Radian (Dainty Dot) | 120 Kingston Street | Chinatown

[Justin7]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I think what most people here seem to want is an Atlantic Wharf. A brick base with a glass tower.

Something like this would be nice:



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[HenryAlan]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I don't like that at all. Atlantic Wharf works, but there is a really bad mismatch in this rendering between the old and the new. It's quite jarring, looking like the new building is eating the old.

 

[KentXie]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I don't like that at all. Atlantic Wharf works, but there is a really bad mismatch in this rendering between the old and the new. It's quite jarring, looking like the new building is eating the old.

Personally, I don't see the problem. It's basically a better version of Exchange Place.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

...Menino and Shen have won and won big. They put a high class apartment tower in what was the slummiest part of _Chinatown_ much less Boston...The tragedy here is that architectural preservationists have no idea how hard they've lost the fight. And the time between now and when they realize this will be spent charging at windmills. I hope when it hits them, there will still be time to fight the real fight: to ensure that the new building is good. To ensure that it is porous enough for public access and beautiful enough for public admiration...

Dude, I have no idea what you are talking about. The building that is going to be put up is a value engineered hot steaming POS, not a "high class apartment tower". Haven't you seen the pictures? The "non-iconic" ones?

The "fight", as you put it, is over now that Dainty Dot looks like 1942 Stalingrad. If this is your idea of a good result, I'll bet there is a job waiting for you over at City Hall.

 

[DZH22]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Dude, I have no idea what you are talking about. The building that is going to be put up is a value engineered hot steaming POS, not a "high class apartment tower". Haven't you seen the pictures? The "non-iconic" ones?

The "fight", as you put it, is over now that Dainty Dot looks like 1942 Stalingrad. If this is your idea of a good result, I'll bet there is a job waiting for you over at City Hall.

+1 He sounds like he just started following this project last week.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Another render:

The original, built in 1889:

^^^Photograph apparently antedates the major fire that burned the upper floors in March 1893.

Over half the building was demolished for the Central Artery. The east facing brick wall that was visible was originally an internal fire wall.

http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Auchmuty Building Study Report_tcm3-17374.pdf

^^^^ Includes other old pictures.

 

[tobyjug]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Thanks SF!

A bit of irony on page 22 of the report:

"120 Kingston Street is a solid and interesting example of the work of Winslow &
Wetherell. However, other of their commercial buildings—including the Hotel
Touraine, Shreve Crump & Low, the Proctor Building (which was designated a
Boston Landmark in 1983), and the Jewelers’ Building—were more favorably
ranked at the time of their construction."

The new design is cheap looking. When the design looks cheap, imagine how much the "quality" of the design will be hollowed out in the final product.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

There were only a couple of renders of the original design, and its hard to gauge how much of a setback there was between the Dainty Dot facade and the new tower portion, but the elevation drawing suggests that the Dainty Dot facade and less than ten feet of the building's interior would have remained (and the original proposal called for demolishing 40 percent of the facade along Kingston St (?).

Several facadectomies from the capital of facadectomies, all these buildings are within six blocks of each other on the same street. And all these buildings preserved more of the original building depth than what would have been preserved of the Dainty Dot building.


Embassy of Mexico

Embassy of Spain

Red Lion Row.

I chose these last two images deliberately because they mask the concrete ocean-liner that's parked behind the facades. To appreciate the full view:

http://c1038.r38.cf3.rackcdn.com/group2/building14107/media/042hlz4.jpg

There are a lot of judgments being made with respect to Dainty Dot on the basis of precious few renderings. Just saying,.....

 

[Justin7]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

whighlander said it better than I could have. All I can add is this:

Menino and Shen have won and won big. They put a high class apartment tower in what was the slummiest part of _Chinatown_ much less Boston. This infusion of real estate tax dollars, rich people, and their money will be a win: for Menino, Shen, Bostonians, and the people of Chinatown.

The tragedy here is that architectural preservationists have no idea how hard they've lost the fight. And the time between now and when they realize this will be spent charging at windmills. I hope when it hits them, there will still be time to fight the real fight: to ensure that the new building is good. To ensure that it is porous enough for public access and beautiful enough for public admiration.

Old does not mean good, and new does not mean bad. Even if old tends to mean good, and new tends to mean bad. I don't think anybody remembers the buildings that the Apple Store or Prudential Center displaced.

