One Post Office Square Makeover and Expansion | Financial District

The Pru is one of the best 1960's towers in America!

good luck changing one of the best examples of modernism....

you'd be prying it from my cold dead hands!

Beton Brut said:
From characterful to featureless in 3...2...1...

Shiny can still be ghastly.
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we meet as strange companions at 1 POS....

it's one of those blah pieces of shit that i don't abjectly hate and i have absolutely no idea why (because it's not as fat as other downtown towers).

there are probably 7-8 buildings i'd beg to see decked in glass. 1 POS might make my top 15.
 
I hate just about everything, but this will probably be fine.
 
Batmarch said:
Does anyone think that this will actually be built?
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Why wouldn't it? There are no land acquisition cost hurdles, no significant permitting issues, no NIMBY complainers etc. I don't see why the building owner would get as far into the process as they appear to be if they had little intention of actually going through with this.
 
The old skin forces you to look up and admire the unquie shape,the new skin looks like the pudgy person who wears horizontal stripes
 
^ up close, the old skin / cantilever forms are better; they are interesting to gaze at.

However, from afar, as previous comments and photos have shown, the old skin/form makes this thing looks like a big gray blob in the middle of downtown.

The proposed generic glass skin might make the skyline look better from afar,
But I just can't get past how this will look like a pudgy glass box from many vantage points if they go through with this...I honestly feel this won't be that different from 888 Boylston in that regard...i mean, at least install some ribbing or textural features please.

I understand they don't have property acquisition, zoning, or NIMBY hurdles, but this will still need to clear the BCDC, right? Meaning, the design still has a chance to be refined?
 
Mostly just hoping they decide to level the garage.
 
^My thoughts too, but unfortunately it looks like the way they are going to maximize the size is by expanding each floor to the max size. And I didn't see anything about height increase, which means we are going to end up with a new fatty.

EDIT: I stand corrected. This is not a box. It will be a little bit more girthy, but still interesting.

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Building out those corners and re-cladding the entire facade would be extraordinarily expensive. There's no simple structural solution there.
 
mdd said:
Building out those corners and re-cladding the entire facade would be extraordinarily expensive. There's no simple structural solution there.
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I wish they'd just leave this building as is, collect less-than-premium rents on it, and take all the money they would spend renovating and put it towards building a new tower somewhere else. That's the simple solution, and it is exactly what would happen in a market with fewer supply restrictions.

This tower in its current configuration may not be able to land blue chip tenants, but there are plenty of startups and small businesses who would gladly pay less-than-premium rents for less-than-beautiful office space in an amazing location. Having relatively cheaper semi-undesirable space downtown is a good thing for everyone but the landlord.
 
JumboBuc said:
I wish they'd just leave this building as is, collect less-than-premium rents on it, and take all the money they would spend renovating and put it towards building a new tower somewhere else. That's the simple solution, and it is exactly what would happen in a market with fewer supply restrictions.

This tower in its current configuration may not be able to land blue chip tenants, but there are plenty of startups and small businesses who would gladly pay less-than-premium rents for less-than-beautiful office space in an amazing location. Having relatively cheaper semi-undesirable space downtown is a good thing for everyone but the landlord.
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The degree of expense does raise the question -- maybe they have to reclad the building? Could the cladding system be at end of life, such that this recladding / expansion is really being executed as an opportunity at a time when the expense of recladding has to happen anyway?
 
This looks pretty amateurish for a firm as noted as Gensler. Developer could have used Elkus or CBT and gotten the same kind of mediocrity. The mid-level "belt" is clumsy and only serves to dilute the sense of verticality. And the gimmicky top. Are they trying to make it literally a crown?
 
^^they could pull off something akin to 1 Congress by extending the glass screen, thus allowing the tower appear less fat.
 
Too bad they can’t get rid of the glass penthouse on the old Federal Reserve while they’re reworking the tower.
 
^^^YESSSS!

Its funny to think back to how self-satisfied many were with the manner in which the Federal Reserve building was saved. It was ok, but not a masterpiece. The chocolate bar. The coffered ceiling. The dining room ceiling. Fine.

But that tin foil hat is horrible. And one POS, well...
 
tobyjug said:
But that tin foil hat is horrible. And one POS, well...
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I'll make a conjecture that the faux-mansard glass hat is a truncated riff on Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre. At best, it looks dated.
 
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