The Factory at 46 Wareham | South End

This looks pretty well screwed together and with high-quality materials. A nice add to the neighborhood.
 
The full window surround, rather than just the lintel and sill of the old building, is what bugs me. Something feels off about it.
 
The full window surround, rather than just the lintel and sill of the old building, is what bugs me. Something feels off about it.
Yes, that is what is off about it. It fails in its echo of the past architectural style.
 
Looks like the Meatpacking District in NYC. AWESOME work here.
 
Looks like the Meatpacking District in NYC. AWESOME work here.

LOL you wish. Meatpacking and western Chelsea are basically the only place in NYC with good contemporary architecture right now. This looks like a suburban office park in comparison.
 
LOL you wish. Meatpacking and western Chelsea are basically the only place in NYC with good contemporary architecture right now. This looks like a suburban office park in comparison.

This forum is so weird. We heap praise on astoundingly mediocre buildings like The Sudbury, and yet belittle a very tasteful, contextual, textured, and well-detailed building such as this one. Cjbski is entirely right that this evokes the older buildings of the Meatpacking District, and if this is what passes as a suburban office park in your view then I pray we build more suburban office parks.
 
This forum is so weird. We heap praise on astoundingly mediocre buildings like The Sudbury, and yet belittle a very tasteful, contextual, textured, and well-detailed building such as this one.

This is a nice enough building, and 1 person from NYC lobbing out a random criticism does not represent "the forum" as a whole.

Also, there's a major difference in comparisons here, between this and The Sudbury. You can see The Sudbury from like 20 miles away, whereas you wouldn't notice this from 2 streets away. It's a nice neighborhood building but has 1/1000 the overall visual impact on Boston as The Sudbury does. So that's why The Sudbury might have more discussion, plus a different set of criteria for judging.

By the way, if this one was extended to over 500' tall like The Sudbury, it wouldn't hold up whatsoever. It's a great design for a 6 story building, but would look ridiculous at 40 stories.
 
Are offset windows the trend of the current moment that people will look back on and go "ugh, I can't believe architects thought that was clever?" in the future? (I'm already thinking that now.) :p
 

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