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

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^ Good points, but I thought (perhaps erroneously) that maybe the city was going to permit that spot for musicians or street performers? (Not sayin' i necessarily want that either, but at least it would make sense to have bleachers pointed at something)
 
datadyne007 said:
DTX is dead after 5 PM in the winter* & the people that are there are not stopping to sit on decorative stairs in the dark & freezing cold. I have no doubt those stairs will be open until maybe 9 PM at the peak of the summer next year.

Tell me, would you want to sit on those steps earlier this evening at like 5 in the dark, freezing cold, whipping wind?

*Source: I work in DTX.
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I also think this is a chicken and egg problem. It's dead because it's dead. The least we can do is give it chance instead of choking it to death on day one.

They don't need to close up the stairs ever as far as I'm concerned, but certainly it has nothing at all to do with the time of sunset or the temperature. If nobody wants to use the stairs when its cold, then they won't use them. If someone want to sit for a minute to make a call or wait for a friend they should have the option.

God forbid the stairs be open and available to use at any time that some arbitrary decider doesn't think is a cool/fun/hip time to hang out in DTX.
 
On a slightly different note, the Cafe Nero looks to be close to opening along Summer Street. It looks pretty nice and has a 2nd floor seating area. I still can't get over how many coffee shops there are in Downtown Boston!
 
shmessy said:
While it is a spectacular idea, the location and siting is all wrong.
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Couldn't be more happy. Looking at it from the perspective of what we almost had built here. A pathetic end to a mediocre plan has undergone one of the most shocking turnarounds in the history of Boston planning, preservation and design. Menino having doubts about what turned out to be a 10+ ....and now we have this little gem. So much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving.
 
BostonDrew said:
On a slightly different note, the Cafe Nero looks to be close to opening along Summer Street. It looks pretty nice and has a 2nd floor seating area. I still can't get over how many coffee shops there are in Downtown Boston!
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A second one is opening? Or is the one across from the Ritz moving?
 
Equilibria said:
They're not closing the stairs because of ice, they're closing them because they don't want the homeless to have a place to sleep. Not going to change in the summer, certainly, though the closing time may move later with sunset.
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Just curious, does the ICA block off their stairs overlooking the Harbor and Harbor Walk after closing hours? And talking about the Harbor Walk, is that closed off after certain hours? Are people allowed to sit on benches on cold winter nights along the Harbor Walk, or along the Public Garden and Common walkways after dark?
 
odurandina said:
Couldn't be more happy. Looking at it from the perspective of what we almost had built here. A pathetic end to a mediocre plan has undergone one of the most shocking turnarounds in the history of Boston planning, preservation and design. Menino having doubts about what turned out to be a 10+ ....and now we have this little gem. So much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving.
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Talking only about the bleachers, not the building or the Filenes facade preservation. Judging from the replies, everyone else got it.
 
Nightlife is the core problem in DTX and there's nothing there to activate it. There's nothing actually ON Washington in the main drag around the steps that is open late night, like a restaurant, bar or club. They are all on side streets off of Washington itself like Temple Place, Bromfield & Province Street.

Stick something crazy like a Dave & Busters open until 2 in the B&N spot literally right across from these steps and you'll have a vibrant place to hang out at all hours of the day & enough foot traffic to keep the steps populated with people. Right now, there's really no there there (raison d'etre as someone else previously said).

The TKTS steps didn't make Times Square what it is. Times Square already had vibrant nightlife to it with lights, shops open late, hotels, etc. The TKTS steps only added to the vitality of Times Square. They didn't create the vitality. We shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking the DTX steps are supposed to enliven DTX at night. Far more core structural & operational changes must happen first in DTX.

Whatever though. We'll all be singing the steps' praises in the summer time.
 
datadyne007 said:
Nightlife is the core problem in DTX and there's nothing there to activate it. There's nothing actually ON Washington in the main drag around the steps that is open late night, like a restaurant, bar or club. They are all on side streets off of Washington itself like Temple Place, Bromfield & Province Street.

Stick something crazy like a Dave & Busters open until 2 in the B&N spot literally right across from these steps and you'll have a vibrant place to hang out at all hours of the day & enough foot traffic to keep the steps populated with people. Right now, there's really no there there (raison d'etre as someone else previously said).

