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

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Amazing. Just amazing is all I have to say.

This has been a long time coming.

Edit: I wish more MBTA headhouses where like this. Simple and modern. They went way over the top with government center. You do not need to spend a absurd amount of money to have a decent looking entrance.
 
I don't see how a headhouse of this scale would work for Government Center, which has one entrance compared to six for DTX. Doing the fare gates at the Green Line level would also be messy.
 
Stunning photos. Thanks. Thinking how many cool grounds we'll be able to walk in the coming years, to go along with all the stunning geometry.
 
JG573 said:
Edit: I wish more MBTA headhouses where like this. Simple and modern. They went way over the top with government center. You do not need to spend a absurd amount of money to have a decent looking entrance.
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Except that this Shoppers Park headhouse is a secondary (maybe even tertiary) entrance and exit for a station (DTX) that serves 23,478 entries. I'd say probably 75% of DTX traffic, or 17,608 entries, uses the primary Summer/Washington St entrances. The other 5,869 are spread out among the Summer & Chauncy entrance, the 101 Arch St entrance & this Shoppers Park entrance. In short, this Shoppers Park headhouse maybe sees a thousand entries on a weekday. It's sized as such.

Comparatively, GC serves 10,828 entries and the brand new large headhouse serves all of those passengers. There are no other headhouses at GC. GC had to be large & prominent.
 
datadyne007 said:
Except that this Shoppers Park headhouse is a secondary (maybe even tertiary) entrance and exit for a station (DTX) that serves 23,478 entries. I'd say probably 75% of DTX traffic, or 17,608 entries, uses the primary Summer/Washington St entrances. The other 5,869 are spread out among the Summer & Chauncy entrance, the 101 Arch St entrance & this Shoppers Park entrance. In short, this Shoppers Park headhouse maybe sees a thousand entries on a weekday. It's sized as such.

Comparatively, GC serves 10,828 entries and the brand new large headhouse serves all of those passengers. There are no other headhouses at GC. GC had to be large & prominent.
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All that, and also the GC headhouse is a light tower for the platforms below. Unfortunately, DTX can't be opened up that way.
 
Okay I think the point I was saying was misunderstood. I understand that this small headhouse would not be ideal for Government center. What I was saying is they do not need a over the top costly design when they can make a simple good looking entrance. MBTA needs to be efficiently using there money not spending it lavishly. The government center station is nice without a doubt but overdone.

Side note: Far busier stations in bigger cities do not use stations nearly as large as GC.
 
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The old gov. center headhouse was the darkest, gloomiest war-zone bunker of a headhouse imaginable. I think there was a bit of overcompensation in creating the brightest, lightest, airiest headhouse imaginable - but I can understand the designer's motivation. That said, count me as a fan. I love the bright sunlight that fills the station below - it's a much better experience than when you emerge from the greenline at some of the older stations (Boylston, Hynes, etc). I honestly do not think that glass headhouse is what made/broke the budget on that project. There was a TON of accessibility work, plus a total overhaul of all utilities and infrastructure in the station.

Pulling it back on topic: yes, this is a well proportioned headhouse for the context (e.g., one of multiple entrances to the station), and the glass sidewalls will help with the natural lighting effect.
 
Looks like there's still a lot of work left to tie in with the existing sidewalks/streets. Definitely some rough asphalt patches there still. And sometimes there's a curb and sometimes it's flush.
 
And then to open back up to taxis and delivery trucks for it to be almost instantly destroyed!
 
Kinopio said:
Sending an endless stream of taxis into what is supposed to be a pedestrian zone. So dumb.
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Kinopio -- No hotel in this one just residences -- why should there be an endless stream of taxis or even Ubers
 
Have you ever been up that end of Franklin? It's always been an unending stream of taxis.
 
statler said:
Have you ever been up that end of Franklin? It's always been an unending stream of taxis.
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Statler -- I'll admit that I've seen a few taxis there -- but they have nothing to do with Millennium Tower.

I've also seen buses and delivery vans. Let's not forget that building MT was not designed to resolve any and all traffic conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles at the corner of Franklin and Washington
 
Right. But why bother with extending the 'nice' concrete pavers across Franklin? They are going to be wrecked inside of a month.
 
statler said:
Right. But why bother with extending the 'nice' concrete pavers across Franklin? They are going to be wrecked inside of a month.
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Statler -- maybe I'm missing something -- people pave driveways with concrete pavers and they last for years

Unless you think someone is reanimating Gen George Patton down at the Hatch Shell and he's going to be making another mad dash to relive Bastogne with the 4th Armoured Division I think the pavers will last for quite awhile
 
statler said:
Right. But why bother with extending the 'nice' concrete pavers across Franklin? They are going to be wrecked inside of a month.
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And I'm still trying to understand exactly how the rest of the paver installation/integration is going to work. I just walked by there last night, and as cden4 implied above, the grading work doesn't seem to be finished and/or coherent...there is curbing randomly embedded in part of this plaza, connoting a bit of a step in the grade, yet it randomly ends in the middle of nowhere. Are they going for an all one grade aesthetic, or are they trying to step this thing? And if they are stepping it anyway, as you suggest, why not make the Franklin street level portion asphalt if there are going to be taxis going through there anyway.
 
whighlander said:
Statler -- maybe I'm missing something -- people pave driveways with concrete pavers and they last for years

Unless you think someone is reanimating Gen George Patton down at the Hatch Shell and he's going to be making another mad dash to relive Bastogne with the 4th Armoured Division I think the pavers will last for quite awhile
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I guess I'm just judging based on the pavers on Washington & Winter St.

Yeah, technically you could say they lasted for years but they only looked good for a few months before they started getting stained, cracked and pulled out of alignment. I suspect the same thing with happen on Franklin.
 
statler said:
I guess I'm just judging based on the pavers on Washington & Winter St.

Yeah, technically you could say they lasted for years but they only looked good for a few months before they started getting stained, cracked and pulled out of alignment. I suspect the same thing with happen on Franklin.
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Statler -- its not the pavers themselves -- they are made of the same stuff as concrete road surfaces -- its what's under them and how they are drained, etc.
 
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