To me the residential was always the turd here after the 600 footer was nixed. Its a mishmash of facade details, has the stupid corner taken out of the top for no reason, its on stilts, and even ruins a chunk of the podium below. It almost reminds me of 888 boylston where it has the kitchen sink facade and a stupid top. I hate when architects do this stuff just to do it. A sleek normal blue glass building here would have looked better and thats what I always judge off. If a blue glass rectangular box (here) would have looked much better than all the stupid stuff you added why even do it then? The office tower was the saving grace because that POS resi was going to be hidden anyways. Now they went nuts on the office tower.
Once this thing started getting going the residential was the best part when it was 600' and had that art deco-ish facade. The black glass office tower looked good enough (to me) because we dont have those in this city.
Then it changed to where the office tower was the saving grace and the resi had a bunch of dumb stuff going on all over the place for no reason. Now its just a mess over all. Although if they get rid of that second podium I could live with the new office tower. Makes no sense to have back to back podiums. That part is a joke but the rest may be salvageable if they fix that aspect. Either way jeeez this has turned into a nightmare, buuuuut we have the podium and thats what really matters here so f it because that part is turning out great.
It is true though that although we have the amazing podium this isnt just an anywhere parcel this is the northern gateway, and should be treated appropriately, but boston...
but... wooosah, wooosah, we have the podium, we have the podium.....its great, everythings gonna be oka---- what the hell is that on the back of the office tower? A random chunk of black screen that doesn't fit at all, sweet. Just like what all you guys hate on the pierce theres a random chunk of black screen on the side facing towards the zakim.... jesus. This also has the double window treatment, as well as the double podium to make it look even stumpier.
Edit: lets not forget it started as trash too, there were a few different iterations of this style. So it started very bad got much better and is slowly fading back into obscurity so this has been an absolute rollercoaster.
This version of the office tower was horrible, the worst imo, besides maybe the one above. Lets thank our lucky stars this was not built:
You guys haven't even seen these either:
This makes me think... this has been ALL OVER THE PLACE so far so we have hope. The only thing is its under construction now and the podium is basically finished so were getting close. If they can change the office tower this much though with the podium basically finished it means theres still hope. The pooper scooper residential tower is basically set in stone though.