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

shmessy said:
Personally, I would've preferred a soaring Art Deco style at North Station. Art Deco is what made me as a child awestruck by North Station. The subliminal reaching for the heavens affects that the old North Station, Madison Hotel and Garden presented to the world was an optimism that was anathema to old Boston at the time.

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Art Deco towers were proposed years ago the spire was gold leaf
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stick n move said:
Yea, major bullet dodged there. Instead of new york city, new york.. what we would have gotten at hub on causeway would have been more like new york-new york, las vegas.
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That proposal was way less shitty than the “fat file-cabinet with a scorching case of herpes” that we wound up actually getting.
 
RandomWalk said:
We can take 500 Boylston as a PoMo consolation prize.
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And to think, this one was supposed to have a twin!

(I actually don't mind 500 Boylston though, I kind of dig the cheesy columned courtyard. They haven't capped that over yet like they were discussing a few years ago, right?)
 
What's funny looking at those early renderings is that it reframes the Garden in a PoMo light. That light tower, especially. I remember seeing some early concept drawings for the arena at one point that were way different (externally) than what got built, I gotta try to find those again.
 
shawn said:
And to think, this one was supposed to have a twin!

(I actually don't mind 500 Boylston though, I kind of dig the cheesy columned courtyard. They haven't capped that over yet like they were discussing a few years ago, right?)
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The BPDA website has nothing on the project since 2015, when the BCDC voted for the design. Curiously, the Boston Business Journal has an article saying construction started on the renovation just about 3 weeks ago. It's behind a paywall for me, but here's the link: https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/...m-renovation-the-columns-at-500-boylston.html

Based on the render they include, it appears it is only cosmetic upgrades being done now.
 
This discussion doesn't really belong here, but the project has started and the columns are coming down. From the BBJ on January 29, 2021:
https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2021/01/29/boston/bio/26231/Catherine+Carlock
The iconic, soaring multistory columns outside 500 Boylston St. in Boston’s Back Bay are coming down.

Construction work has begun on a $10 million renovation of the building’s open-air plaza, with landlord Oxford Properties Group planning to bring down the numerous multistory columns in front of the building and further open the courtyard to pedestrians.

Oxford plans to lease space surrounding the courtyard to retail and restaurant tenants. The courtyard could house outdoor seating for bars or restaurants
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shawn said:
And to think, this one was supposed to have a twin!

(I actually don't mind 500 Boylston though, I kind of dig the cheesy columned courtyard. They haven't capped that over yet like they were discussing a few years ago, right?)
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I very much like 500 Boylston, too.
 
shmessy said:
I very much like 500 Boylston, too.
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I'm an 80s kid and a overall sucker for PoMo though. I love the Lipstick Building in NYC and Houston's TC Energy Center (or Nations Bank Center as I remember it). Watching One International Place go up sparked my interest in skyscrapers.

Where PoMo worked well in the first place, it's aged equally well. I'm not sure what we're calling the glass-box-with-Lego-protrusions style of 80 Causeway, but I wouldn't bet on this look aging all that well.
 
shawn said:
I'm an 80s kid and a overall sucker for PoMo though. I love the Lipstick Building in NYC and Houston's TC Energy Center (or Nations Bank Center as I remember it). Watching One International Place go up sparked my interest in skyscrapers.

Where PoMo worked well in the first place, it's aged equally well. I'm not sure what we're calling the glass-box-with-Lego-protrusions style of 80 Causeway, but I wouldn't bet on this look aging all that well.
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Sorry -- I can't agree with that: Johnson's stuff [charitably] wasn't any good when it was fresh and it hasn't aged any better than the hammered concrete of Paul Rudolph

The best that can be said of "Johnstrosities"

There was a controlled demolition of the old Travelers Insurance Building to make way for 125 High Street [1991 completion]
I was watching from right next to the Federal Reserve Bank. When the dust cloud dissipated and International Place reappeared someone right behind me shouted: "They screed-up -- they dynamited the wrong building"
Robert Campbell of the Globe said of International Place's sheathing and windows -- Johnson must have had an affair with a Palladian Window salesman
in a slightly more polite vein Campbell wrote an obit for Johnson in 2005:
Philip Johnson, 98, ever-evolving dean of architects
By Robert Campbell, Globe Correspondent | January 27, 2005
To give his corporate clients the unique ''signature" look they wanted, Mr. Johnson began milking architectural history for a variety of styles....
An example is Boston's International Place, a cluster of towers partly sheathed in an endless pattern of Renaissance-style ''Palladian" windows. It is one of three Mr. Johnson works in Boston: the others are an addition to the Boston Public Library, which the architect himself came to dislike; and an office and retail complex at 500 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.
An example is Boston's International Place, a cluster of towers partly sheathed in an endless pattern of Renaissance-style ''Palladian" windows. It is one of three Mr. Johnson works in Boston: the others are an addition to the Boston Public Library, which the architect himself came to dislike; and an office and retail complex at 500 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.
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Beyond the endless sheet of Palladian windows -- Johnson shamelessly rip-offed the magnificent bracket lamps of McKim from the BPL which showed up not just in International Place but also 500 Boylston


