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

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: Penn Station Demo

^ You've been gone a while yourself, glad you're back.
 
Re: Filene's

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/02/fire_in_old_fil.html :

Fire in old Filene's building forces Downtown Crossing station closure
February 13, 2008 09:14 PM
By Daniel Peleschuk and Sarah Gantz, Globe Correspondents

Smoke from a fire in the old Filene's Basement building forced authorities to evacuate about 50 people from the Downtown Crossing MBTA station and close the station for nearly two hours, Boston fire officials said tonight.

One person was taken to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, said Deputy Chief Steve Dunbar.

Part of the station is underneath the Filene's building, a fixture for decades in the Downtown Crossing area that is currently being redeveloped.

Police and firefighters responded at about 7 p.m. to the fire in the eight-story building at the intersection of Summer and Washington streets, Dunbar said.

Pipe insulation and other materials caught fire in one of the buildings's sub-basments, said Steven MacDonald, a fire department spokesman.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The building is known to contain asbestos. Authorities are investigating the possibility that asbestos was released into the air during the fire, Dunbar said.

As a precautionary measure, 18 firefighters and five civilians went through asbestos decontamination, MacDonald said.

"The biggest problem wasn't so much the fire. The problem was the smoke that it generated," he said.

The Red and Orange lines went through the MBTA station without stopping until the fire was knocked down, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. The station reopened at about 8:50 p.m.
 
Re: Filene's

wow so that's where the Boston Fire Trucks and T police Cars were going.

I work 11A - 7P and I am sort of near South Station. Just about 10 past 7 a few fire trucks and T police cars raced past going in that direction.

Thanks for the Article ! ! !
 
Re: Filene's

According to a notice given to 101 Arch St tenants by our landlord:
"additional demolition work (at Filene's) will begin next week, starting Tuesday February 19... This demolition work will include the section of Hawley Street which is now covered in a black netting material. They will be pulling that part of the building down from the interior. They expect this phase of demolition work to take approximately 8 weeks..."
 
Deconstructivism

Here's some photos of the deconstruction progress. I took these last Sunday. Sorry for the low quality, but it was starting to snow, so i had to snap these quickly.



 
Re: Filene's

quality looks ok to me... are all the downtown crossing exits going to stay open during the entire construction process?
 
Re: Filene's

I hope there wasnt another fire. North Station was very smoky tonight at 10pm.
 
Re: Filene's

Hey, I remembered my camera today!

Looks like this demo has finally turned the corner!
2276963213_0a4e757592_o.jpg


"Ok, Jimmy! Back it up, back it up! Little more, little more...oh shi..."
2277775184_85935529d9_o.jpg


2277761116_44001e61f4_o.jpg


2276971111_b41fab8b48_o.jpg


2276965255_68d6cf92d8_o.jpg


"...and she's building a stairway to....."
2276978717_d6d426f448_o.jpg
 
Re: Filene's

Forgot one:

Out with the old, in with the new:
2277336101_504ed67d6e_o.jpg
 
Re: Filene's

Has there been any announcement of who the hotel tenant might be? The last I heard the likely tenant was a JW Marriott, which isn't terrible but there's no shortage in that lower high end bracket with Intercontinental, Ritz, Fairmont, etc. It seems to me that a true high end property such as St. Regis, Jumeirah or Peninsula could work quite well as the closest premium hotel to the financial district currently is the Four Seasons which is nice, but a little bit last decade by today's standards.
 
Re: Filene's

How is valet parking for the hotel and things of that sort going to work at this location with such limited space?
 
Re: Filene's

I thought Ritz was the highest of high-end hotels. No longer?
 
Re: Filene's

Oh god no, not even close. They're nice hotels, don't get me wrong, we're not talking about Ramada here but it just isn't an exclusive brand anymore, not with destinations like Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Denver. I don't know if you've stayed in either a Four Seasons or a Ritz, but the service you see at the Four Seasons Boston is the same as the Four Seasons Canary wharf as it is in Doha and on and on around the world. For me if there is a Four Seasons in the city I'm in I will not stay anywhere else. I stayed at the old Boston Ritz for ten days when I first moved here and frankly I was blown away, it was among the best lodging experiences I have ever had. That was the last time I had a good stay in a Ritz after having stayed in ten or eleven properties in the last three years. In terms of the chains, I would say the best is Peninsula(which there is talk of in Boston around 2012) followed by Raffles, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La and St. Regis.
 
Re: Filene's

Statler, in your last pic I thought to myself for a split second "What's the redering in the background?" :)

Here are some stellar shots from Tobyjub:

L1050498.JPG


L1050508.JPG
 
Re: Filene's

Downtown Crossing seems a little low end for the likes of the Peninsula. Maybe Loews will be back since they sold their original development to W. I think Boston still has to prove itself with the ultra high end luxury hotels. With the opening and hopefully success of both the Mandarin Oriental and the Regent this year, maybe other Asian hotel operators will take notice.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Filene's

Photographic tour of demolition activities on top of Filene's building if anyone wants to post jpegs for me. Send e-mail.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top