Tree House Residence Hall Tower @ MassArt | 578 Huntington Avenue | Fenway

Re: Mass Art Dormitory

datadyne007 said:
The facade is random. Quoted from the architect:

"5 colors, 5 widths, 5 depths, 5000 panels"
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Nothing that humans do is trully random -- there is always an underlying order the only question is -- who developed the code and what does it signify

In this case -- the facade might be like a bar code, or some of the embedded marks in graphics (" digital watermarking, for identifying and protecting digital information, which is particularly applicable to images ") -- structured to insure that if anyone copies the facade on another building - that the copy can be differntialed from the original -- the patern can be copyrighted or a design pattent can even be obtained
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Ah, I don't think they have to worry about anyone copying the exterior finish of this building.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

There is no code. He said the facade was randomized and that the construction workers were just taking them out of the boxes and putting them on the building in whatever decorative fashion. There was no coordination ("oh this piece goes near column 6A, level 12").

It is not representative of anything related to the building, unlike Hall's Simmons Hall at MIT which uses the colors on the windows to symbolize the structural loads.

simmons-hall.jpg


Briv is correct too. There's no fear of anyone copying this facade.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

It's too easy to be harsh on this building. It is unique and inventive and not going to please everyone. This tower will have a very positive legacy. It's not suited for the finacial district or Back Bay but a great fit for Huntington's art corridor and really helps define the area better. Would anyone have preferred another bland dorm to have gone up?
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Shepard said:
It's too easy to be harsh on this building. It is unique and inventive and not going to please everyone. This tower will have a very positive legacy. It's not suited for the finacial district or Back Bay but a great fit for Huntington's art corridor and really helps define the area better. Would anyone have preferred another bland dorm to have gone up?
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I agree that it fits nicely with the Avenue of the Arts. Unlike many on this board, I'm one of the people that is forced to see this daily. This at least took guts to propose and build. I really like Rawn's Tower H (and its controversial chamfer), but now that this tower is in view on our Huntington skyline, I'm enjoying this one better. I think it stands for everything that MassArt stands for. It also serves as a warning to the MassArt and Wentworth architecture students that Alucobond facades can end up looking like this and that what you render isn't always what actually happens.

MassArt could have easily decided to build a tower with a cheap brick-veneer facade and gridded, same-size window punchouts ala Berkeley.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

It makes me want to play Jenga.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

3 things:
1) I also like this building and think it fits in well with the Arts coridor.
2) While those windows with the complete green surround do look a little off, the kids that get those rooms are going to be so freaking popular. I would have killed for sills that thick in college. It is the perfect place to store booze during the winter.. i know... we used to do it on our 11 story building at Fitchburg all the time.
3) There has to be a secret code hidden in that facade. It will be great as another plot point in my yet to be written DaVinci Code knock off book. Don't tell anyone, but all the codes in the book lead you to the conclusion that Isabella Stewart Gardener turns out to have been a secret Muslim.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Maybe a clue to the missing Gardner paintings...
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Shepard said:
It's too easy to be harsh on this building. It is unique and inventive and not going to please everyone. This tower will have a very positive legacy. It's not suited for the finacial district or Back Bay but a great fit for Huntington's art corridor and really helps define the area better. Would anyone have preferred another bland dorm to have gone up?
Click to expand...

I completely agree. For reasons not worth getting into, I spent much of yesterday driving around the area, and seeing the building from a variety of angles. It looks really good from almost every vantage point. It jumps out at you, and stimulates brain function. More importantly, it solidifies the idea that this area is a good place for mid-rise towers. The whole neighborhood is looking really good, and this tower is part of the reason.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

This has probably been mentioned, but what is with the gaps every two floors (which were not shown in the rendering)? Has this kind of uniform horizontal separation every improved a building? It detracts significantly from the perceived randomness.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

