Omni Hotel @ BCEC | Summer St | Seaport

found5dollar said:
Well she's dead so she's not designing any new buildings...
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I know. What I meant is I wish we could get someone of her caliber designing buildings here. Honestly, sometimes all it takes is having some creative freedom on the facade to turn a dull box building interesting, even one that isn't tall. But Boston's developers and architects have no vision. Absolutely none and I wish I could say it to their faces because they need to hear it.
 
^ Indeed.

Rafael Moneo, Alvaro Siza, Shigeru Ban, Jean Nouvel, and Glenn Murcutt are all very much alive.
 
Corporate hotel next to the interstate? Looks about right to me....
 
This is Boston.....
We can't even get a transit station built here.....
__________________________________________________
"You want romance? In Ridgemont? We can't even get cable TV here, Stacy, and you want romance!"
 
I know. What I meant is I wish we could get someone of her caliber designing buildings here. Honestly, sometimes all it takes is having some creative freedom on the facade to turn a dull box building interesting, even one that isn't tall. But Boston's developers and architects have no vision. Absolutely none and I wish I could say it to their faces because they need to hear it.
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Would they even care if they heard it?
 
KentXie said:
I know. What I meant is I wish we could get someone of her caliber designing buildings here. Honestly, sometimes all it takes is having some creative freedom on the facade to turn a dull box building interesting, even one that isn't tall. But Boston's developers and architects have no vision. Absolutely none and I wish I could say it to their faces because they need to hear it.
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So parcel m, seaport sq phase 2, pier 4 condo, 150 seaport, and the church parcel are uninspired. Remember it’s still a massive construction site. Going from 1MPD to parcel M there’s been a massive evolution and they’ve “figured it out”. We just went from the throw anything up to get it started phase and now we’re in the figured out where this thing is going phase. The ice rink, grocery store, theater...in phase 2 along with the court yard is going to change everything, especially having parcel m right next door and pier 4 across the st. The render for the new memorial building looks great too. Just give it a little more time. Did you see those m parcel renders I shared they look incredible. In 2 years its going to be completely different than it is now and seeing where were at now with proposals I have very high expectations from here on out. Hell even the dud waterside places phase 2 looks great. Let this next wave go up and then reassess, from here on out it’s looking very good. Look at now as the beginning because it was literally nothing. Now it has just enough to have a base to build from so we’re at square one now where it infills like a normal neighborhood.
 
stick n move said:
So parcel m, seaport sq phase 2, pier 4 condo, 150 seaport, and the church parcel are uninspired. Remember it’s still a massive construction site. Going from 1MPD to parcel M there’s been a massive evolution and they’ve “figured it out”. We just went from the throw anything up to get it started phase and now we’re in the figured out where this thing is going phase. The ice rink, grocery store, theater...in phase 2 along with the court yard is going to change everything, especially having parcel m right next door and pier 4 across the st. The render for the new memorial building looks great too. Just give it a little more time. Did you see those m parcel renders I shared they look incredible. In 2 years its going to be completely different than it is now and seeing where were at now with proposals I have very high expectations from here on out. Hell even the dud waterside places phase 2 looks great. Let this next wave go up and then reassess, from here on out it’s looking very good. Look at now as the beginning because it was literally nothing. Now it has just enough to have a base to build from so we’re at square one now where it infills like a normal neighborhood.
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I'm not talking about the neighborhood. I'm talking about the architecture of the buildings. Yeah a few of them are decent (the cylindrical one and M1-M2 stand out) but the rest of them are massive megablocks that looks they like house hundreds and hundreds of servers for IBM that are typically found in the desert.

And before you say the height limits are the reason for this, no it's not. Like the new building I posted a page back from NYC, you can make any short building interesting if you do something with the facade. It's not hard.
 
KentXie said:
.....Like the new building I posted a page back from NYC, you can make any short building interesting if you do something with the facade. It's not hard.
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That pic was removed. Can you resize/repost so we know which building you are talking about?

Also I will second that this is probably the most dud design in the Seaport for the last few years. I also agree with Stick that the buildings here have generally been improving as well.

However, for me, it's more important that they get the biggest/tallest towers downtown right, than getting stand-out designs in the Seaport, Kendall, etc. Boston's most visible buildings should be its best buildings, and that seems to be the case so far. (unlike in say, Miami, where the new tallest is completely BLAH) I'd be much more concerned if this was the general design/quality of Millennium Tower or 1 Dalton. The Seaport is totally in the periphery though, so to me I'm happier with the bonus of extra density and any flair that can be provided, vs needing these buildings to carry any sort of torch architecturally.
 
^ Agreed. Downtown is where we need the wow architecture. The seaport we need something sufficient and a great ground level, since its going to be one big buzzcut anyways its never going to look amazing so the ground level has to be great. Downtown is where we really need to step it up though, which it seems like it will be there soon as well. Also I think its important to have lots of "safe" designs and then only a couple stand outs or else youll get what London is going to look like in a few years where its one big architectural fist fight that ends up looking terrible.

