The Kensington | 665 Washington Street | Downtown

Re: Residences at Kensington

Top still isn't finished









 
Re: Residences at Kensington

I've always wondered this about highrises: do those tiny windows actually let any air inside? I've assumed that the air travels up along the side of the building at speed and gets captured by the louvers, the pressure making up for lack of size. Is this true, or are they just a way to say there are operable windows in the marketing literature? Either way I would prefer a large casement or double hung any day.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

The glassy side of this is just awful. Terrible color, terrible quality, and the top might be the worst part of all. I'm glad this is the side that will be mostly blocked by Jacob Wirth's. The Kensington is tolerable from every other direction. (although they could still partially ruin this with the top)

By the way, thanks for the updates. Nice pics but hate this view of the building.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

davem said:
I've always wondered this about highrises: do those tiny windows actually let any air inside? I've assumed that the air travels up along the side of the building at speed and gets captured by the louvers, the pressure making up for lack of size. Is this true, or are they just a way to say there are operable windows in the marketing literature? Either way I would prefer a large casement or double hung any day.
Click to expand...

You are correct. The updraft gets sucked up and in by the high pressure:

Basics_040502_PlanSectionAirFlow.gif


I have better pix/descriptions in my architecture textbooks, but I moved them all to my new place already.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

DZH22 said:
The glassy side of this is just awful. Terrible color, terrible quality, and the top might be the worst part of all.
Click to expand...

This is a sad, cynical turd of a building. DZ, you hit all of its crooked nails.

Sad part is, even with its stumpy massing, this could have been a decent, even interesting building.

  • Clear glass;
  • Terra cotta;
  • Zinc;
  • A more thoughtful transition between facade materials (perhaps highlighted at night with LEDs).

The love of money makes us cheap...
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

I think I might be the only person here who likes the green glass and wished it wrapped around the entire building.

It's the precast manilla folder sides that I can't stand.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Arborway said:
I think I might be the only person here who likes the green glass and wished it wrapped around the entire building.

It's the precast manilla folder sides that I can't stand.
Click to expand...



I like the green glass too. The rest of the building is awful... Thankfully it will be mostly hidden soon enough by he Jacob Wirth building.... Which hopefully won't suck
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Amazing how the Kensington makes Archstone look like a fucking work of art. That's how far we've come since '05, folks.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Is there any reasoning/explanation for the "waviness" of the glass side? If it's a design thing only it feels like they were trying to be "subtle but edgy". It's so out of context from the rest of the building (which is the polar opposite of edgy), it comes off as so tacky. What the hell is this building trying to be here? Maybe it will be so bad that I will eventually come to love it for these kind of dumb details. Nah, probably not.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

This might be one of the worst Rendering vs. Reality in recent memory. This is bad. I know I've said I'm happy to see this as a background building but damn... that is one shitty background building. It's like they fired the architect half way through because the developer thought his nephew was good a drawing and could design it better. I mean there are so many small tweaks I can think of that would make this at least palatable. But no, what's the cheapest thing we can think of and then make it worse by adding some wavy glass to try and make it interesting.

This doesn't just make the Archstone look good, it makes the W Hotel look good and that is a total misfire.

Worst Development of 2013.
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Here's a reminder of what the original design was.

kensington1.jpg


Wish I could just walk up to the construction crew and say, "no, no, you guys are doing it wrong. This is how it's supposed to look like."
 
Re: Residences at Kensington

Wow...what a difference. They are totally different buildings.
 
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