Whatever though. We'll all be singing the steps' praises in the summer time though.
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I'm with you on that. Restaurants, theatres (just down the street) and event stores that are open until 11pm will be the saving grace of this. Hell, it IS called "Downtown Crossing", not "Quiet Cul-De-Sac". If the other pieces mentioned above fall in place and they stop fencing off the bleachers after 5pm, maybe this will actually be what it was intended to be. And if what Bigpicture7 says is the intent _ musiciuans and performers in front of the bleachers - then I can see it. However, bleachers would REALLY work on the Greenway.
 
I would like to offer up a counterpoint. I was in DTX on Friday night and there were plenty of people. Many of them seemed to be gravitating towards MT. I saw multiple groups pointing, talking about it, and just generally milling around near the front and bleachers. This was probably around 8:00. If the bleachers were open I'm sure there would have been people sitting there.

Granted, it was a warm night and the weather has just turned over the last few days, but the closure seemed completely unnecessary and unwelcome.
 
datadyne007 said:
The TKTS steps didn't make Times Square what it is. Times Square already had vibrant nightlife to it with lights, shops open late, hotels, etc. The TKTS steps only added to the vitality of Times Square. They didn't create the vitality. We shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking the DTX steps are supposed to enliven DTX at night. Far more core structural & operational changes must happen first in DTX.
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Never said the TKTS steps made Times Square - - hence the "Chicken and the Egg" reference. However, the whole "Banned in Boston" mentality of 'Nobody is going to sit on bleachers at night in the cold' was a fallacy. People do it. They just need the environment to want to do it.

The bleachers won't do it alone, but performances (heck, how many Emerson and Berklee kids are there who would gladly work it?) could spur some of it. Why can't they do what they used to do in Harvard Square?

If they don't gate up the bleachers at night and have nightly performers/light shows, etc attracting some people down there, perhaps the restaurant, D+B, and event store demand for property leases may pick up.

Once again, not talking Times Square scale - it is far more intimate, but they could do it small there and also do it bigger on the Greenway.

But nothing sends a clearer message to the world about whether Boston is a cosmopolitan city than gating up a "Downtown Crossing" bleacher stand at 5pm.
 
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shmessy said:
I'm with you on that. Restaurants, theatres (just down the street) and event stores that are open until 11pm will be the saving grace of this. Hell, it IS called "Downtown Crossing", not "Quiet Cul-De-Sac". If the other pieces mentioned above fall in place and they stop fencing off the bleachers after 5pm, maybe this will actually be what it was intended to be. And if what Bigpicture7 says is the intent _ musiciuans and performers in front of the bleachers - then I can see it. However, bleachers would REALLY work on the Greenway.
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Yes, this is intended to be a new performance space for DTX. Instead of having the performances in the middle of Summer St, I believe the intent is for them to have them take place on this new stage plinth. And who knows, with the holidays coming up, Downtown Boston BID may just have some caroling performances and such in this spot at night. It remains to be seen.

The key is that you have to keep the steps populated with enough people that homeless people won't feel the desire to wander up there to go to the bathroom. That's how Times Square prevents the steps from being covered in various ...fluids and such. There are enough people on them. You can't keep the steps adequately populated until you actually activate DTX at the hours you wish to keep it open.
 
datadyne007 said:
The key is that you have to keep the steps populated with enough people that homeless people won't feel the desire to wander up there to go to the bathroom. That's how Times Square prevents the steps from being covered in various ...fluids and such. There are enough people on them. You can't keep the steps adequately populated until you actually activate DTX at the hours you wish to keep it open.
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We need a dance club nearby. Then people can sit on the steps when they need to rest their legs.
 
Yeah its now clear that this is meant to be a small open-air performance venue, and not the more-general 'people-watching' / placemaking intervention that many of us assumed it was.
 
I was browsing some listings a little earlier and it seems as though those on the 37th floor have taller ceilings those both below and above. Any ideas as to what the reasoning is here?
 
kmp1284 said:
I was browsing some listings a little earlier and it seems as though those on the 37th floor have taller ceilings those both below and above. Any ideas as to what the reasoning is here?
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I'm guessing it has to do with construction economics, similar to economy vs. first class in an airplane. As you go up the floors, the market price per square foot increases. The increased price allows for higher construction costs per unit (if you consider the building price fixed, then higher ceilings = higher cost per unit). This is similar to an airplane where the higher price of a first class ticket allows the first class seat to take up 2-3x the space of an economy seat and still make a profit.

Of course that logic is a bit circular, since higher ceilings would also lead to a higher market price. They must know that wealthier people will be buying the higher floors and thus can afford the markup for increased ceiling heights.
 
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