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

[Beton Brut]

Re: Filene's

I apologize for not replying to this post sooner.

The question is whether voters care enough.

Caring requires knowledge and the cognitive ability to process information around a given issue into a realistic course of action. Doesn't sound like many voters to me.

Filene?s is an epic failure (but only for the time being)

Failure now could mean permanent failure. If we lose the Burnham building, it's a loss for the entire city.

You are correct to recognize that the scale and cost of Columbus Center are far greater. But the difference should be equally apparent:

• No historic structure will be damaged, destroyed, or put at risk of loss, if Columbus Center isn't built;
• The "urbanistic deficiencies" at the Columbus Center site have existed for decades (it's an existing condition); the failure on the corner of Washington and Franklin was created by a perfect storm of civic and commercial incompetence (it's a manufactured condition).

I never obstructed air rights development, or parcels 16-17-18-19 development, or even Columbus Center; instead, I have worked hard to get development done there on the principles which taxpayers and toll-payers were promised, and which they have every right to expect:

? using competitive bids;
? at fair market value;
? with full financial disclosure;
? and Turnpike Master Plan compliance;
? at minimum environmental harm.

The Columbus owners continue refusing all 5 of these principles.

I could have chosen my words better -- I'm not given to cheap shots. The post in question was written with more than an edge of frustration, and honestly, Ned, you're a frustrating guy. When individuals such as yourself, with a real understanding of problems and issues come forth, I expect them to engage in more than what's happening across the street from their home. A voice like yours can change the game, and I hope you have the good sense to raise it toward the preservation of The Arlington Building and the Dainty Dot.

The Filene?s mess is more apparent because there?s visual evidence of the damage.

There's plenty of unseen damage as well, from risks to the structural integrity of the Burnham building, to the deleterious effect to the economic viability to Boston's central shopping district.

I am vastly more knowledgeable about Columbus than Filene?s...

I've got you reading this thread now, and that's more than half the battle.

 

[BostonYoureMyHome]

Re: Filene's

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/20/designers_suggest_ways_to_spruce_up_stalled_building_projects_around_boston/

"Visions and revisions
We asked designers to suggest ways to spruce up stalled building projects around the city. Practical and whimsical alike, the results are a far cry from Boston?s buttoned-down norm."

By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / September 20, 2009

Some interesting ideas.

 

[Lurker]

Re: Filene's

Utter garbage which for the most part would cost a significant portion of the money required to finish the stalled projects. If I had taught during my career, most of these people would have failed my studio.

If an ounce of the creative energy used to draw this tripe was invested in pragmatic solutions to the problems with our urban condition the world would be a much better place. But I suppose the masturbatory satisfaction of receiving adulation, from like minded peers and a press increasingly divorced from the public, takes priority over more noble endeavors.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Filene's

But I suppose the masturbatory satisfaction of receiving adulation, from like minded peers and a press increasingly divorced from the public, takes priority over more noble endeavors.

Academia is the "wrong number" in the equation -- educators have betrayed these kids to a craftless digital world that no one will ever build.

A similar rebuke should have been made to the post-war acolytes of the Second Viennese School.

 

[czsz]

Re: Filene's

The Second Viennese School almost needed to happen to show that the aesthetic of a logically progressing art didn't lead anywhere. In some ways it was the end of a coherent "high culture".

The consequence, though, was irony and referentialism, from pomo to...this stuff. Don't let's get started on how many of these projects are nostalgia trips that worship the past without bringing us any closer to a present or future. We need to stop worrying about respecting memory - we all do that now - and start thinking about creating things to remember.

This phase in culture, too, is beginning to show its limits. It's not just about pragmatism - in less aesthetically conservative cities, even bombed out industrial wastelands in northern England, stuff like this gets built. It's that, at a time of war and stress, the world deserves meaningful culture, especially in architecture.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Filene's

The Second Viennese School almost needed to happen to show that the aesthetic of a logically progressing art didn't lead anywhere. In some ways it was the end of a coherent "high culture".

The schism between composer and audience was the beginning of the end. Recording technology and broadcasting did far more harm than good to the state of art music, and insured the ascendancy of popular idioms. The guys from "up North" offered a viable alternative for the future of music, but unfortunately, the taste makers (i.e. pedagogues, critics, artistic directors) were having none of it.

...at a time of war and stress, the world deserves meaningful culture, especially in architecture.

This has a lot to do with why I find the plans for the Bulfinch Triangle so repugnant.

