in the middle of the day. No stickers, no special plates, just random people driving down the street. What's up with that?

Also, I hope they are going to do something with that head house design so in bad weather, people aren't getting water or snow or ice dumped on them as they go it and out.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

^somebody is always driving down Washington when I'm walking in front of filene's.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

While I'm still in no way happy about the demo, this is at least a slight relief:
Developer Millennium Partners as part of the demolition will be salvaging many of these historically significant original elements —including the large granite blocks and exterior clock—for possible use in the future shopper’s park area.
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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

We have work going on throughout the site, esp. on the Burnham building. Sounds like a lot of demo going on inside- from yesterday:

Lots of people inside working away- I hope they saved those upper level windows.


A few guys were tossing down old bricks from the upper levels-
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

It will irk me to my dying day how much time and money was spent saving that 1905 façade at the demand of the city, only to have it demolished now. I hope people will remember that the city was as much at fault as anyone for the failure of the previous project. I sincerely hope the next administration will be more reasonable.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Arch101 said:
It will irk me to my dying day how much time and money was spent saving that 1905 façade at the demand of the city, only to have it demolished now. I hope people will remember that the city was as much at fault as anyone for the failure of the previous project. I sincerely hope the next administration will be more reasonable.
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The greatest global financial crisis in 80 years was the sole underlying cause of the failure of the previous project. Period. Everything else was just mindless media blather ("Menino Vs. Vornado") generated to attract attention and sell newspapers. If your source of money to finance a project dries up, and no one else is willing to step up to the plate, then you can't build a building. Why is this so hard to comprehend?!

It's sad that people forget this obvious reality--that forces way beyond Menino's, the BRA's, or Vornado's control led to the collapse of the first project. Sigh. I guess people will always require convenient scapegoats...

P.S. How is the next administration supposed to be "more reasonable"? By doing what, exactly? The fuzzy ambiguity of this demand is ridiculous...
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

I'm not going through some 174 pages of this thread to find it, but I swear that shortly after Vornado bought the property, the city granted them an expedited permit for demo.

It's easy to wonder what would have happened if that permit was granted on a standard time table and Vornado had to cancel the project prior to demo and evicting Filene's Basement.

That said, no one (well...) could have foreseen the meltdown or predicted it's impact at the time. Hindsight, 20/20 and all that.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

statler said:
I'm not going through some 174 pages of this thread to find it, but I swear that shortly after Vornado bought the property, the city granted them an expedited permit for demo.

It's easy to wonder what would have happened if that permit was granted on a standard time table and Vornado had to cancel the project prior to demo and evicting Filene's Basement.

That said, no one (well...) could have foreseen the meltdown or predicted it's impact at the time. Hindsight, 20/20 and all that.
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Good recall, Statler; I'm quite sure you're right. The thing is: Filene's was heading for a fall, regardless... remember that they filed for bankruptcy in early 2009. So the alternative to the pit was... any empty building for years and years and years. Which type of blight do you prefer? I suppose the empty building is more aesthetically pleasing, but...
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

DBM said:
Good recall, Statler; I'm quite sure you're right. The thing is: Filene's was heading for a fall, regardless... remember that they filed for bankruptcy in early 2009. So the alternative to the pit was... any empty building for years and years and years. Which type of blight do you prefer? I suppose the empty building is more aesthetically pleasing, but...
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True, but my point was that they were evicted from their flagship store (and major tourist spot at that) in 2007. It's anybody guess if they would have survived the Great Recession if they were allowed to stay in DTX, but getting prematurely kicked out I'm quite certain didn't help.
 
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