St Paul's Cathedral Alteration (Nautilus Pediment) | Tremont St | Downtown Crossing

I ran by this last night and it's already broken and only partially lights up. What a disaster.
 
There is an 'it should have been done better' thread running through the comments here. No amount of 'better' would have saved this mess. The swimming-pool-liner-blue background has been noted. Does it fit with the rest of the building? No. Do the curving lines of the design fit with the severe triangular space they've been confined in? No. Does the garish night-time lighting fit with the rest of the building? No. This design (absent the hideous blue) could work - on another, new building. In this case, it looks like vinyl siding on a Second Empire house. With neon lights.

As to the symbolism, it probably works. Given the way it eschews Christian iconography of any kind, I think we can assume that this is exactly what the congregation wanted. It's a good way to say 'don't confuse us with those Christians.' And it certainly is their right to say so. But did they have to say it in such an eye-poking way? It looks like the entrance to the Tri-Cities Mall.
 
This would have looked amazing if it had been done in stone and lit well.
 
As a concept it was interesting!

Too bad it turned out like a swirling toilet full of Ty-D-Bol.
 
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Finally remembered to go see this today. It looks like shit in person too...

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I am by no means an expert on all things architecture...I just know what I like. This is just hideous. I don't understand what they were trying to do. It looks cheap and like something a HS art class would do...if they were from a school for the mentally challenged. And even then I think they'd do a better job than what this turned out to be.
 
Cojapo said:
I am by no means an expert on all things architecture...I just know what I like. This is just hideous. I don't understand what they were trying to do. It looks cheap and like something a HS art class would do...if they were from a school for the mentally challenged. And even then I think they'd do a better job than what this turned out to be.
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The original concept looked good. It appears to have been VE'd to oblivion. Maybe it was the designer's fault though - maybe there never was budget for the original concept and they should have gone with something else entirely from the beginning.
 
I'm still in shock that this is the finished result.

The cheap blue panels with seams behind the nautilus... what? Replace the background with a blue granite or marble and we'd be most of the way towards salvaging this. Kickstarter, anyone?
 
Shopping mall kiosks selling Shamwows have higher construction standards than this. Sad.
 
whatever that blue corkboard looking crap is, I swear the exact same stuff is popping up on the facades of local Diary Queens. I first saw it on the dairy queen in Brockton and now I see it has spread to the DQ in Natick.
 
I hoped this thread popped up because there was news that this blemish was being removed.
 
gooseberry said:
I hoped this thread popped up because there was news that this blemish was being removed.
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Ditto! Trouble is raising scaffolding again to remove it costs an arm and a leg...wonder if anyone budgeted for it? DONATIONS??
 

I think it will be a great photo op on some winter night with snow falling in front of the electric nautilus
 
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