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

Re: Mass Art Dormitory

She's well out of the ground now. Steel is up to the 2nd floor as of 11:00 last night...

I'm not as skilled as you, Boston02124, driving and taking pics...I'll have to leave that job in your capable hands.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

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Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Haven't been by here in a long time and seeing this completely took me by surprise... 11/24:

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Re: Mass Art Dormitory

ledjes said:
She's well out of the ground now. Steel is up to the 2nd floor as of 11:00 last night...

I'm not as skilled as you, Boston02124, driving and taking pics...I'll have to leave that job in your capable hands.
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LOL,thanks^ I've been thinking about this building lately but have no camera at the moment,glad someone else got to show us some progress!
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

I didn;t grab my camera but I walked by it today. It seems like they already added another floor or two already and the entire structure is draped.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

8 stories, 13 to go and it's already severed Wentworth from the Fenway/LMA.

On a positive note, it's been awesome to watch the construction process. My studio prof brought us out to discuss it one day.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

^ I don't understand - how is it possible for one building that's replaced a fenced-in lot to "separate" Wentworth from the Fenway/LMA? If anything, I would have thought developments along Huntington would build up the urban fabric and reinforce that connection. Can you expand on what you mean by that?
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Shepard said:
^ I don't understand - how is it possible for one building that's replaced a fenced-in lot to "separate" Wentworth from the Fenway/LMA? If anything, I would have thought developments along Huntington would build up the urban fabric and reinforce that connection. Can you expand on what you mean by that?
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All the views are now/will be further blocked. At least the fence wasn't 21 stories tall (and it had a cool perforated metal artsy-sign installation thing). What I should really have said was the WIT academic campus has been severed. The res campus is all on Huntington and is unaffected by the tower (probably strengthened). The academic campus is tucked in a pocket between Huntington, Ruggles, Parker, and Ward. It was just nice to see the sky and 555 from those areas.
 
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Re: Mass Art Dormitory

datadyne007 said:
All the views are now/will be further blocked. At least the fence wasn't 21 stories tall (and it had a cool perforated metal artsy-sign installation thing). What I should really have said was the WIT academic campus has been severed. The res campus is all on Huntington and is unaffected by the tower (probably strengthened). The academic campus is tucked in a pocket between Huntington, Ruggles, Parker, and Ward. It was just nice to see the sky and 555 from those areas.
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But doesn't Wentworth have that new building right across the street? If anything they are merging their two campuses into one.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Wentworth was always cut off, but now it is more visually cut off. Not that it matters, we would go into the little store in the MassArt dorms all the time. It's not like these borders matter.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

vanshnookenraggen said:
Wentworth was always cut off, but now it is more visually cut off. Not that it matters, we would go into the little store in the MassArt dorms all the time. It's not like these borders matter.
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The visual cut off is mainly how we experience it. You used to be able to see Huntington from the upper classroom levels of Beatty Hall. Now all you see (and will see) is the backside of this tower.

It's a cool tower and will give us a MUCH-needed improved HVMA health center, but we'll have to learn to live with the obscured view. I guess it'll make us an even cozier campus. It's a pretty serene feeling on the quad.

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Re: Mass Art Dormitory

You're like a NIMBY-in-training. NIMBYIT?
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Suffolk 83 said:
You're like a NIMBY-in-training. NIMBYIT?
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Actually, no. I welcome new construction on empty lots, but there has to be some sort of respect for the local building heights. The MassArt Tower across the street is only 13 stories tall. That's the tallest building in that immediate area. The MassArt dorm tower (I hope they name it soon) is going a full 8 stories higher than the MassArt Tower.

When we built dorms at WIT in 2001 (610) and 2005 (555), the local heights were respected. I honestly don't blame MassArt either. They don't own much land and the land they own happens to be in the middle of our campus. They have the money to expand, so they're doing it. It's not like I'm out there protesting. I'm just pointing out that there are some negatives to this project.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

datadyne007 said:
Actually, no. I welcome new construction on empty lots, but there has to be some sort of respect for the local building heights. The MassArt Tower across the street is only 13 stories tall. That's the tallest building in that immediate area. The MassArt dorm tower (I hope they name it soon) is going a full 8 stories higher than the MassArt Tower.

When we built dorms at WIT in 2001 (610) and 2005 (555), the local heights were respected. ct.
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With this logic, nothing should be taller than 4 floors, because at one time that was the entire neighborhood (before elevators made building taller possible)
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

jass said:
With this logic, nothing should be taller than 4 floors, because at one time that was the entire neighborhood (before elevators made building taller possible)
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In my honest opinion, this isn't really a downtown district where towers should be built. It's one of the few remaining relatively-scaled down parts of Boston (which makes me love this city even more). I'd say that Charlesbank broke the mold and NEU continued it with West H. That stretch of Huntington is almost like a buffer zone between the dense LMA and the dense downtown district.

This said, you have nowhere to go but up when you have such a small plot of land and you have high programmatic needs.
 
Re: Mass Art Dormitory

Justin7 said:
What parts are not scaled down?
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I dont' really see the point to this question. As I said, the LMA and "downtown" (from the Pru to the waterfront).

Anyways, 8 floors:
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