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

stick n move said:
Uptown... no its the Bulfinch triangle. This is Boston, remember? We have shit named after people not lower east sides, uptowns, midtowns...
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Note that the thread title says this is in the West End. So yes we have compass direction names like West End, North End, South End, East Boston, South Boston. And we have former water body names like Back Bay, Bay Village, South Cove, South Bay....

And occasionally a person-based name like Bulfinch Triangle.
 
Justin7 said:
“Old-timers call it the Bulfinch Triangle. We don’t like that name,” Koop said. “We’re trying Uptown.”
That's what you get paid for, Koop!
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I'm 33 and have actually only lived inside of 128 for the past 2.5 years. I'm an "old timer" I guess?

We'll see how this goes. It's going to be hard to "brand" this area as "Uptown" when it's pretty deeply rooted as the Bulfinch Triangle and also happens to be on the periphery of the North End, West End, and Government Center. Too many names to just toss another into the hat.

I will say this though - the tidbit about the Leather District being "created" in the 90s was interesting to me. I use the term to describe the area and sort of thought it had a long-standing tradition. Apparently not. Don't see this happening with Uptown though.
 
See also: DTX. I was shocked to learn that was a branding effort. Always thought it was organic.
 
I never understood why they didn't just brand it the "Garden District". If you ask people to describe where a restaurant or bar is in this area,they will say "by the Garden" or "by North Station" so just piggy back off what people naturally say.
 
I can only see it working if the area north of the Garden gets developed and associated with that name. Not sure what the minimum "size" is for a geographic identity to stick, but Hub+Avalon+Spaulding Rehab lots + Suffolk Jail lots might be enough
 
How about "Up End"?

Just kidding, but better than "Up Town", well pretty much anything is better than "Up Town".

West End is fine, "The WE"... okay now I am just messin'
 
FitchburgLine said:
I can only see it working if the area north of the Garden gets developed and associated with that name. Not sure what the minimum "size" is for a geographic identity to stick, but Hub+Avalon+Spaulding Rehab lots + Suffolk Jail lots might be enough
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Interesting point. That is a functionally separate area from the Bullfinch Triangle/North End/Government Center (though I believe it's still technically West End, but is also functionally separate from that area). So if developed well enough, it could be a new "Uptown" neighborhood and the branding would make sense. The Hub/Garden do form a physical barrier between the Bullfinch and the Nashua St. area, so the Hub could sort of function as the gateway to to "Uptown." The Avalon could embrace the moniker as well. It's not any smaller of an area than the aforementioned "Leather District."
 
Rhino said:
I never understood why they didn't just brand it the "Garden District". If you ask people to describe where a restaurant or bar is in this area,they will say "by the Garden" or "by North Station" so just piggy back off what people naturally say.
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Never heard of this before but I like "Garden District" +1
 
Mike02125 said:
I don't think "Uptown" will stick because it isn't real. When my firm 're'-branded Charles River Park into... The West End... we argued at the time that a fake name wouldn't stick, but the real name (West End) would.

Since this is what I do for a living, here's a blog I wrote 4+ years ago about this:

https://www.khj.com/seaport-innovation-south-boston-waterfront-district/
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Great insight. I tend to agree with you on all counts. The one piece I question relative to the area around the hub, however, is that it doesn't seem to have a name that everyone uses consistently like the Seaport, DTX, etc. Bullfinch Triangle isn't as well known as most other neighborhood names in the center of Boston which I would argue makes it "less real" in the eyes of many. There's overlap with other neighborhoods too. If you google West End, most of the Bullfinch Triangle falls into into those boundaries. Corners of it stick into the North End and Government Center neighborhoods.

So while I don't think "Uptown" sticks, I don't know that the potential for rebranding the area (especially if the Jail and Spaulding Rehab parcels are redeveloped and adopt the new name) is the same as trying to force people into calling the Seaport the "Innovation District."
 
