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

If nobody important cared there wouldn't be a combined 274 buildings completed or U/C worldwide that are over 1000', or 311 that eclipse the international supertall standard of 984' (300m). Clearly there are important people who care enough to build that many buildings. Even Mayor Menino, an important person in Boston, wanted to get a supertall here. Unfortunately it was too little, too late, in an unfeasible location due to FAA, but it was a real sentiment. Many people, even just casual people who have lived here long enough and don't REALLY care, would still like to see Boston eclipse the Hancock someday. These are the real world numbers. If nobody cared, the Hancock wouldn't be on its way to dropping out of the Top 1000 tallest buildings within 50 years from being Top 20 when it was built.
 
RandomWalk said:
Tangent: There’s a really nice book about the impact of zoning choices in NYC/Chicago on their respective skylines. It’s called Form Follows Finance.
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I'll second this. It isn't too long, has very useful pictures and floor plans, and lays out in no uncertain terms why NYC and Chicago buildings ended up the way they did. I'd put it in my top 5 architecture books that had actual real world practical value and wasn't just a bunch of design/theory archibabble.

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I almost wish the building would stay un-cladded like that. It is all the more impressive to see each and every steel level looming over the West End and the round shape means it looks like nothing else under construction Boston right now (or ever, to my knowledge).
 
This area of town could be great in 10-15 years. Very excited to see what happens with the state services complex and also that policy station is probably due for some love/relocation.
 
DZH22 said:
I just want to point out that a 910' building, if it popped up tomorrow, would be 287th (or worse) in the world. That's based on completed buildings, today, in the skyscraperpage database. I'm sure there are plenty in China and some other places that aren't on there. Also, according to the same database, there are 165 buildings currently under construction that are over 910', meaning even a 910' building, which is 120' taller than the Hancock, soon wouldn't make the world's top 450.
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Also, right now on the CTBUH the Hancock is ranked 631st. On SSC they have a section called Rate Our Talls with threads for every building in the world >250 meters. You go through pages and pages of random Chinese boxes and Boston never appears once.
 
Hubman said:
OK fine
point taken
I didn't mean it like that but looking back it seems like unfortunate wording- oh well.
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I absolutely agreed with your post, Hubman, my warped mind found humor in the situation. Hence the laughing emoji. It’s all good.
 
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DZH22 said:
5/12 from Woburn. Look at how much it towers over its neighbors here. It will visually be the second tallest building on the downtown skyline from this view, until Winthrop Square is topped off. I have a strong feeling this one is really going ~630' to the top of the higher fin.

IMG_9039 by David Z, on Flickr

IMG_9043 by David Z, on Flickr
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I look up at it daily and am astonished by its size perception because of surrounding area. It's dominant. And it definitely looks like it will finish 125-150' taller, minimum, depending on what that fin does and whether it was cut down a bit.
 
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