AmericanFolkLegend, on the Atlantic wharf. Among the many good things about that building, the red brick facade facing Fort Point Channel isn't one of them. That facade went up when the area was still a slum. Its interface with the water might be worse than the Intercontinental's facade next to it.

Having said all this , I walked from the Boston Opera House to the Dainty Dot building along Avenue De Lafayette. Watching that building as I approached it was a glorious sight. I recommend all of you do it during the daylight within the next 48 hours before it is no more.

Riflemanesque.

 

[TheRifleman]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Another render:

The original, built in 1889:

Why is every building being design have some Millennium type style to it.

Filenes proposal is starting to make me SICK. A Fucked up Jetsons episode with Spacley Sprocketts takes over the entire development community for Downtown..

 

[KentXie]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

IMO, the current proposal resembles slightly the cancelled One Ten Westminister tower in Providence though that tower was better designed.

 

[SeamusMcFly]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Why is every building being design have some Millennium type style to it.

Filenes proposal is starting to make me SICK. A Fucked up Jetsons episode with Spacley Sprocketts takes over the entire development community for Downtown..

Were Hanna and Barbera so prescient?

Does that make Don C. Cogswell? He is always on the losing end it seems and full of bluster.

 

[JoeMail]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Is Archstone or the building to replace Dainty Dot "porous enough for public access and beautiful enough for public admiration?"

Like all Archstone buildings, it is a sculptural expression of mediocrity and economic compromise. But when your alternative is a parking lot, mediocrity begins to look pretty fetching.

The glass lobby is visible from the street and guarded by a doorman who adds class to a neighborhood that periodically catches herpes from nearby strip clubs.

In an ephemeral fantasy, that building once housed a neighborhood library. The retail space available at street level is actually very nice.

As for 120 Kingston St, it looks like half of the usable floor space on the ground will be accessible to the public. Sounds porous to me.


Regarding facadectomy: I'm reminded of an episode of Dr. Who set 5 billion years in the future. There remains one last surviving human being . She is a piece of skin stretched out on a steel frame, which pumps blood into her. Attendants with spray bottles hover around her to keep her moist.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Cassandra_O'Brien.Δ17

That's what it feels like to see these old facades grafted onto glass and steel. A building that has lived it's life and graced our streets forced to live past it's time -- unnatural and morbid.

... If this is your idea of a good result, I'll bet there is a job waiting for you over at City Hall.

Given my employment situation, that actually sounds like a dream job!

 

[tobyjug]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

You are a good sport!

If the new building were an upgrade on Dainty Dot, I'd be less bothered about it.

But to SF's point about a rush to judgment, I don't have to step in shit to know I don't want to step in shit!

 

[itchy]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

From the article about the mural by the Brazilian artists now going up on the ventilation-shaft structure on the Greenway:

It was Alonzo who scouted out Boston for a proper public canvas. A handful of buildings were considered, with the brothers’ first choice being the brick, Dainty Dot building on the edge of Chinatown. But the former factory building is being demolished, so they settled on the Dewey Square location. Alonzo also hooked the twins up with the Hotel Revere, feeling it would be perfect to feature Os Gemeos in a spot in the center of Boston’s night life.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/the...ry-art-show/47Pzbl4eStzi2jkz87bKLJ/story.html

 

[gooseberry]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

 

[gooseberry]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

Regarding facadectomy: I'm reminded of an episode of Dr. Who set 5 billion years in the future. There remains one last surviving human being . She is a piece of skin stretched out on a steel frame, which pumps blood into her. Attendants with spray bottles hover around her to keep her moist.

That's what it feels like to see these old facades grafted onto glass and steel. A building that has lived it's life and graced our streets forced to live past it's time -- unnatural and morbid.

So you would rather have the generic office park building without the facades in this picture that stellarfun posted? Since our society apparently isn't capable of matching the quality of a block of modest row homes from 150 years ago, I prefer the facadectomy route.

 

[Boston02124]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

stop now and save the rest!

 

[datadyne007]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

This is just horrific.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: 120 Kingston, 29 Story Tower in Chinatown

I'm sure they're just doing an extra thorough gutting of the building and will then replace it brick by brick. Right guys? Right...?