Renovations to BPL's Johnson Wing | Back Bay

Massive trees are being delivered to be installed out front. HUGE improvement on what was there before. I can only imagine what they cost...
 
They need to plant trees like that from one end of Boylston to the other.
 
xec said:
They need to plant trees like that from one end of Boylston to the other.
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Boylston is the one East-West Street in the Back Bay that really doesn't have many trees. The pedestrian experience would be greatly improved if trees were planted along its length and this is a good start to that. You can see how lacking it is compared to other streets in any aerial picture of the neighborhood.
 
Sorry to go off topic but this makes we wonder if more people do not know about this.
https://www.cityofboston.gov/Parks/StreetTrees/seasonal.asp
All you do is contact them and they will come plant a tree for you in a few months if the plot meets the requirements. Anybody can do it and its free, the city even comes and prunes/waters it for you. There are so many spots around the city that should have trees but do not and I wonder if they just do not know that all it takes is an email or phone call. I wonder if someone contacted them and said Boylston could use a lot more trees if they would listen or if it is strictly and individual plot basis.
 
How will those trees affect the bleachers by the marathon finish line? Are they doing away with the bleachers, or will these be behind them?
 
Love the huge trees!!

That's a very nice design for massive concrete.

But, awesome new skyscraper out the back doesn't even get a mention. :)
 
They REALLY should put trees like these up and down Boylston. Solid idea. It's kind of a concrete jungle...

As for the bleachers, I'm sure they'll have to set up around them to accommodate. But they'll make the finish line experience look even better.
 
With the exception of a new trees covering street signs, trees are almost always a plus. How many times have you seen a tree lined street and think "the trees are an eyesore". The more trees the better. The nice thing about trees is that they get bigger and look better every year.
 
Id imagine there are more trees coming I doubt they are only going to plant a couple of them.
 
odurandina said:
Love the huge trees!!

That's a very nice design for massive concrete.

But, awesome new skyscraper out the back doesn't even get a mention. :)
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Odurandia -- Ye of little respect for the glorious creation of Philip Johnson -- that is Milford Granite on the outside [veneer to be sure]-- the same exterior materials that McKim used nearly one hundred years before

underneath of course its steel and concrete
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[/url]Boston Public Library Johnson building construction, January 1971 by Boston Public Library, on Flickr
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-- but of course similarly underneath the skin of the McKim is
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Mock-up of cornice on scaffolding, construction of the McKim Building by Boston Public Library
View from S. S. Pierces by Boston Public Library, on Flickr
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whoops its real stone and brick with the famous very thin Rafael Guastavino tile arches holding up the main floor :eek:
 
BuilditDenser said:
With the exception of a new trees covering street signs, trees are almost always a plus. How many times have you seen a tree lined street and think "the trees are an eyesore". The more trees the better. The nice thing about trees is that they get bigger and look better every year.
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Trees, tree lined streets, are with very very few exceptions universally associated with successful affluent cities and neighborhoods. They do have some practical purposes in terms of shading in the Summer and letting light through in the Winter, but mostly it seems to be more of a primal human instinct sort of thing and self perpetuating correlation that people associate trees so much with affluence and established neighborhoods that it can become itself a gentrifying influence.

Not that this section really needed to be gentrified further, but in terms of giving the street scape a more "established" feel, those trees (properly maintained) should really help.

Would be good if people were more aware in general of the use of trees in landscape and city architecture and also the use of (seasonal) light and shadow.

I often see trees plopped along streets where they are going to get nothing but shade from the buildings to the South. Which could be the case here, but hopefully they are large enough trees which can get above the shadow.
 
That's insane. Thanks! Do we get a section in the library dedicated for the construction history?

And the City cries out for a dedicated history museum.

After the construction is done, Back Bay can be trees lined with streets.
 
JeffDowntown said:
I hope they take root. It is really tough transplanting trees that size -- high failure rate!

They look great, though. Worth the investment.
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JeffDowntown -- the good news is that they are far enough from the street where they would be subjected to salt and other bad stuff in the winter

The real hope is that the holes are big enough and well provided with water -- limiting the roots, abusing the surface roots and letting things dry-out those are the major killers of city trees

as West-Ends -- Spock would say "Live Long and Prosper"
spock__live_long_and_prosper_by_artistik_ly_bent-d6h454b.jpg
 
Looks incredible. Whoever's idea it was to bring in those mature trees needs a free beer for life. Theres no...it'll looks great when the trees finally fill in in 10 years here. Once this thing is done its done.
 
I took a class on Theater Architecture in grad school and all the architecture kids were also taking a class called "Humanizing Brutalism" at the same time. I imagine this is what that class was all about. Taking a hulking old building that one can not relate to, and pulling it back down to human scale with smart interventions.
 
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