I'm enjoying all the posters who have posted in other threads how they wish buildings had more color, and that the builders should stop when the building is still clad in insulation rather than pre-fab. Now Boston gets a splash of color on buildings, and people are wishing they had gotten pre-fab stone on the outside. I think this building is just what Boston and that neighborhood needed.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

armpitsOFmight said:
In ten years, this building is going to be considered as ugly as the interior of an orange line car.
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Pits -- in 10 years there might be new Orange Line cars and it is just possible that your post will be completely misinterpreted
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Here and there, especially at a college campus and most especially for an art college in the fenway district -- a building with a "je ne sais quoi" exterior ou peut-être " à chacun son goût'-- is fine and even enervating

I definitely would not want anything like that on the high spine (i.e. Boylston corridor), in a panoramic skyline from the Charles, or the harbor, in the Financial District, along the Greenway, nor near any of the more traditional neighborhoods (e.g. North End, west Roxburry, back bay, Beacon Hill, South Boston peninsula).

However, it might fit into the overall SPID -- especially down by the BCEC
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

datadyne007 said:
I agree that it fits nicely with the Avenue of the Arts. Unlike many on this board, I'm one of the people that is forced to see this daily. This at least took guts to propose and build. I really like Rawn's Tower H (and its controversial chamfer), but now that this tower is in view on our Huntington skyline, I'm enjoying this one better. I think it stands for everything that MassArt stands for. It also serves as a warning to the MassArt and Wentworth architecture students that Alucobond facades can end up looking like this and that what you render isn't always what actually happens.

MassArt could have easily decided to build a tower with a cheap brick-veneer facade and gridded, same-size window punchouts ala Berkeley.
Click to expand...

I agree. I actually do like the building--it's very different and I love how they thought outside the box with it; how it has a texture, gradating color scheme, the angles on it, and how it looks "earthy" with the colors. It's a quirky building that's going to be occupying us "quirky" artists (because brick buildings and glassy architecture are too mainstream, man). It was inspired by "The Tree of Life" painting, so it's supposed to be a bit plant-like. Which is why I'm sure there is a little bit of green, which I don't mind at all.

Just some of the things they did bother the crap out of me like those random green windows, and how there's a gap every two floors. I don't know why they did that, but I think that it would look so much better if those weren't there; the gaps take away from being able to see the gradation as well as you could.
 
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Re: Mass Art Dormitory

A lot going on in that picture.

First of all, GREAT SHOT. What do you shoot with? It looks a tad HDR.

The design... well the horizontal spacing in the facade totally kills it. The massing isn't terrible, though I really wish they had done the top differently.

If anything it throws down a challenge to Wentworth whenever they demolish those old walk up apartments and build something new.

That skyline shot totally encapsulates the point of building tall buildings. First we built churches to show the dominance of God/Religion. Then we built office towers to show the dominance of the Dollar. Now we build towers to house students to show the dominance of higher learning. I guess you can judge a city by the skyline.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

vanshnookenraggen said:
A lot going on in that picture.

First of all, GREAT SHOT. What do you shoot with? It looks a tad HDR.

The design... well the horizontal spacing in the facade totally kills it. The massing isn't terrible, though I really wish they had done the top differently.

If anything it throws down a challenge to Wentworth whenever they demolish those old walk up apartments and build something new.

That skyline shot totally encapsulates the point of building tall buildings. First we built churches to show the dominance of God/Religion. Then we built office towers to show the dominance of the Dollar. Now we build towers to house students to show the dominance of higher learning. I guess you can judge a city by the skyline.
Click to expand...

Van then we should all be in awe of Moscow and Pittsburgh for their university towers that stand out among the rest of the city

U. Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning:
Technical Data from Emporis
Height (tip) 535.01 ft
Height (architectural) 535.01 ft
Height (roof) 535.01 ft
Floors (above ground) 42
Construction start 1926
Construction end 1936
Elevators 12

Tallest University buiding in Western Hemisphere

M.V. Lomonsov Moscow State University:
Technical Data from Emporis
Height (tip) 787.40 ft
Height (architectural) 787.40 ft
Height (roof) 597.12 ft
Floors (above ground) 36
Construction start 1949
Construction end 1953

Tallest University Building in the world (when finished it was the talllest building outside NYC!)
 
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