Downtown honestly did it perfect by having a bunch of really good filler, theres bad filler too and we mostly missed it, so that way when millennium towers and others go up they stand out and the background cast all supports it vs clashes with it. We have a gem waiting to be polished. The seaport I think is basically doing what it can and there is going to be interesting architecture going up like 150 seaport. Thats a perfect example of looking great within the height constraints. One thing I do wish the seaport would do is build a couple limestone art deco buildings to give it a sense of maturing over time like most skylines have. Throwing up a couple liberty mutuals in here would do wonders. Right now though they are buildings up the base and supporting cast that will allow great designs to stand out.

Thats why I keep saying wait, the seaport just hit its stride and everything that gets proposed now improves upon the last. Just like downtown the seaport has a good base where just a couple of standout towers like this one below will make all the difference while the rest of the buildings will be a great supporting cast without everything clashing. People underrate it and its bad when its your entire skyline, but regular safely designed towers are ideal towards creating a great skyline when the taller buildings come.

Is this not designing great architecture within the height constraints?

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LOL you can say a lot of things, but by no means was or is this area "drug infested". Do you know where this is? The way its currently situated makes it very difficult for people to even access.
 
DZH22 said:
That pic was removed. Can you resize/repost so we know which building you are talking about?

Also I will second that this is probably the most dud design in the Seaport for the last few years. I also agree with Stick that the buildings here have generally been improving as well.

However, for me, it's more important that they get the biggest/tallest towers downtown right, than getting stand-out designs in the Seaport, Kendall, etc. Boston's most visible buildings should be its best buildings, and that seems to be the case so far. (unlike in say, Miami, where the new tallest is completely BLAH) I'd be much more concerned if this was the general design/quality of Millennium Tower or 1 Dalton. The Seaport is totally in the periphery though, so to me I'm happier with the bonus of extra density and any flair that can be provided, vs needing these buildings to carry any sort of torch architecturally.
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zaha-hadid-520-west-28th-chelsea-condos-new-york-high-line-designboom-12.jpg
 
stick n move said:
^ Agreed. Downtown is where we need the wow architecture. The seaport we need something sufficient and a great ground level, since its going to be one big buzzcut anyways its never going to look amazing so the ground level has to be great. Downtown is where we really need to step it up though, which it seems like it will be there soon as well. Also I think its important to have lots of "safe" designs and then only a couple stand outs or else youll get what London is going to look like in a few years where its one big architectural fist fight that ends up looking terrible.

Downtown honestly did it perfect by having a bunch of really good filler, theres bad filler too and we mostly missed it, so that way when millennium towers and others go up they stand out and the background cast all supports it vs clashes with it. We have a gem waiting to be polished. The seaport I think is basically doing what it can and there is going to be interesting architecture going up like 150 seaport. Thats a perfect example of looking great within the height constraints. One thing I do wish the seaport would do is build a couple limestone art deco buildings to give it a sense of maturing over time like most skylines have. Throwing up a couple liberty mutuals in here would do wonders. Right now though they are buildings up the base and supporting cast that will allow great designs to stand out.

Thats why I keep saying wait, the seaport just hit its stride and everything that gets proposed now improves upon the last. Just like downtown the seaport has a good base where just a couple of standout towers like this one below will make all the difference while the rest of the buildings will be a great supporting cast without everything clashing. People underrate it and its bad when its your entire skyline, but regular safely designed towers are ideal towards creating a great skyline when the taller buildings come.

Is this not designing great architecture within the height constraints?

f567c0ce-9b31-46db-85c8-fa575681f138
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Yes but unfortunately the only project that really thought outside the box is the one that is stuck in the mud.

And yeah the Omni Hotel is a "filler" building. Just like the Hilton Hotel and the Sheraton Hotel are and yet I'm pretty sure we all hate them and wished something better were built in their place. Unfortunately, you normally don't get a chance on building something better once the original buildings are built. The rest of the glass megablocks that populate the Seaport are, at best, a poor man's Cira Center which in itself is pretty bland but at least it looks like a fat crystal shard.

I'm willing to give most of these a pass because they are office towers so they need the space but the Omni Hotel isn't one.
 
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It's a bland building that will activate 2 streetwalls, include no onsite parking (the awful garage can be redeveloped in 20 years), and increase the city's supply of hotel rooms by 5%. I'll take it.
 
I live sort of close to the high line and yes, there are some very "significant" buildings going up, however there are still some parking lots, dumpy walk-ups, warehouses and quite a few average Avalon rental buildings along the way. In reality, the Hadid building is the rare exception.

This Omni is a biz hotel, it is not there to win design awards. It will hopefully help bring the hotel room rates down a bit - that will be the biggest win. If it has a decent lobby bar, that would be a nice side dish.
 
Czervik.Construction said:
This Omni is a biz hotel, it is not there to win design awards.
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I understand what you're saying, but when every middling design can be dismissed with some variant on "it's only an infill building", then it concedes that is the best Boston can hope for.

Compelling design doesn't demand attention-seeking starchitect buildings. It can be something as modest as this.
 
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