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

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Re: Filene's

Well IIRC, ablarc's idea was to tax all empty lots at a higher rate so it wouldn't really be selectively applied, and surely there is a tax rate that is high enough to spur action yet not high enough to be found punitive.
 
Re: Filene's

Sadly, I new this was going on (see a page or two back). I can see the site from my office window and barely anything has been going on here for weeks. On most days I don't see more than half a dozen workers on site. How in the world does the city let a developer tear down a building with one of the cities biggest tourist attractions (albeit a store) in one of the main shopping districts in town without written assurances from the developer's lenders that proper financing is in place? Now we all get to look at a huge hole in the ground until (and if) financing can be obtained. I don't care what the economic climate is, this is absurd. The building should not have been demolished until ALL financing was in place. The building served an important purpose, especially to out of town visitors who flock there.
 
Re: Filene's

And what does this mean for Seaport? I assume they want it to look as if things are going as planned, get all approvals, and only then announce a delay due to financing.
 
Re: Filene's

First off - Tom Palmer has left the Globe and I believe he has started a PR firm.

Secondly, there has been no excitement or buzz about this property outside of Boston. Retailers do not want to feel like they are going to be just plain old "ground floor retail" in an office building. "One Franklin Street" with navy blue and gray corporate colors, benign glass-and-steel architecture with a flat-top roof sure looks and feels like any generic office building to me. Let me stress - I like the way it looks - but it doesn't look like an exciting mixed-use destination. It looks like an office building - and one that's not even in the traditional Financial District.

Nobody's talking about this project when you go to the ICSC in NYC or the national convention in Vegas. Real estate directors in the retail industry outside of Boston say "oh yeah, that's the site with that bargain basement" - an association with the words "bargain" and "basement" do not yield first-class rents.

The developer hasn't done anything to elevate people's expectations. We've heard that he's talked to Best Buy, Target, Whole Foods, Nordstrom - and I'm sure many more that we haven't heard about. Nobody's interested in moving into a new office building in a tired old gritty shopping district.

Take a look at this thread. Even though the property has been renamed One Franklin Street for awhile, we (and everyone) still call it the "Filene's Building" - this is a huge marketing error on the developer's part.

This development needs some buzz - some life, some action. Even if nothing's actually doing at the site.
 
Re: Filene's

The name 'One Franklin' has never made sense to me given that everyone associates Filene's (and the Basement) with Summer Street. Franklin Street was always a back entrance to the store.

Why not go with Two Summer Street? I'm assuming that Macy's is already One Summer.
 
Re: Filene's

Since it's easily the most prominent one there, could it be THE DOWNTOWN BUILDING ?
 
Re: Filene's

^ Sounds like something you'd find in a one-stoplight town.
 
Re: Filene's

ablarc, you'll never make it in marketing!

You need to create Buzz! Excitement! Pizazz!

Now if you had said something like The BLDNG:dntown then you might have been on to something.
 
Re: Filene's

You don't have to get cute or artsy with it. Franklin Center or City Center is already miles above "1 Franklin Street"

Although the name is just one little part of it. The posters/wraps on the old Filene's building look to me like something an intern put together. Black, gray, blue? Elevation pencil renderings? One Franklin? This is a corporate development, not a retail destination.

The architectural renderings they released don't do anything to bring this to life. It's just a blue/gray steel block skyscraper with a flat roof. There should have been more streetscape/night scenes looking up at the tower from pedestrian level.

The property's got a huge identity crisis.

Since this is an architectural forum, I'll pose this question, do architects like seeing their renderings tarted up and whored out, or do they prefer the 2-D "just the facts" elevational drawings?
 
Re: Filene's

there's already a place called Franklin Center about 40 miles southwest of downtown Boston. And its developer is doing a lot better than Vornado.
 
Re: Filene's

How about:

"That Giant Hole in the Ground in the Center of the City"

Too literal?
 
Re: Filene's

No man, it's like jazz. You have to see the building that ISN'T there.
 
Re: Filene's

Real estate directors in the retail industry outside of Boston say "oh yeah, that's the site with that bargain basement" - an association with the words "bargain" and "basement" do not yield first-class rents.
Click to expand...

Well, I suppose you could always reply that it is next to "that place that has the parade with giant cartoon balloons every year". Plus, it's in the center of "that city with all that old stuff in it."
 
Re: Filene's

pelhamhall said:
Since this is an architectural forum, I'll pose this question, do architects like seeing their renderings tarted up and whored out, or do they prefer the 2-D "just the facts" elevational drawings?
Click to expand...

When I do renderings, I make sure to cover 3 important bases: how it fits in with the pre-existing surroundings/ ie a wideout view, the good ol' elevational drawing, and finally (sometimes most importantly) how the project meets the street, pedestrians and all.

Make of that what you will. Someday- I hope to do one for a large project like this ofcourse- but I'm still a young'n.

I just hope the darn thing gets built- its depressing walking by that thing all the time as it is when there are so many other cranes active around town.
 
Re: Filene's

Even something as simple as "The Tower at One Franklin" would be an improvement. Or even "City Center at One Franklin"
 
Re: Filene's

Anything with "centre" sounds like it's trying too hard, unless it's actually a prime destination (see "Eaton Centre," any convention centre).
 
Re: Filene's

I like "Center" when it's mixed-use, and when it's big. Prudential Center works, One Financial Center doesn't.

I think Gale is trying to replicate the success of One Lincoln here, but hasn't figured out that a mixed-use destination cannot be branded like a single-use office tower.

The name is just one little detail, the whole positioning of the property has been poor. This should be something everyone in New England is waiting for - "a new pulse in the heart of Boston" and instead its just a ho-hum, gray/blue, office tower. Don't get caught up on the detail of the name, my point was larger than just the name.
 
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