The Lucas | 136 Shawmut Ave | South End

I hate this more than the Forecaster Building and that is tough to beat.
 
Look, both here and at the forecaster we're talking about the cladding of a wall that faces a lot line. These are likely to be invisible for the majority of these buildings lifespans. And it's hard to imagine a developer, even a generous one, agreeing to invest in making that wall a showpiece - especially when it comes as a trade off with investment in other pets if the structure (which it must).

These walls should not be decisive in the assessment of either building. The forecaster is otherwise pretty thoughtless. The Lucas at least is making a thoughtful attempt.

And in both cases a lot of legacy architecture and urbanity was preserved at considerable expense. Be careful what you wish for.
 
That's some weird shit. But this might be the rare case where the end result looks better than the renderings.
 
tobyjug said:
That's some weird shit. But this might be the rare case where the end result looks better than the renderings.
Click to expand...

Probably not ... but it will still be something unique and have some good quality attached to it.

cca
 
CSTH said:
Look, both here and at the forecaster we're talking about the cladding of a wall that faces a lot line. These are likely to be invisible for the majority of these buildings lifespans.
Click to expand...

The unfortunate thing is that I know of dozens of places in Boston with blank walls along lot lines where the neighbor never got built.

Even recent buildings like Van Ness in Fenway, the neighbor ("Skanska Fenway Project" here) doesn't cover the blank wall they left. At least that wall isn't 100% horrible, it certainly is not what would have been there if they had known it wouldn't be covered by the neighbor.
 
My problem isn't the church renovation or even the party wall, those are fine, it's the oddball glass cube plopped on top that is my issue. I know...it's just my opinion.
 
And speaking of party walls, I still love this guy:

16789213_1675463592753371_3706983829341208576_n.jpg
 
mdd said:
My problem isn't the church renovation or even the party wall, those are fine, it's the oddball glass cube plopped on top that is my issue. I know...it's just my opinion.
Click to expand...

For me, it's that they kept the church steeple while adding the glass box...that's what's sorta insulting.

There are multiple church conversions around town where they remove the steeple, and for me, that works better.

Here's a church-turned-conference center...used to have a tall steeple


It just seems more dignified/appropriate to remove the church-y-ness when repurposing these buildings.
 
^I'm not (particularly) religious either; I just think the steeple + glass box is what amplifies the clashing here. I think the glass box might actually have worked better if they removed the steeple in this case.
 
mdd said:
The steeple isn't an issue for me, they never should have opened up the roof of the church itself, do it over the building / parking lot to the rear. I'm not even religious, I'm insulted by the disrespect to the history of the building.

Here's another church to apartment renovation in Union Sq

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.381...4!1sQM26CzPk_za9j3XJEd8MNQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Click to expand...

down the street from another (and better imo) church-now-apartment in union

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3809907,-71.0971566,3a,75y,96.37h,107.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0EtynyFXC2pJX9QXsnjJjw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
 
^Pretty sure that first one is by the same architecture team as this project.
 
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