South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

[shmessy]

The passageway to the train concourse appears pretty narrow and tucked away on the Atlantic Ave side.
There is really nothing depicted that implies "major train station here." Surely some signage is planned but overall it appears they've reserved the "grand effect" for the arches and ceiling within.

Amen, bdurden!

I wrote similar lamentations about that in posts #3,093, 3097 and 3,099. Judging by the responses to those, most people really don't care, unfortunately.

I really wish we had more of the past's romance of urban architecture. Somewhere along the line, we've lost it in favor of bland glass and economic expedience.

 

[cburns]

The passageway to the train concourse appears pretty narrow and tucked away on the Atlantic Ave side.
There is really nothing depicted that implies "major train station here." Surely some signage is planned but overall it appears they've reserved the "grand effect" for the arches and ceiling within.

I hear you on this, but does that sentiment come from the bias towards this new structure and expanded concourse? South Station already has a grand entrance that offers placemaking through the original headhouse.

 

[bdurden]

I hear you on this, but does that sentiment come from the bias towards this new structure and expanded concourse? South Station already has a grand entrance that offers placemaking through the original headhouse.

Not necessarily. There is no intent on replacing the main original entrance and I don't believe (correct me if I'm wrong) any intent on behalf of this project to extensively change the layout of the entrance to South Station. It just seems like a missed opportunity (especially on the Atlantic Ave entrance), to design an interesting entry portal.

 

[HenryAlan]

If the intention of a grand entrance is to have people pass through the main concourse. This is especially important for any retail operations. Platform adjacent entrances miss that purpose, and tend to therefore be played down. Yes, they should be there for the sake of the rushed regional rail user, but for others, it's probably better for them to enter at the front of the headhouse.

 

[bdurden]

If the intention of a grand entrance is to have people pass through the main concourse. This is especially important for any retail operations. Platform adjacent entrances miss that purpose, and tend to therefore be played down. Yes, they should be there for the sake of the rushed regional rail user, but for others, it's probably better for them to enter at the front of the headhouse.

Anyone who frequently uses South Station knows that the side entrances are used quite a bit due to their conveniences to street crossings and accessibility to other nearby points of interest. I'm not sure anyone suggested a grand side entrance to rival the main entrance.

 

[shmessy]

If the intention of a grand entrance is to have people pass through the main concourse. This is especially important for any retail operations. Platform adjacent entrances miss that purpose, and tend to therefore be played down. Yes, they should be there for the sake of the rushed regional rail user, but for others, it's probably better for them to enter at the front of the headhouse.

It's not a back alley. In fact, it is a highly visible face to the ubers/taxis drop-off area for travelkers/tourists.

No one was asking for a huge/grand arch - - -just an archway instead of a rectangle - to keep the motif continuing.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[Java King]

I'm hoping for the effect of the original Gardner Museum entrance. You went through this tiny dark entranceway, and then it opened into a beautiful garden space. Maybe the impact will be similar. You poke into this rather drab rectangular entrance on Atlantic Avenue, and suddenly you find yourself in a cathedral of soaring arches and a bustling pedestrian space. (I have my fingers crossed!)

By the way, most of these featured train stations are NEW as opposed to the traditional stations:
Architectural Marvels: Spectacular Rail Stations Around the World (Part 1) - YouTube

 

[Dr. Rosen Rosen]

Just can’t get enough of this! I love seeing the two arches come together and the interior volume taking shape. And never enough rebar, right?!

 

[A Chicagoan]

From S&F Concrete's Facebook (more photos at link)

 

[HenryAlan]

These arches at vaulted ceilings are just about the coolest thing ever.

 

[Bananarama]

At the risk of sounding petty or a downer (these are great photos and very cool to see the formwork come down), these arches look quite a bit more typical than the elegant catenary-like ones we saw in the rendering. The spring point is much higher and the proportions are more stumpy - nearly half-half post to arch proportion. The geometry of the columns is also much simpler and doesn't have the octagonal plan, slanted faces anymore.

I also wonder about the finish of the arches (and the vaults too; something tells me that tessellated grid got VE'd to something more regular, but we'll see). The renderings seem to suggest raw board-form concrete with nice clean joints. I wonder if they'll actually expose what's been cast here, remediate it, or cover it with something else.

Excited to see this develop nonetheless.

 

[Equilibria]

At the risk of sounding petty or a downer (these are great photos and very cool to see the formwork come down), these arches look quite a bit more typical than the elegant catenary-like ones we saw in the rendering. The spring point is much higher and the proportions are more stumpy - nearly half-half post to arch proportion. The geometry of the columns is also much simpler and doesn't have the octagonal plan, slanted faces anymore.