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commons.wikimedia.org

File:International Place (Boston) 4.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org commons.wikimedia.org
User:Solarapex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons


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Title: Dartmouth St. Facade with wrought iron lamps and grillwork in place, McKim building
Description: Arched doorways with wrought iron gates and lamps.
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Both of the above BPL photos are from a series of photos held in the collection of the BPL Trustees involved with the construction of the Central Library ca. 1890-1895
Trustees' Library
Architect: McKim, Mead & White
Date: [ca. 1890–1895]
Format: Photographs
Genre: Photographic print
Location: Boston Public Library, Rare Books Department

Collection:Trustees' Library / Institution Name Ssim:Boston Public Library - Digital Commonwealth Search Results

An online library of photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and other materials of historical interest from libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies across Massachusetts.
www.digitalcommonwealth.org www.digitalcommonwealth.org
 
whighlander said:
Sorry -- I can't agree with that: Johnson's stuff [charitably] wasn't any good when it was fresh and it hasn't aged any better than the hammered concrete of Paul Rudolph

The best that can be said of "Johnstrosities"

There was a controlled demolition of the old Travelers Insurance Building to make way for 125 High Street [1991 completion]
I was watching from right next to the Federal Reserve Bank. When the dust cloud dissipated and International Place reappeared someone right behind me shouted: "They screed-up -- they dynamited the wrong building"
Robert Campbell of the Globe said of International Place's sheathing and windows -- Johnson must have had an affair with a Palladian Window salesman
in a slightly more polite vein Campbell wrote an obit for Johnson in 2005:

Beyond the endless sheet of Palladian windows -- Johnson shamelessly rip-offed the magnificent bracket lamps of McKim from the BPL which showed up not just in International Place but also 500 Boylston


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commons.wikimedia.org

File:International Place (Boston) 4.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org commons.wikimedia.org
User:Solarapex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons


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Both of the above BPL photos are from a series of photos held in the collection of the BPL Trustees involved with the construction of the Central Library ca. 1890-1895
Trustees' Library
Architect: McKim, Mead & White
Date: [ca. 1890–1895]
Format: Photographs
Genre: Photographic print
Location: Boston Public Library, Rare Books Department

Collection:Trustees' Library / Institution Name Ssim:Boston Public Library - Digital Commonwealth Search Results

An online library of photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and other materials of historical interest from libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies across Massachusetts.
www.digitalcommonwealth.org www.digitalcommonwealth.org
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Where are the rip-off lamps? You don't mean these do you?
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whighlander said:
Johnson shamelessly rip-offed the magnificent bracket lamps of McKim from the BPL which showed up not just in International Place but also 500 Boylston
[/URL]
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It's always interesting to me that when folks are analyzing buildings that they like which borrow elements from previous structures (particularly within the same city/area) it's "a respectful nod to" or "a clever tribute to its neighbor" or "a whimsical echo of," but when they don't like the building in question, the architect is a rip-off artist.

Also, fwiw, the bracket lamps of the BPL -- while undeniably gorgeous -- are not in any way some 100% unique innovation. In addition to plenty of pre-existing lamps in the U.S. that have similar design features, the BPL's lamps are directly inspired by countless simlilar examples in Germany, England, France, Italy... The whole building, itself, takes direct and blatant inspiration from European (specifically France and Italy) structures, so I guess McKim was a rip-off artist, too?
 
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whighlander said:
Those are derivative

the true ripoffs are in the Lobby of International Place

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Main entrance.
Photographer: Elwell, Newton W.
Date: 1896
Format: Photographs Prints
Genre: Photomechanical prints
Location: Boston Public Library Rare Books Department
Collection (local): Trustees' Library
Permalink: https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/6h440w199
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Oh ok, glad to clarify.
I echo Chris's comment that the response to these would be different if you liked the building in general. I think they're intentionally the same lamp style to relate to the BPL ones (PoMo is known for this sort of operative approach to classical design where cloning, warping, or abstracting those motifs are a part of the humor). Not endorsing Johnson's work overall but I do adore his BPL addition (fight me).

Also thank you for sourcing your photos, but you don't need a detailed list of qualifiers... Just a simple link is fine. "Genre: Photomechanical prints" had me laughing.
 
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