Van hates poor ppl, lol.

vanshnookenraggen

vanshnookenraggen

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Looks like a Steven Holl knock off they bought down in Chinatown. And to be fair, most people who buy knock off hand bags on the street are the masses of suburban middle class who flock into the city for a short while... exactly the same class of people who usually fill the seats of Northeastern; Seems appropriate in a way. This is the TJ Maxx of architecture.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

What an incredibly elitist comment. You really have a grudge against Northeastern, not only its architecture but also its people.

(I won't comment further out of fear of van launching into another name calling, F bomb laden tirade like he did a few months ago.)
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

"Grudge" is looking too much into it. I don't care that much. I just think that an institution's architecture is a reflection of what they aspire to; Northeastern always seemed, to me, to aspire to prefer quantity over quality (which is a very American-middle-class sentiment).
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

Tom, maybe you could unpack "elitism" a bit for us (and for you). What exactly do you mean by that? It's a word that is thrown around alot to mean different things, and I don't really sense a consistent working definition of it.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

vanshnookenraggen said:
"Grudge" is looking too much into it. I don't care that much. I just think that an institution's architecture is a reflection of what they aspire to; Northeastern always seemed, to me, to aspire to prefer quantity over quality (which is a very American-middle-class sentiment).
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You're painting with some broad strokes there. What about the West Village? There's a lot of quantity there, but I also think it's the best bit of space-making created on any Boston campus in recent memory.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

@Pierce: By elitism I am referring to people who look down on the "suburban middle class" that shops at TJ Maxx and eats at Olive Garden. They are considered pedestrian and uncultured by those lucky enough through career success or trust funds to live in a Back Bay condo or an upscale Manhattan loft. Van seems to have contempt for the American middle class which says to me that he has risen above it.

"...the masses of suburban middle class who flock into the city for a short while... exactly the same class of people who usually fill the seats of Northeastern; Seems appropriate in a way. This is the TJ Maxx of architecture."
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

...I just think that an institution's architecture is a reflection of what they aspire to...
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Regardless of institution or alleged pedigree, there's plenty of uninspiring shit to go around on both sides of the Charles.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

vanshnookenraggen said:
"Grudge" is looking too much into it. I don't care that much. I just think that an institution's architecture is a reflection of what they aspire to; Northeastern always seemed, to me, to aspire to prefer quantity over quality (which is a very American-middle-class sentiment).
Click to expand...

That's a first that I heard someone call Northeastern's aspiration as quantity over quality. How about you do some research about Northeastern first before you make uninformed comments? Northeastern University's buildings strive to be most environmentally efficient as possible. If anything NEU's buildings are all about quality. Maybe not in design (yes it's ugly but how many dorms have a bamboo garden?), but that's not the only thing buildings are all about.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

TomOfBoston said:
@Pierce: By elitism I am referring to people who look down on the "suburban middle class" that shops at TJ Maxx and eats at Olive Garden. They are considered pedestrian and uncultured by those lucky enough through career success or trust funds to live in a Back Bay condo or an upscale Manhattan loft. Van seems to have contempt for the American middle class which says to me that he has risen above it.

"...the masses of suburban middle class who flock into the city for a short while... exactly the same class of people who usually fill the seats of Northeastern; Seems appropriate in a way. This is the TJ Maxx of architecture."
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I abhor "suburban middle class" types, only because they're so fucking PROUD of TJ Maxx and Olive Garden. And by extension, their pedestrian generic architecture.

I can't tell you how many times I've been on Boylston and heard a fat fucking overweight white tourist obviously from the 'burbs proclaim "LOOK! Pizzaria Unos! We'll eat THERE before we go to the SAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWXXXX or the GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHDIIIIN."

Come on guys. Why bother coming to town if you're going to eat the same lard-inducing shit you eat in your average suburbian strip mall? Especially when there's Dillons, Flash's, the Snake, Charley's, Kinsale, Kennedy's and plenty of other restaurants at the same fucking price point?

I get that NUE was a "blue collar school" but there's no reason to settle for JUST GOOD ENOUGH simply because you're lower middle class. My grandparents and parents are fucking off the boat Irish who came here without a dime to their name. Their grandchildren are now upper middle class and living within their means. Why is the current generation of the middle class so fucking defeatist about anything that isn't exactly what their neighbor has?

Never settle for good enough. Always aspire to more.

