The Hub on Causeway (née TD Garden Towers) | 80 Causeway Street | West End

i know people who have come to boston expressly to see the jfk federal builiding. gropius is a giant and, whether his work is to your liking or no, this complex is massively significant. it won't (and shouldn't) be torn down or reclad or any of that nonsense.
 
Its unlikely that it will ever be altered because its a federal building, but it would be great it if was torn down/reclad. It’s the ugliest tower in the city, save for those ugly West End twins.
 
I would be happy with just filling in all the empty space around the building. But that will never happen either due to "security concerns."
 
chrisbrat said:
i know people who have come to boston expressly to see the jfk federal builiding. gropius is a giant and, whether his work is to your liking or no, this complex is massively significant. it won't (and shouldn't) be torn down or reclad or any of that nonsense.
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Thank you.
 
Keep the highrise JFK garbage (to replace them, you'd have to replace them with >700'). Hell, reclad it the same, clean & new just like Emerson off the Common.

But, the low rise section? Srsly people? At what point do we finally say, "no more" to one of our most wretched, forlorn urban barriers merely for the sake of preserving Boston's lost weekend, and its abject ugliness?

Who feels so entitled with a self-determined right to veto correcting a historic error?

This is precisely why we need Meddlepal's roundtable,

(maybe) invite even the BCDC, and BRA Board.
 
foolishness. just b/c you don't like a styie does not make that style "bad." just b/c a type of architecture is no longer in fashion does not mean that you tear down all examples of said architecture. advocating for the removal of all dated and unfashionable buildings is exactly the mindset that led to the destruction of the west end. you don't like brutalism/modern. many share your views. many do not.
 
chrisbrat said:
foolishness. just b/c you don't like a styie does not make that style "bad." just b/c a type of architecture is no longer in fashion does not mean that you tear down all examples of said architecture. advocating for the removal of all dated and unfashionable buildings is exactly the mindset that led to the destruction of the west end. you don't like brutalism/modern. many share your views. many do not.
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Modernist can be good (John Hancock Tower). Brutalist can also (rarely) be good (Christian Science Plaza). Most of it sucks though. And quite frankly, Boston has way too much of it; its almost overpowering. Aside from the fact that it creates a dead urban space.

Government Center was a mistake straight out of the box, and it remains one. If we can find ways to fix it or at least improve it, I say good.
 
chrisbrat said:
just b/c you don't like a styie does not make that style "bad." just b/c a type of architecture is no longer in fashion does not mean that you tear down....
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Hopefully not directed at the JFK towers. I've never advocated tearing them down. i've grown to liking the idea of the skin be replaced with new, washable (desirable), identical materials.

Develop because you all loved Rome more....

Center Plaza
State Service Ctr
Low-rise section of the JFK offices
Low-rise section of the O'Neill Bldg
Harbor Garage
Mass Eye & Ear
Aquarium
Above ground section of the Church of Christ Scientist Garage.

Keep

Harbor Towers
Longfellow Towers
133 Federal St
JFK Tower/s
Church of Christ Scientist Tower, low-rises.
 
I like the JFK towers, they just need to be cleaned. Losing the lowrise doesn't feel like a loss. It's just a short, bland, boxy, concrete thing that hulks next to the plaza.

FWIW, in its current state I suspect it will actually frame the garage tower developments well from city hall plaza area once those are all up.
 
chrisbrat said:
i know people who have come to boston expressly to see the jfk federal builiding. gropius is a giant and, whether his work is to your liking or no, this complex is massively significant. it won't (and shouldn't) be torn down or reclad or any of that nonsense.
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Yes. Thank you.

Old suggestion. Reintroduce Hanover Street to Cambridge Street. Wall in Plaza along Cambridge Street, creating a true plaza. (A hotel was once contemplated at Congress and Hanover. Feds said no.)

Staggering how people want to revisit historic mistakes: Tear down what people don't like to make things better. JFK is worth keeping, no matter your personal taste. History is part of what we preserve.

I'm left to wonder how many contributors actually appreciate our historic palette.
 
I think it's fair to say that the way that citizens interact with government services has changed a bit in the past half-century. The best possible result would be a consolidation of services and staff in the JFK and O'Neill Buildings at a new site that is transit accessible and appropriately "secure." JFK could be adaptively reused (condos/hotel?) and the O'Neill site could be sold to a private developer and replaced with some proper urbanism. Restoring Hanover (as a pedestrian/cyclist-friendly woonerf) is a no-brainer.
 
Yes. Restore Hanover. Pedestrianization on a selective basis is good, but a lot of pro-pedestrian/good urbanism people don’t realize that having vehicular traffic livens an area and the more mixture, the better. Instead of three highway-esque connections between congress and cambridge, there should be four much narrower ones. This belongs in another thread, but it bugs the shit out of me there wasn’t no planning for connections between chardon and sudbury for the new haymarket development. Break up these awful superblocks!
 
FK4 said:
having vehicular traffic livens an area and the more mixture, the better. !
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LOL, no.

Look at this utopia, where all modes mix!

5bd36e7b9e1e1140235f7d2d-750-562.jpg
 
And we know it would be so much better if they closed the parking lot to cars and made everyone park along the road...

Walmart is not a good example of mixed modes.
 
I dunno, but in that picture I see warm weather and palm trees. Given the winter storm slapping us around tonight, I will take it!!
 
Ladies, relax.

Forecast is for 8 day Manitoba blast--then straight to 55F days.
 
jass said:
LOL, no.

Look at this utopia, where all modes mix!

5bd36e7b9e1e1140235f7d2d-750-562.jpg
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I dunno what it is about Walli-World, but that place physically makes me gag. Like I feel like Homer Simpson when he's driving through that Sulfur Mine. I have to hold my breath whenever I had to in there. Last year, I went to visit my mom at her condo in Florida and we stopped in Walli-World and man did that store smell. I literally held my nose in there. I'm not kidding. There's something rank smelling in Wal-Marts.
 
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