Raffles Boston (40 Trinity Place) | 426 Stuart Street | Back Bay

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Any estimates on how much higher this will go before topping out?
 
I think I like the glass on this more than the JHT...

This is the #1 problem with allowing glass towers right next to the JHT. One has glass from the 1970's, the other glass from the 2020's. We are basically making our best tower look worse in comparison.

Not to mention, the whole purpose of JHT to begin with was for the glass to reflect the more historical city surrounding it! This never should have been allowed. The Back Bay Garage buildings will only make things worse. There's an ongoing issue where the city's overall aesthetic just isn't taken into consideration with many proposals, for instance creating a new blob plateau by North Station where everything is the same height.

I for one am tired of the blue-glass tower trend. It used to seem a lot more special when we only had a sporadic few glass buildings (JHT, Exchange Place, and later 111 Huntington) but now we are approaching the tipping point and our city will be worse off for it.
 
Yep, too bad. I immediately thought of this from back in the day when Bloomberg allowed for 15 Penn Plaza to move forward despite people not wanting it to distract from the ESB

Council OKs New Neighbor For Empire State Bldg – CBS New York (cbslocal.com)

However, CBS 2’s Sean Hennessey reports Mayor Michael Bloomberg scoffed at the notion that the Empire State Building shouldn’t face a new competitor in New York City’s skyline.

“One guy owns a building, he’d like it to be the only tall building. I’m sorry that’s not the real world, nor should it be,” Bloomberg said.
 
Yep, too bad. I immediately thought of this from back in the day when Bloomberg allowed for 15 Penn Plaza to move forward despite people not wanting it to distract from the ESB

Council OKs New Neighbor For Empire State Bldg – CBS New York (cbslocal.com)

It's not about the height here, it's about the specific cladding. You could put this right across the street from the Hancock and I wouldn't complain at all. (except for the red key part)

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Yep, too bad. I immediately thought of this from back in the day when Bloomberg allowed for 15 Penn Plaza to move forward despite people not wanting it to distract from the ESB

Bloomberg wasn't wrong tho for the ESB. Either you move forward or you decide your cities skyline is a museum piece (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). NYC should never fall into that category. On the other hand, Paris went the opposite way after Tower Montparnasse. Paris on the other hand has a massive CBD outside of it and is basically powered internally by tourism.

I don't think Boston can be dictating too much. Cities aren't meant to be timeless even if it upsets us sometimes to see a new building ruin our favorite view.... at the end of the day, they're just buildings.

Bigger problem for me is that the JHT is a thoroughly antiurban structure for being in the middle of one of the most pedestrian friendly areas in the country. Between the wind amplification is creates and the three blank sides it does nothing to engage the actual people in the city.
 

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