Sorry for the rant. NEU has built some pedestrian shit that far outweighs any of the decent things they've built in the last 10 years. (Yet I have to accept it because it's much needed density in this four storey town. Can you tell I'm conflicted?)
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

KentXie said:
That's a first that I heard someone call Northeastern's aspiration as quantity over quality. How about you do some research about Northeastern first before you make uninformed comments? Northeastern University's buildings strive to be most environmentally efficient as possible. If anything NEU's buildings are all about quality. Maybe not in design (yes it's ugly but how many dorms have a bamboo garden?), but that's not the only thing buildings are all about.
Click to expand...

As I read your pathetic argument all I could picture was Radar O'Reilly speaking in his prepubescent tone while clutching his teddy bear. Well gosh darn it Kenny, no matter how you justify it, large swathes of your school look like a fucking housing project and many, myself included would rather not have any of it. Perhaps if we didn't have so many Northeastern and ZooMass kids floating around more BC, BU and Tufts people would stay here rather than heading elsewhere upon graduation.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

kz1000ps said:
You're painting with some broad strokes there. What about the West Village? There's a lot of quantity there, but I also think it's the best bit of space-making created on any Boston campus in recent memory.
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It's the best because the bar is so low. The West Village might be the antithesis of what I mean: towers in a park with kooky Post-Modern curves and decorations. I've gotten lost in that place more times than I care to remember and each one felt like a glorified prison.

But I really didn't mean to start off a class war here. I truly believe in "to each, his own". I'm sorry if I came off as elitist but I just see the campuses that NEU and other colleges around Boston building as catering to certain people and having their buildings reflect that.

MIT is a great example: many of their buildings reflect a sense of grandeur and of the cutting edge, while others are no more than bunkers where aesthetics are thrown out for pure engineering. To me that is the ethos of MIT. Harvard, their campus is actually what I would deem elitist and would anyone argue that Harvard is anything but the epitome of elitism?

Perhaps I should have taken the time to do a more thorough compare-and-contrast. I can see how my words were flippant and I'm sorry if I offended some people.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

kmp1284 said:
As I read your pathetic argument all I could picture was Radar O'Reilly speaking in his prepubescent tone while clutching his teddy bear. Well gosh darn it Kenny, no matter how you justify it, large swathes of your school look like a fucking housing project and many, myself included would rather not have any of it. Perhaps if we didn't have so many Northeastern and ZooMass kids floating around more BC, BU and Tufts people would stay here rather than heading elsewhere upon graduation.
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BU and BC students are angels? Oh, so that's why Allston is such a wonderful spotless crimeless heaven known for erudites pondering in highly civilized Parisian like establishments therein. There's no way it could be full of assholes that puke, piss, liter, graffiti, fight, fuck, use illegal substances (thereby funding half the gang violence in the city),and it after all historically was and still is one of the greatest middle class streetcar neighborhoods in the country since BC & BU students took it over.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

kmp1284 said:
As I read your pathetic argument all I could picture was Radar O'Reilly speaking in his prepubescent tone while clutching his teddy bear. Well gosh darn it Kenny, no matter how you justify it, large swathes of your school look like a fucking housing project and many, myself included would rather not have any of it. Perhaps if we didn't have so many Northeastern and ZooMass kids floating around more BC, BU and Tufts people would stay here rather than heading elsewhere upon graduation.
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Dude what?

When I want to diss BC's campus I think: sea of modulars, prisons masquerading as dorms, and, in light of recent events, shitty exurban boxes (Jesuit housing)

When I want to diss BU's campus I think: parking lots, towers in a park, the MASS FRIGGIN PIKE. And a linear campus? Srsly?

But maybe you weren't actually comparing the relative architectural merits of local campuses, just exploiting the entire student bodies of Northeastern and UMass as strawmen for a totally unrelated "argument". In which case, this thread has really gone off the deep end. LOL.
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

What's wrong with TJMaxx? stuff's cheaper there
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

This thread managed to nose dive into a ridiculous 10-way argument over nothing too important.

As entertaining as it is, can we stop?
 
Ha. Your .sig works really well with that post. :)
 
Re: Northeastern eyes dorms

kmp1284 said:
As I read your pathetic argument all I could picture was Radar O'Reilly speaking in his prepubescent tone while clutching his teddy bear. Well gosh darn it Kenny, no matter how you justify it, large swathes of your school look like a fucking housing project and many, myself included would rather not have any of it. Perhaps if we didn't have so many Northeastern and ZooMass kids floating around more BC, BU and Tufts people would stay here rather than heading elsewhere upon graduation.
Click to expand...

That's one thing if the things you just said came from someone that actually matters. But unfortunately you aren't and thus your statements are worth less than a high school dropout. Of course I could be like you and criticize each university you mentioned (I actually visited all four campuses) but I rather not be an asshole and incite a flame war with forumers that have nothing to do with the argument.
 
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