State Street HQ | One Congress | Bulfinch Crossing | West End

This building is way too wide. Grotesquely wide. And that curtain wall looks like something out of the 70s. The raised, metallic mullions contrast starkly with the blue glass, making the skin look busy and negating any sensual effect the building's smoothly curving facade might have had otherwise.

What an enormous disappointment this one turned out to be.

The same was said about JHT ... it was too wide. Turns out to be the icon of the Boston skyline.
 
That's a custom curve, so you likely need custom windows for each "column" of windows. Same thing happened with One Dalton, and there was some more info available on here about the ridiculous multi-country supply chain those followed.

I don't think there's much of a rush here. COO won't be granted until the garage is down.

I hope the extended and continuous shutdown of the green line next month shows some significant progress on that front...
Well put, but per column wouldn't you still assume for a % loss even with tight supply? If they can make enough for the building, they can make a couple more per column.
 
The demo of this monster garage still fascinates me. Some updates
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The length of time of this demo provides some counterpoint to the oft-heard notion that "all brutalist buildings have a built-in shelf life and once they start to decay there's no fixing it."

Not saying there's no merit at all to the above critique, but for an over-70 year old brutalist structure (other than the early '90s top office floor) to put up this much of a fight against being torn down seems strangely at odds wth that frequent criticism of builidings from the brutalist school of design/thought.
 
They are only doing substantive demolition during the T closures, apparently. I watched them remove one of the planks and it too a long time.
 
The length of time of this demo provides some counterpoint to the oft-heard notion that "all brutalist buildings have a built-in shelf life and once they start to decay there's no fixing it."

Not saying there's no merit at all to the above critique, but for an over-70 year old brutalist structure (other than the early '90s top office floor) to put up this much of a fight against being torn down seems strangely at odds wth that frequent criticism of builidings from the brutalist school of design/thought.

I think a lot of that argument isn't about the structure but about electrical wiring, plumbing, wifi, etc. all of which the concrete walls make harder to access. The buildings rot from the inside out and leave a skeleton that's a monster to remove.
 
They are only doing substantive demolition during the T closures, apparently. I watched them remove one of the planks and it too a long time.

They’re doing a non-stop closure of the green line under Haymarket (with the orange line bypassing the station) from June 12th through the 25th and I’m really hoping they would only do such a substantial closure if that would be enough to demo the rest of the garage. Not holding my breath though.
 
I think a lot of that argument isn't about the structure but about electrical wiring, plumbing, wifi, etc. all of which the concrete walls make harder to access. The buildings rot from the inside out and leave a skeleton that's a monster to remove.

Thanks! Makes sense. I hadn't thought that one through.
 
Maybe if they take long enough to take down the garage, we will get something better than more lab space. Wishful thinking, I know.

Honestly, solid logic. It certainly works the other way... The longer things take, the more of a disaster we know a respective project will be. I'll jump with you on this one. They chose the worst building in the city way too early, it usually comes in the final render :)
 
Honestly, solid logic. It certainly works the other way... The longer things take, the more of a disaster we know a respective project will be. I'll jump with you on this one. They chose the worst building in the city way too early, it usually comes in the final render :)
Maybe the blob building in the render will become less blob-like.
 
Maybe the blob building in the render will become less blob-like.
The first render was so inspiring: it had those smaller shops in the foreground—made the whole area look so dynamic. All those cool pedestrian ways. The lab will be an improvement over the garage but not by much. I’m looking forward to the second (medium sized) residential tower going up.
 
The length of time of this demo provides some counterpoint to the oft-heard notion that "all brutalist buildings have a built-in shelf life and once they start to decay there's no fixing it."

Not saying there's no merit at all to the above critique, but for an over-70 year old brutalist structure (other than the early '90s top office floor) to put up this much of a fight against being torn down seems strangely at odds wth that frequent criticism of builidings from the brutalist school of design/thought.
The garage is more like 60 years old. Government Center started to take shape in the early 1960's.
 

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