The Victor | 110 Beverly Street | West End

Re: The Victor

hopefully they come out better than the victor (hard not to) but the merano and other building in the bulfinch near haymarket will provide some great infill. That pictures shows the emptiness of the gap.

Combine with lovejoy wharf and one end and the parcel 9 haymarket building at the other, we get some pretty good density here over just 10 years ago.
 
Re: The Victor

West End demo should never have happened but it did. More than half a century ago. Nostalgia is a very potent rose-colored narcotic. Better to kick that habit and improve the present.

The recent construction there was a golden opportunity to add some urbanity but sadly the "bedroom suburb" dynamic won again.
 
Re: The Victor

datadyne007 said:
Photo backlog: 04/13 from the observation deck of Marriott's Custom House

392565_4759015253426_34222112_n.jpg
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What is that parking lot on the lower right corner and why hasn't it been developed yet?

Also, I would love to see this shot with the avalon bay tower and the basketball city towers added.
 
Re: The Victor

Brad Plaid said:
West End demo should never have happened but it did. The recent construction there was a golden opportunity to add some urbanity but sadly the "bedroom suburb" dynamic won again.
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I agree that the replacement we've got, have been getting for decades, and continue to get, for the West End and Scollay Square is an unfortunate mess.

However, I wouldn't characterize the recent construction around the Garden/North Station as "suburban": what we have is highly dense and urban and an improvement over the towers-in-the-park of CRP (which also is not suburban so much as Corbusian). Despite those positives, it is oppressive, hideous, and in no way conducive to a vibrant neighborhood

Rather than being suburban, it's a product of "get it done quickly and cheaply" urban planning by the BRA that consolidates what should be many parcels into one ... and a stifling, cost-optimized hulk of a building inevitably results.

It's hard to blame a developer for wanting to make the largest margin he can within a set of rules (and this sort of construction is all about maximizing profits). I instead blame the city for consolidating each parcel into one monstrosity -- the city controlled the parcels and could have divided them and mandated that the developers not consolidate the parcels. It's not suburban so much as pathetic and second-rate.
 
Re: The Victor

Brad Plaid said:
West End demo should never have happened but it did. More than half a century ago. Nostalgia is a very potent rose-colored narcotic. Better to kick that habit and improve the present.

The recent construction there was a golden opportunity to add some urbanity but sadly the "bedroom suburb" dynamic won again.
Click to expand...

Just because the architecture is shit doesn't make this area "bedroom suburb"... the feel is very urban. Maybe you just mean that the architecture is like what you'd see off the side of 495 in Dracut or something, but at the very least the Bullfinch area is a hopping and active one.

On another note, is that smaller parcel south of the Victor being developed? Just another grassy field right now. Also, those ramp parcels are horrible... any possibility of air-rights construction there in 50 years?
 
Re: The Victor

The above^ view will always suck as long as the Congress Street garage and the lowrise portion of the JFK are allowed to persist...
 
Re: The Victor

I don't even mind those as much as the artery ramp parcels, which look set to stay that way for at least as long as we've had Gov't Center around. Nothing's more suburban than an onramp surrounded by useless landscaping. Not City Hall Plaza, not Charles River Park; the ramp parcels are the worst.
 
Re: The Victor

Brad Plaid said:
West End demo should never have happened but it did. More than half a century ago. Nostalgia is a very potent rose-colored narcotic. Better to kick that habit and improve the present.

The recent construction there was a golden opportunity to add some urbanity but sadly the "bedroom suburb" dynamic won again.
Click to expand...

Saying that the West End and Government Center needs to be converted into a functioning neighborhood isn't nostalgia.


BussesAin'tTrains said:
On another note, is that smaller parcel south of the Victor being developed? Just another grassy field right now.
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Yes. The Gateway Center I think it was called?
 
Re: The Victor

pel_north said:
BostonUrbEx said:
Saying that the West End and Government Center needs to be converted into a functioning neighborhood isn't nostalgia.




Yes. The Gateway Center I think it was called?
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That is incorrect it is/was supposed to be called Merano.

http://www.bisnow.com/commercial-real-estate/boston/bdgs-merano-rising-from-the-big-dig/
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[/quote]

No, that's different. That's to the right. The one below it is to be the Greenway Center.
 
Re: The Victor

BostonUrbEx said:
Saying that the West End and Government Center needs to be converted into a functioning neighborhood isn't nostalgia.
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But the West End IS a functioning neighborhood! Just because it doesn't attract visitors doesn't mean it's a non-functioning or dysfunctional neighborhood for the thousands of people who live and work there. Remove the historic implications from the equation (I know...hard to do) and you'll see that this area gets way more vitriol from us aBers than it deserves.
 
Re: The Victor

You guys are either being incredibly dense or are misusing the word "function." People live there comfortably, the properties make income for the landholders, and there are huge employment bases a literal stone's throw away. If those aren't functional then I don't know what is.
 
Re: The Victor

kz1000ps said:
You guys are either being incredibly dense or are misusing the word "function." People live there comfortably, the properties make income for the landholders, and there are huge employment bases a literal stone's throw away. If those aren't functional then I don't know what is.
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Are you describing Southern New Hampshire or a neighborhood located in the very center of a world class city?

What "function" are you talking about for this area in the middle of Boston? If this was in Quincy, Chelsea or Nashua NH I would be in full agreement with you.
 
Re: The Victor

I'm with kz. We all may hate it but it functions.
 
Re: The Victor

People live there... properties make income... work a stone's throw away...

This also describes a North Korean gulag. In all seriousness, we must have a bit of a better yardstick.

The hospitals, Liberty Hotel, Bullfinch Triangle, Causeway Street after a game... these are all reasons to visit the neighborhood. But, CRP is the black hole at the center. No reason to go in. Not even clear how to get in. CRP is functional is giving high-end apartment dwellers a cocooned little respite from big city tomfoolery, but dysfunctional by any standards of good urbanism. As I said, CRP is not the entirety of the West End, but it is the black hole at the center.

Similarly, I'd argue, to the anti-urban housing projects that mar the South End (architectural/urbanistic critique here, not classist by any means)
 
Re: The Victor

Look I'm not saying it couldn't be better, I'm just reacting to BostonUrbEx saying the place "needs to be converted into a functioning neighborhood" which to me is utter nonsense. Us architecture nerds may hate it but most normal people see it as a desirable place to live.
 
Re: The Victor

kz1000ps said:
Look I'm not saying it couldn't be better, I'm just reacting to BostonUrbEx saying the place "needs to be converted into a functioning neighborhood" which to me is utter nonsense. Us architecture nerds may hate it but most normal people see it as a desirable place to live.
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Understood. You have an issue with the word that BUE used. And you would be correct - - the area is functionable.

To your point above, I'm sure some many normal people see Billerica as a desirable play to live also.

However, a central area of the city of Boston DESERVES the concern of architecture and urban planning nerds.
 
Re: The Victor

As I'm too young to remember the West End as it was, I, without an introduction, asked somebody who has lived in the Boston area for long enough to remember:

"What do you think of the West End"?

Her response:

"You mean where the West End used to be?"

That could be pretty telling.
 
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