 

[Mike]

Re: Filene's

Michael Flaherty blasts Mayor Menino for Filene?s ?war zone?
By Thomas Grillo and Richard Weir
Friday, October 30, 2009

Boston mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty blamed the Menino administration for the stalled project that has left a hole in the ground at Downtown Crossing.

?We need is to hold developers accountable,? Flaherty said yesterday at the former Filene?s site where construction was halted due to a lack of financing. ?We have a shopping center that looks like a war zone because the mayor is either unable or unwilling to hold a company?s feet to the fire.?

Flaherty - flanked by former candidates Sam Yoon and Kevin McCrea, who have joined his campaign - said the city should require developers to purchase performance bonds prior to construction to guarantee a project gets built or face financial consequences.

But Gregory Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, said such bonds would create another impediment to development amid the worst economy since the Great Depression.

?No one went into the project to have a hole in the middle of the city,? he said in an interview. ?Even if there was a bond in place, how would it work when the commercial market is so sour??

John Palmieri, the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s director, said the bond idea doesn?t make sense.

?I don?t even know if it?s possible,? he told the Herald. ?Even if it were, it would have a chilling effect as 30 percent of construction workers are unemployed.?

Gale International and Vornado Realty Trust are the developers of the Filene?s project. The building has been ?wrapped? for the winter as the firms? continue to try to line up investors.


Link

 

[choo]

Re: Filene's

Get some emirate to invest in it, and take off any height restrictions. We will have an all expense paid 2,100 footer by next Thanksgiving.

 

[sellout98]

Re: Filene's

^ signed.

 

[Pierce]

Re: Filene's

Academia is the "wrong number" in the equation -- educators have betrayed these kids to a craftless digital world that no one in the United States will ever build.

There I fixed that for you.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Filene's

Thanks Pierce...

Are you suggesting that the principals of good urban design and the science of engineering work differently outside our borders?

 

[czsz]

Re: Filene's

I think he was reading "crazy Dubai-like architecture" into "craftless digital world". I did, too.

 

[Beton Brut]

Re: Filene's

^^ Understood. And I think most people know that my tastes run toward the edgy. But architecture that isn't rooted in reality (engineering, finance, urban landscape), and fails to take its queues from its surroundings (not just form and scale, but quality of finishes) is only suited for the trash can.

 

[mass88]

Re: Filene's

Would anyone else find it kind of cool, or different (for Boston) to have large LED ads and signs? I am not sure if anyone has ever proposed or mentioned this. But I think DTX would be a great place for it and make the area a little more interesting.

 

[Pierce]

Re: Filene's

Thanks Pierce...

Are you suggesting that the principals of good urban design and the science of engineering work differently outside our borders?

Yeah I was thinking UAE and China. But I do think you're painting with too broad a brush over academia. Behind some of these slick images you will find some concrete tectonic thinking about materials and constructability, provocative economic and ecological strategies, all while still being both critical and aesthetically charged. And even in the US, contrary to my earlier sentiment--i would hold up the work of REX, Work AC, or more locally, office dA as examples, and all are current academic darlings with a growing body of built work

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Filene's

the building to be built next to the Wilbur Theatre is supposed to have lighted advertising signs. I don't know what is delaying that project.

 

[palindrome]

Re: Filene's

probably the same thing that's delaying every other project.

 

[mcus29]

Re: Filene's

Would anyone else find it kind of cool, or different (for Boston) to have large LED ads and signs? I am not sure if anyone has ever proposed or mentioned this. But I think DTX would be a great place for it and make the area a little more interesting.

I agree. The whole brick facade on Macy's would be a great spot for this. I walk by there thinking the same thing.

 

[bbfen]

Re: Filene's

Would anyone else find it kind of cool, or different (for Boston) to have large LED ads and signs? I am not sure if anyone has ever proposed or mentioned this. But I think DTX would be a great place for it and make the area a little more interesting.

Isn't there some whacky zoning curtailing lit signs that flash, change color, chase bulbs, blink? I think a remnant from when they emptied out the Combat Zone, and there are only a few buildings with exemptions or permits to do this, like the Cutler Majestic.

It's too bad. I was in Tokyo for a few days in August. Some places it's overdone, but there are other areas with beautiful lights ranging from incandescent to LED.

 

[atlrvr]

Re: Filene's

The city did ban large flashing signs everywhere, but then maybe 2 years ago created a couple special districts where these signs could go in the future. The theatre district is one area.....I think there are maybe 1-2 others.