Suggestions for stalled developments

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Lrfox

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Did anyone see this on Boston.com? I almost put it in the Filene's thread as 1/2 of the suggestions are for that spot, but it does include more spots (including Columbus Center). Sam Yoon's is interesting (don't know if I'd want it), but the rest seem to be childish crap (I know, what else would you expect from the Globe). Take a look.

Visions and revisions
We asked designers to suggest ways to spruce up stalled building projects around the city. Practical and whimsical alike, the results are a far cry from Boston?s buttoned-down norm.

By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / September 20, 2009

There is no telling when a building will rise again at the stalled Filene?s redevelopment, so the city?s architects are filling the void with a few ideas of their own: One is proposing to use the site for a makeshift movie theater, another envisions an exhibit for 1950s neon signs, and still another imagines a towering vertical garden to grow algae for alternative fuels.... (continued) http://www.boston.com/business/arti...e_up_stalled_building_projects_around_boston/
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There's also a photo section of the 25 designs here: http://www.boston.com/business/arti...e_up_stalled_building_projects_around_boston/

Our amateur (and professional) architects can submit their designs too here: http://www.boston.com/business/gallery/holerenderingsubmit/
 
There was already a long discussion about this that started on page 151 of the Filenes thread.
 
Hasn't this been online for weeks? I was kinda shocked to see it run in the paper after all this time.
 
czsz said:
Hasn't this been online for weeks? I was kinda shocked to see it run in the paper after all this time.
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Boston.com is produced by a different division than Boston Globe print. Rumor is they refuse to cooperate with each other---due to Boston.com staff being brought on board outside of the union hackery hiring process----and now only speak and share content when forced to by management.
 
I just saw this today (don't touch the print copy) and it was dated 9/20. I hadn't checked on the Filene's page in a while (too depressing). I should have known it was old news and I wasn't the first to post it. My mistake.
 
Now they have readers doing designs.
Here is a really elaborate design for a new City Hall from someone who obviously hasn't been brainwashed into the cult of Modernism:

newcityhall__1253723205_6767.jpg


floorplan__1253889039_9786.jpg


sidedetails__1253889471_4689.jpg


Oh, and you can submit your own suggestions here.
 
This kind of deliberate-throwback architecture may be fine for a college campus such as Harvard, but I can't see it as appropriate for a New New City Hall.
 
1. Surprise, one of the readers wants the Filene's site to be a park. Apparently some Bostonians won't be satisfied until every other lot is "open space"...they must be inspired by the model of Detroit.

2. The "New City Hall" looks like the State House mated with Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace.

I have few or quibbling aesthetic problems with slavishly neotraditionalist architecture like this; my real complaints are theoretical: what does it say about this city that it prefers this mode to something not only more original (he calls this "inventive"?), but more open/transparent, and reflective of the city's diversity in the time it was built (as opposed to its obvious English roots at the time many similar structures were).

3. I didn't even know that North End building was an electrical substation.

4. The mega-pool is either mind-numbingly stupid or insanely brilliant.
 
Is that North End fake window thing still there, or has it been taken down? I want to check it out.
 
"I'm planning to just keep going with it," he said. "I want to cover all sorts of walls all over Boston. There are all sorts of blank ugly walls that need something."
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Someone get this guy over to 45 Province St.
 
Filenes would be the perfect spot for a new city hall wouldn't it? Of course it'd have to go vertical. (any precedent for a town hall going strictly vertical?)But access to Red, Orange, Green, Silver and bus lines? Couldn't you theoretically sell the large plot that is the current Gov't Center for alot of money and buy this plot of land at what I would guess would be roughly the same per sq foot and make money for the city? It would enliven and beautify the area would it not? Ahh, wait I'm making too much sense... I guess the problem would be finding a buyer for all that land in gov center in this market and in that area where builders are sure to want to go big and ppl are sure to want nothing....
 
czsz said:
2. The "New City Hall" looks like the State House mated with Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace.
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Or a guilded "Bulfinchification" of San Francisco City Hall?

czsz said:
4. The mega-pool is either mind-numbingly stupid or insanely brilliant.
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Quick 'n Dirty Math:
  1. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.42796 lbs. at sea level.
  2. If we take a stab the the dimensions of the mega-pool at 120' x 120' x 90' -- that's 1,296,000 cubic feet.
  3. So the weight of the contents of the mega-pool weigh 80,906,636 lbs.

Anyone think there are a couple of engineering problems with constructing this exciting public amenity on top of a subway tunnel?

I wasn't aware that we were offering engineering degrees to kindergartners.
 
Yes, but the pool as an idea is brilliant because it subtly mocks the themes of all these other proposals - it takes both conceptual bombast and "community" orientation to extremes. The fact that such a small sliver of a percentage of it would be usable - who swims that deep? - speaks to the overagressive, but poorly thought out expansion of "public space" for its own sake.
 
Understood. The urban planning equivalent of a dick joke.
 
Anyone think there are a couple of engineering problems with constructing this exciting public amenity on top of a subway tunnel?
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I don't think any of the Filene's property is actually on top of either the Red or Orange Line subway tunnel. (And if any of it is, it's not very much.)

any precedent for a town hall going strictly vertical?
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Yes.

 
Did Prince Charles submit the New City Hall proposal under a pseudonym?
 
any precedent for a town hall going strictly vertical? Yes.
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When looking at Toronto's City Hall from the outside (i.e., the convex POV) it actually makes Boston's look warm and inviting. Correct me if I'm wrong Ron, but I don't remember any windows on the outer-facing walls of the building.
 
When I see Toronto's city hall, I think international summits, not municipal government.
 
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