Garden District is a nice name, but there could be some confusion with that other garden.
 
Mike02125 said:
I don't think "Uptown" will stick because it isn't real. When my firm 're'-branded Charles River Park into... The West End... we argued at the time that a fake name wouldn't stick, but the real name (West End) would.

Since this is what I do for a living, here's a blog I wrote 4+ years ago about this:

https://www.khj.com/seaport-innovation-south-boston-waterfront-district/
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Judging from the Globe posts, their branding scheme isn't getting on well.

One of the 'no it ain't never getting called UPTOWN' posts got 120 likes and 0 dislikes. Seems to have induced more extra snark with the townsfolk than just the normal goings on. i wonder if the failed branding ploy will become (if anything) the butt of jokes going forward. :rolleyes:
 
odurandina said:
Judging from the Globe posts, their branding scheme isn't getting on well.

One of the 'no it ain't never getting called UPTOWN' posts got 120 likes and 0 dislikes. Seems to have induced more extra snark with the townsfolk than just the normal goings on. i wonder if the failed branding ploy will become (if anything) the butt of jokes going forward. :rolleyes:
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True, but things like the press picking up on it and leading with stories about it on the front page are exactly what helps new branding like this catch on.
 
odurandina said:
Judging from the Globe posts, their branding scheme isn't getting on well.

One of the 'no it ain't never getting called UPTOWN' posts got 120 likes and 0 dislikes. Seems to have induced more extra snark with the townsfolk than just the normal goings on. i wonder if the failed branding ploy will become (if anything) the butt of jokes going forward. :rolleyes:
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All good points, but consider the following: "Uptown" may be silly and will never stick, but is that the point?

- The Boston Globe put a real estate development on its cover. This is a PR win for the project.

- People are now talking and buzzing about this. This is a PR win for the project.

- Boston Properties is a prolific, incredibly successful developer who continues to hit home run after home run. Do you really think they don't know what they're doing with the "Uptown" PR hook here?

It's another great project from a great developer who absolutely knows what they're doing here.
 
Chris Brown is also currently on the cover of the Globe! This is a PR win for him.

People are buzzing about Chris Brown! This is a PR win for him.

Regarding "Uptown", it's not a very positive piece. It's nothing as bad as Chris Brown, but it's not great either.

Not all press is good press. Context matters.
 
statler said:
Not all press is good press. Context matters.
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Was waiting for the standard cranky response from you! I just think that the "Uptown" PR hook is pretty smart, even if the "Uptown" new neighborhood name is less so.
 
FitchburgLine said:
I can only see it working if the area north of the Garden gets developed and associated with that name. Not sure what the minimum "size" is for a geographic identity to stick, but Hub+Avalon+Spaulding Rehab lots + Suffolk Jail lots might be enough
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This was basically my point in my post up there about 'paving the way for skyscrapers,'

which summarily went over like a lead balloon.
 
Mike02125 said:
Was waiting for the standard cranky response from you! I just think that the "Uptown" PR hook is pretty smart, even if the "Uptown" new neighborhood name is less so.
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That's not a cranky response. It is a common sense rebuttal that is obvious to anyone not stuck inside your silly PR firm bubble. The Hub is a massive project that certainly did not need a naming stunt -- if that is actually what this is -- to land on the front page of The Globe.
 
Justin7 said:
That's not a cranky response. It is a common sense rebuttal that is obvious to anyone not stuck inside your silly PR firm bubble. The Hub is a massive project that certainly did not need a naming stunt -- if that is actually what this is -- to land on the front page of The Globe.
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Whatever your personal opinion of the piece is, your claim that statler's rebuttal is "obvious to anyone" is just false. Here's an NBER paper making a convincing argument that for colleges, nearly all press is good press, with a mechanism of action (increased media coverage) that is identical to the effect you dismissed: https://www.nber.org/papers/w24852
Personal attack away, but don't do it with data you don't have.
 
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