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

urbanmansprawler said:
Nice picture, but is that seriously a protest supporting the reinstatement of the Pahlavi royal family in Iran, who themselves were puppets of a containment-obsessed Cold War America? I suppose if you're going to advocate for something you misunderstand, do it in your youth.
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The lion emblem goes back much further than the Pahlavi dynasty. My take on the use in current protests is that it is an appeal to a non-Islamic Republic version of Iran, rather than a specific desire to restore the monarchy.
 
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Blackbird said:
Back Bay Station redev can’t happen fast enough. Much as I love Tasty Burger, that foreground is depressing.
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It's funny/fun to observe tastes changing in real time. When I was in 9th grade I took an architecture course and one day the instructor took us on a walking tour of Back Bay, pointing out and discussing in detail buildings of note. The man was completely smitten with the then-not quite new, but certainly not "old" Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Back Bay station. Absolutely gushing about how much thought was put into every design component and how the project had been executed flawlessly, etc. And he wasn't alone -- there were plenty of reports in the Globe and elsewhere touting Back Bay Station's design (when I was even smaller, similar praise for Alewife as an architectural feat when it opened).

Cut to hanging out on aB these past many years and I've never heard anything, but unrestrained hate for the station, inside and out.
 
chrisbrat said:
The man was completely smitten with the then-not quite new, but certainly not "old" Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Back Bay station. Absolutely gushing about how much thought was put into every design component and how the project had been executed flawlessly, etc.
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Do you remember what in particular he liked about it?

I’m at least willing to believe it was probably less grimy back then. I’m sure a power washing would do wonders for the station if not the garage next door.
 
Blackbird said:
Do you remember what in particular he liked about it?
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Mostly that Back Bay Station had been designed as a place of civic importance, while also remaining a functional train station (I don't believe the air-quality issues had come to light by this point) -- the goal of putting the civic value of the structure front and center. The arcade of wooden arches is, of course, the defining feature of the station and he loved how they pull out of the enclosure and help define the outdoor space surrounding the station as well on the Dartmouth side, while the Clarendon street entrance, conversely, pulled in/back to provide a through-way for cars and busses. The brick clad ventilation towers which define the Clarendon street side -- again, functional, but also a landmark element that draws upon references to historical parts of Boston. And the salvaged bits of the previous station that are incorporated into the new structure, bringing the themes of the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods into the project w/o carbon-copying typologies from those neighborhoods.
 
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