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

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davem said:
Me too. I think the issue is unlike your standard exposed brick and beam building, which was built as a warehouse or factory (and therefore typically exposed throughout its life, and somewhat decently detailed), what they exposed here was unquestionably always meant to be covered. Add onto that the fact that Trinity was planning to demolish everything and took no care when they tore out the old interior, you're left with a really ugly starting point.


Of course, the interior designers missed the mark as well. The color palate bothers me, its somehow both too dark and too light. I can see what they were going for here, but the execution is just... bad. Luckily, they are just a tenant.
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Completely agreed. I had been thinking that, but couldn't find the right wording. It's exposed brick that was never meant to be exposed.

jdrinboston said:
Is this an example of a company trying to wedge their specific culture into a space that was never really apt for it...aka square peg and round hole?
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Absolutely.

jdrinboston said:
Could a quirky, edgy, office-less design have been done here given the age and inner bones of the building?
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Yes. This could have made an awesome hotel if they cut a hole down the center of the building for a courtyard.
 
From the article:
The goal of the project, says architect Victor Vizgaitis of Sasaki, was to “capture the past, celebrate authenticity, but create a bridge between the past and the future for Havas.”
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I see NONE of that. Turning air vents into light fixtures and skylights into wall art is not authentic. Exposing structural elements that were never meant to see the light of day is not celebrating the past, it's insulting it.

The pipe in this storage room shelving fixture isn't original... just an effort to capture the building's raw, industrial character, says architect Victor Vizgaitis.
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The raw, industrial character... of a glamarous department store?

Thinking about it more, what they did was just stupid. You've got a beaux-arts palace that they shoehorned some industrial-chic modernist interior into. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but Vornado should have NEVER been permitted to tear out the original interior. Did they even salvage the woodwork (which was apparently still all there under the later renovations) or did it just hit a dumpster? A more refined, classical interior would have worked so much better here. Modern furniture and fixtures, sure, whatever. But paneling and some well detailed millwork would have been a gazillion times better.

To add insult to industry, that ghastly white-washed wood cafe is named Burnham's, after the original architect. That's like how they named Storrow Drive after the family who fought so hard to prevent it's construction.

Also, WTF is up with the lobby? It reminds me of the fake Egyptian stuff they did in the 20s. It's supposed to pay homage to the exterior (which makes no sense... it's an interior space), but it doesn't do that well either.

Sorry, I keep editing this and ranting because the more I look at these pictures and read the designers intent, the more I hate it.
 
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Does anyone know or remember what the upper floors of Filene's were like? What were the finishes? I only remember the interior of the ground floor of the Burnham and the concrete monstrosity that got attached to the Burnham. I do know that the top floor once had a restaurant themed like a greenhouse with a large skylight, but what were the upper retail floors like?
 
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When I was doing survey work up there in early 2007, the upper floors were office space. All painted gypsum board walls and act ceilings. Nothing very special.
 
Arch101 said:
When I was doing survey work up there in early 2007, the upper floors were office space. All painted gypsum board walls and act ceilings. Nothing very special.
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I had heard that once the bunker was built in the 70s that all the retail on the upper floors of the Burnham was moved there shortly after. It was probably converted to office sometime around then. We'll have to find someone a couple generations back to remember before that. =P
 
does anyone know if they are salvaging the facade that was on the northeast corner?
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Long gone. :(

Unless you are asking if the materials were salvaged, in which case I don't know but would love to find out.
 
I thought they were going to salvage some of the granite and incorperate it into the park around the subway entrance?
 
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Does anyone know the decision making process as to why Macy*s settled into the Jordan Marsh space instead of Filene's? One would think they'd want the prestige of such an iconic building vs the blah they're in now.
 
davem said:
Does anyone know the decision making process as to why Macy*s settled into the Jordan Marsh space instead of Filene's? One would think they'd want the prestige of such an iconic building vs the blah they're in now.
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Essentially what happened was that Jordan Marsh was bought in 1996 by Macy*s and the Filene's sale was completed much later in 2006. Since Macy*s was already in a store they had customized to their liking (and could continue to much easier than the vertical Burnham), it really didn't make sense for them to move into Filene's, especially since the Burnham had some issues due to its age. Department store shopping today is more focused on horizontal layouts instead of the vertical layouts of the past. As stated previously, Filene's had already left the upper floors of the Burnham in terms of retail space, focusing on the lower floors and the concrete addition that was built for that purpose.

I'm just as disappointed though from a nostalgia standpoint. Chicago's Marshall Fields was totally rehabbed by Macy*s, but is considerably larger and offers more workable floorplates. The Burnham is just inadequate in all respects for modern department store retail.
 
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Wait...why does that one picture of the conference room say weddings and receptions? Do they do marketing for that?

EDIT: Answered my own question in the article

Conference rooms are all named after departments that once existed at Filene's. This one is "Weddings & Receptions." (They decided against some of the racier departments, like lingerie or men's underwear.)
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Mongo said:
Wait...why does that one picture of the conference room say weddings and receptions? Do they do marketing for that?

EDIT: Answered my own question in the article
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I was wondering the same. The reason is so epically stupid on so many levels. Thanks for that.
 
On a slightly different subject, I made a model for this building on the Boston city diagram on SkyscraperPage - feedback is welcome! http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=145

This is my first time doing models like these, but I might try to add some of the proposed/approved towers to help fill-out the Boston diagram.
 
Galactic said:
On a slightly different subject, I made a model for this building on the Boston city diagram on SkyscraperPage - feedback is welcome! http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=145

This is my first time doing models like these, but I might try to add some of the proposed/approved towers to help fill-out the Boston diagram.
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Wow, great work! I think it looks awesome! You captured the form and depth nicely.
 
That interior looks very dot-com, turn of the Millennium type of steez. I do not like. However, my office building is reminiscent of a 1960's Soviet government office, so I shouldn't complain.
 
Mongo said:
Wait...why does that one picture of the conference room say weddings and receptions? Do they do marketing for that?

EDIT: Answered my own question in the article
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If they have a basement conference room, can they name it "Bridal Sale Carnage"?

Regarding the floating coffee station or whatever the yellow thing is over the stairs, the headroom doesn't look that bad (to me, at least) in the side view. I won't pretend to be qualified to argue the rest of the points made, much less understand why the stairs themselves look like something my nephew would make if there were such a thing as wooden LEGOs, but the headroom itself strikes me as ok.
 
datadyne007 said:
Wow, great work! I think it looks awesome! You captured the form and depth nicely.
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Thanks! Definitely appreciate it. I also hope I got the color close to right - the samples look pretty smoky gray, but with a blue sky it'll probably have a bit of tint to it. I guess we'll see soon!
 
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