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

Lrfox said:
Not Boston, but this one in Fall River this month may be worth watching: https://turnto10.com/news/local/date-set-for-demolition-of-brayton-point-cooling-towers

I’ll be heading down, grabbing a beer at Canned Heat on the waterfront and watching from Borden Light Marina. It’s not every day that you get to see 500 feet ( x2! ) of concrete imploded.
Click to expand...

Is this correct?

"The $600 million cooling towers were built starting 10 years ago in response to environmental concerns at the Brayton Point power plant."

No wonder electricity costs so much.
 
HalcyonEra said:
Is this correct?

"The $600 million cooling towers were built starting 10 years ago in response to environmental concerns at the Brayton Point power plant."

No wonder electricity costs so much.
Click to expand...

It is, and the plant owner shut the plant down in the last year or two, so they’re now a safety concern (and not easy on the eyes). But yeah, pretty big waste of money for 7/8 years of operation.
 
Re: Bulfinch Crossing | Congress Street Garage | West End

BeeLine said:
https://flic.kr/p/2fonyTr
Click to expand...
Too bad this ramp couldn't have been somehow saved, opened up, and repurposed inside the new office tower. Could have been a mini Guggenheim gallery or a few eccentric cafes/seating areas or collaboration spaces or something interesting.
 
type001 said:
I was thinking the same thing.
Click to expand...

I guess I have to ask... are you guys kidding? Although I am still laughing at the "Guggenheim" of parking ramps comment which alone is reason to read these boards.
 
tangent said:
I guess I have to ask... are you guys kidding?
Click to expand...

Well, I can't speak for Brad or Type001, but I do agree with them on the inherent value of the sculptural concrete form as an architectural artifact.

The great irony here is that Cesar Pelli's career began with work on one of the greatest sculptural concrete buildings ever conceived. A decade later during his tenure with Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, Pelli worked with Tony Lumsden on the visionary (and unbuilt) Urban Nucleus at Sunset Mountain Park.

Though the scales, intentions, and sites are radically different, both projects are of the age of the "superstructure." As Toby has astutely suggested, this is the architecture of the people who sent us to the Moon.
 
Lrfox said:
It is, and the plant owner shut the plant down in the last year or two, so they’re now a safety concern (and not easy on the eyes). But yeah, pretty big waste of money for 7/8 years of operation.
Click to expand...

Just put some racing stripes on it.
345.jpg
 
BB,
i'm gonna see 2 bldgs next week that you might consider prominent 'artifacts,' if not verified monuments. I'll be in SF Tuesday, and i'll make sure to check out Pereira's Transamerica Pyramid. And a few days later, i'll be on the UC San Diego campus, to check another of his works; the Geisel Library.

:)
 
Last edited:
^ We visited and photographed Geisel last August -- it's magnificent! After, we rolled over to the Salk Institute for a quick walk through. Concrete looks particularly lovely in the sunshine.

I occasionally correspond with Alan Hess. I believe he's working on a book that chronicles Pereira's storied career.
 
All of the original dorms and academic bldgs on the Revelle and Muir Campus' at UCSD are Brutalist.

i never gave it much thought back in the 80's when i was there, but for some reason i admired Muir because the layout was incredibly social, convenient & functional. Muir must be one of the more complete, standalone Brutalist collections you'll find anywhere. They're done much nicer than the Revelle dorms, which are a few years older, and more plain built at the inception of the University. But the Revelle academic bldgs are pretty cool. Especially the Humanities Undergrad Library. *Which i believe, has had it's name changed. But i refuse to call it something new.
 
tangent said:
I guess I have to ask... are you guys kidding? Although I am still laughing at the "Guggenheim" of parking ramps comment which alone is reason to read these boards.
Click to expand...

I was not, but at the same time, I am not upset that it came down.
 
^ Doesn't Boston get completely smoked by King Ghidorah in the upcoming Godzilla flick?
 
Beton Brut said:
^ Doesn't Boston get completely smoked by King Ghidorah in the upcoming Godzilla flick?
Click to expand...

Another reason to eliminate the film tax credits... have to keep Boston safe from Godzilla and her enemies.
 
type001 said:
I was not, but at the same time, I am not upset that it came down.
Click to expand...

Oh... errm... then I totally see what you are saying.

Actually I sort of do now, and I am usually all for maximum reuse of structurally sound buildings that have interesting character.

Still a little stumped on the parking ramp aspect, but I see how it could have been a fun space for displaying art and having people walking up and down the ramp to view it.

Now I am wondering if there are some defunct concrete water towers around that could be white washed on the inside and some art hung on the inside.
 
I know Beton will strongly disagree with me on this, but I liked the garage 1000x more after they painted it.

For some reason sooty, grimy concrete doesn't have the same charm as sooty, grimy stone and brick. To me it just doesn't age as well. The paint allowed me to look past the concrete and focus on the far more interesting structural elements.

That said, regardless of how visually interesting the garage was, it is still a painfully anti-urban nightmare structure and I'm glad to see it go.
 
Well, you know I'm a big "truth to materials" guy, but actually, there's not to much to disagree with here. Maybe I'm softening with age...

This particular garage was for the most part, a wholly utilitarian response that required some interesting engineering to allow for its gargantuan scale and placement above transit infrastructure. I'm interested in the way things are assembled, the engineering and the builders' craft. I wish I could spend some time watching this be taken apart -- pack a lunch and sit on a lawn chair.

All that said, there are beautiful parking structures, one relatively close, the other across the pond.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top