One Canal (formerly Greenway Center) | Bullfinch Triangle | West End

Yeah...... this isn't going to end well. It's not the WORST building but given the potential of the site it's the most disappointing. Boston will be better for it but Boston could have been better with anything that WASN'T AN ELEVATED HIGHWAY. This is the ultimate shame of the Menino/Shen administration; that mediocrity was worth it if any development took place. I guess this is a hold over from the 90s recession and Menino's drive to build his ego. Thank GOD that is over. But we are still dealing with his legacy. One Canal should be renamed the Menino so we can all be forced to remember his "vision" of what Boston could be post-Big Dig.
 
Yea this should have been handled with more care as its the end of the greenway and therefore is a prominent location. It should have interacted with the greenway and contributed to it in its own way.

I like that cornice going up though
 
Suffolk 83 said:
Yea this should have been handled with more care as its the end of the greenway and therefore is a prominent location.
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If this building and the CA/T aftermath were done right, this building wouldn't even have to be - or feel like - the 'end of the greenway' at all.

I.e. if the ramps on either side of the North End parks actually got developed, the space would return to being defined by the surface level street grid, rather than by the invisible subterranean highway.

So, it's not the end of the Greenway - it's the apex of the Bulfinch Triangle. But it happens to do that poorly as well, of course.
 
CSTH said:
If this building and the CA/T aftermath were done right, this building wouldn't even have to be - or feel like - the 'end of the greenway' at all.

I.e. if the ramps on either side of the North End parks actually got developed, the space would return to being defined by the surface level street grid, rather than by the invisible subterranean highway.

So, it's not the end of the Greenway - it's the apex of the Bulfinch Triangle. But it happens to do that poorly as well, of course.
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Hopefully a new North Washington Street/Charlestown Bridge will make for a better connection across the river.

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Ah, ye - sorry my point wasn't that the Greenway should continue past here. My point was that the original plan was for it to stop at columbus park. The north end parks were meant to be a dicrete thing (from an urban design perspective, if not a project management perspective). And, you know, continuous urban fabric in general etc...
 
CSTH said:
Ah, ye - sorry my point wasn't that the Greenway should continue past here. My point was that the original plan was for it to stop at columbus park. The north end parks were meant to be a dicrete thing (from an urban design perspective, if not a project management perspective). And, you know, continuous urban fabric in general etc...
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Oh I thought we were agreeing... actually I quite like the idea of the greenway connecting beyond the greenway. Like the Emerald necklace, except downtown. But it just kinda peters out at either end now. Or in this case it does seem like One Canal has become a big monolithic book end to the greenway. To me it would be better visually if there was some better continuity of the greenway, could be just some nice pedestrian crossings and a bit of trees. Maybe eliminate some of the parking on North Washington Street to have more room on either side of the road.


Yes, the Boston Museum was supposed to build its big glass ship-shape-building over the ramps which would have been more of a punctuation on the greenway.

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Not sure I agree that or any structure on that parcel would have been better.
 
Fair enough - and I think we can agree that either scenario, by presenting some intelligent and thoughtful urban design, would be better than the status quo
 
This looks better in its unfinished state than with the brick cladding. Way more fun this way, unfinished. The brick finished product looks plodding and fascist.
 
CSTH said:
Fair enough - and I think we can agree that either scenario, by presenting some intelligent and thoughtful urban design, would be better than the status quo
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CSTH -- the worst obscene use of space is not what has been built -- rather its the giant city parking lot in a prime location right on Fulton St. at the boundary of the North End
 
Charlie_mta said:
That last one looks like a warehouse.
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Well that must be a good thing, then, given that all the remaining pre-WWII buildings in the Bulfinch Triangle that give it its quaint historic charm and urban texture were once originally warehouses... Google "Bulfinch Triangle warehouse" for ample documentation.
 
There's a lot about this building that I like. I like those pop-out bay windows along with the balconies (seemingly placed at random) and I do like the different color bricks that are used plus the older low rise white buildings were kept! This whole neighborhood is turning out rather well with lots more to come!
 
There is a thread on it somewhere I think. Not coming up in a search. :/
 
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