I've got to say... I know the Hurley Building has lots of fans here, so I'll tread carefully. It is funky and endearing in a Blade Runner/Gattaca/Albany, NY, sort of way, and I understand the sentiment that it'd make a cool hotel, shopping center, residential space, or mix of all of the above.
But I still see it as bad for the urban environment. As monumental as it is (or maybe because it's so monumental), I always have the feeling that the Hurley fills its space poorly. In being long, short and monolithic, it's very anti-urban and even strikes me as being a fundamentally suburban structure (and not only because its plaza is a parking lot). It monopolizes the street in a way that is characteristic of the Raytheon HQ in Lexington, the TJX offices in Framingham, or any of the other office parks in Burlington, Waltham, etc. Yes, the staircases depicted above are pretty funky, but that's a small part of a very large building that for the most part is much less detailed and more monolithic. Even if you put retail in there, it'd still be a monolithic, deadening structure once you get past the staircases. I dig the B&W close-ups of the stairs, and when I see them I begin to think it would be a great hotel. But then I recall the rest of the structure, and the fantasy ends.
