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

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Re: Filene's

I'm guessing it was probably part of a children's department at one point. Does anyone remember seeing this when they were younger?
 
Re: Filene's

Let's see: a big house fly with two Napoleonic era artillery pieces aimed at it; one or two naval mortars; a steam launch; a bunch of fish. Boston designed for babies? A 1960's testing area for new pharmaceuticals? The display area for the Baron Munchausen line of fancy hats? If it isn't pouring tomorrow, I'll try a 1000 mm on it.
 
Re: Filene's

I took some detail shots of the mural, but Statler's photos give a more coherent view of the whole. Also, they've taken off a good part of the roof of the 50's(?) Hawley St building, which is where debris is being dumped (not into 1905). Alot of steel is being cut up.
Finally, the work reveals a clerestory type structure on the roof of the 1912 building. My uneducated guess is that the clerestory might have illuminated a decorative central (grand?) staircase in the manner of some of the nice U.K. department stores like Fraser's in Glasgow. Perhaps that got blasted out and replaced with top to bottom escalators in the same space, and the clerestory was covered over. Just a guess, though.
 
Re: Filene's

When you walk around the edge of the site, it's pretty obvious why Filene's Basement had to be closed during the demolition.
 
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ok I walked arond the whole building and looked in and could not find the mural.

can someone give me exact detail of where to stand to photograph the mural ?
any help is appreciated.

Thanks. Greg (Franklin Street)
 
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Stand close to the chain link on Washington in front of the gutted "new addition". Look straight to the back of the site, maybe 150 feet, with your line of vision roughly parallel to Franklin St. There are some floodlights lighting the general area.
 
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Stand between the man in the red & black jacket and the lampost with the DTX banner and look straight in. Hopefully it is still being lit up.
 
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ok will check it out tomorrow Thanks very much ! ! !
 
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Does anyone happen to know the construction timeline on this?
 
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Here's even more pics of the Filene's demolition including the mural we were discussing by tobyjug:

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Re: Filene's

The mural reminds me of lots of artwork on the T in the 70s, some of which remains in the system: pop-art collages of historic woodcuts or other monochromatic renderings (old Boston newspapers trumpeting the opening of the first Trolley, etc.). Here they seem to vaguely reference the revolutionary war and are rendered in Orange and Green.

The location of this mural seems about half of a block out of place, but is it possible that this was part of signage that pointed folks to the T? Downtown Crossing (Orange Line) and Park Street (Green Line) can both be reached from here once you get underground.
 
Re: Filene's

Those last two pics are of the Emerson theatre project down by the Millenium Residences.
 
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Is this the Washington & Franklin building, or the other one that is to be demolished on Hawley St?
 
Re: Filene's

Thanks, Barb!
Ron, this is the Hawley St. building. Check out the hogging of the iron work!
If you look in the middle left, you can see a little bit of demo on the 1912 building where the white terracotta (?) cornice wraps around toward the back on the Franklin side. As a reference, the step ladder is leaning against the Washington front of the cornice. You can see that demo work better from the corner of Washington and Bromfield.
Toby
 
Re: Filene's

tobes, wondering why you don't zoom in and snap more of 45 province, I know it's in the backround but why not.

You can see 45 province rising from Milk st now. pretty cool. personally, I don't care about looking up and seeing blue sky, I'd rather see a new building going up.... But then again my office faces a building 3 feet away and there's never any sun, permenant darkness... kinda sucks.
 
Re: Filene's

Suffolk,
I'll try to shoot a few zooms. KZ, Jass and BCW have been covering it so well that, other than the sneaky interior shot the other day, I've been leaving it alone. For me the classic Downtown Crossing shot would be to get Filene's, the Wedding Cake mime chick, the "Spare Change NewspapeAAH" guy and 45 Province all in one shot. I don't think those planets will align, though.
Toby
 
Re: Filene's

^yea good point....you dont have to. bostoncitywalk just posted a bunch too... i walk by it almost everyday I was just thinking maybe you could get some nice zoom shots of the construction on the top but no biggie
 
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