View attachment 29761

I also wonder about the finish of the arches (and the vaults too; something tells me that tessellated grid got VE'd to something more regular, but we'll see). The renderings seem to suggest raw board-form concrete with nice clean joints. I wonder if they'll actually expose what's been cast here, remediate it, or cover it with something else.

Excited to see this develop nonetheless.

Let's see what happens - wouldn't be surprised if there were VE but I also remember that a lot of these details were finishes and not structural. They may just have the structural core of the arch up so far.

 

[bigpicture7]

Let's see what happens - wouldn't be surprised if there were VE but I also remember that a lot of these details were finishes and not structural. They may just have the structural core of the arch up so far.

I was just thinking the same about your latter point. The final geometry could be an aestheic overlay atop the core structure. It would seemingly be incredibly expensive to fully cast-in-place the shown geometry. Also, the stonework shown in the render looks like small pieces of stone veneer, which could be overlaid atop some framing work that wraps the cast concrete. Certainly not saying I know one way or the other, but my eye always felt the early renders were essentially un-buildable as shown.

The bigger question mark for me is: the render shows three sets of archways, yet the construction site only appears to contain one at the moment. Are they going to move aside to build another one (or more) of these, whilst closing the currently-open outdoor train passenger concourse, and shifting it to free up another construction zone? Methinks so, because this current set of arches is too small to support the tower we've been shown.

 

[stick n move]

At the risk of sounding petty or a downer (these are great photos and very cool to see the formwork come down), these arches look quite a bit more typical than the elegant catenary-like ones we saw in the rendering. The spring point is much higher and the proportions are more stumpy - nearly half-half post to arch proportion. The geometry of the columns is also much simpler and doesn't have the octagonal plan, slanted faces anymore.

View attachment 29761

I also wonder about the finish of the arches (and the vaults too; something tells me that tessellated grid got VE'd to something more regular, but we'll see). The renderings seem to suggest raw board-form concrete with nice clean joints. I wonder if they'll actually expose what's been cast here, remediate it, or cover it with something else.

Excited to see this develop nonetheless.

The arches in the render have a veneer over them, the end result is going to be different than the underlying structure, the same as when exposed columns in buildings get a veneer put on them.

The bigger question mark for me is: the render shows three sets of archways, yet the construction site only appears to contain one at the moment. Are they going to move aside to build another one (or more) of these, whilst closing the currently-open outdoor train passenger concourse, and shifting it to free up another construction zone? Methinks so, because this current set of arches is too small to support the tower we've been shown.

In this picture vs the other sides of the arches the side is completely flat, it definitely appears the next arch will be built abutting this side. It appears on the top right and top left there are already concrete beams in place ready to tie into the next arches.

 

[Bananarama]

The arches in the render have a veneer over them, the end result is going to be different than the underlying structure, the same as when exposed columns in buildings get a veneer put on them.

Yeah probably. The rendering is very ambiguous - I swear that's a board form texture I've used a hundred times before, but maybe just some notional tile of something with hairline vertical joints . The earlier iteration even showed a zoomed out view of an edge with seemingly raked concrete suggesting something more monolithic.

I wish the presentation and documents we have included more drawings. Would love to see a section through the space. The scraps from 2016 are pretty sparse.

 

[bigpicture7]

Yeah probably. The rendering is very ambiguous - I swear that's a board form texture I've used a hundred times before...

You're right, on closer inspection that does look like a board-formed texture.The presence of the crisp black seam lines threw me off; yet, I supposed if one were to board-form this, you'd need a faceted form otherwise you'd need multi-axis curved form boards, which would be so expensive I couldn't even imagine. It is so tough to know whether that was just a placeholder texture, or whether this was VE'd. Either way, the answer to that question doesn't preclude the final geometry being different from the visible cast-in-place concrete we see onsite now.

 

[dirtywater]

To answer some questions from earlier in the thread, it appears that there will be an entrance to the new concourse on the Summer Street side.

And that the arch will be visible and the entry point on the Summer Street side based on this rendering, which appears to be looking out the arch onto Summer Street:

 

[Jahvon09]

From the looks of things, it would appear as though the tower itself will be sitting atop the arches when it begins to rise to the sky. Am I correct in assuming that this is how things will be?

 

[BostonObserver]

Perhaps an architect an elaborate on this further, when the Wang Center was renovated an article I read said that the first 2 rooms had low ceiling so that you would be overwhelmed when you walked into the main lobby

 

[guitarguynboston]

From the above render it appears you wait inside South Station main concourse to see the Train board then when the platform is announced you run outside through a wind tunnel to only enter another door to where the platforms are??? What's the reasoning for that Archway area to be outside instead of inclosed with the platforms?

Seems strange from a functioning point of view.