View Boston (Observatory) | Prudential Tower | Back Bay

I read through the entire posted documents, and this seems REALLY nice! I'm very impressed. I'm not thrilled with the architectural overhang of the pavilion building, but I think they were trying to pick up some of the design elements from the Boylston entrance plus the new office building where Eataly and Under Armour are located. The supports of the pavilion building somewhat mirror the structure of the office building.

Boylston Entrance.jpg


I'm certainly looking forward to this! It seems like a great addition and the pavilion will have a nice entrance right by Blue Bottle coffee. Hopefully, you can have a cocktail outside on the deck similar to the Shard in London.
 
Java King said:
Hopefully, you can have a cocktail outside on the deck similar to the Shard in London.
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"New glazed openings at the north end of Floor 51 will be added to connect to a new and accessible 360-degree exterior terrace, which may include food and drink service areas." I'd hope they're not talking strictly pepsi and apple juice.
 
Java King said:
I'm certainly looking forward to this! It seems like a great addition and the pavilion will have a nice entrance right by Blue Bottle coffee. Hopefully, you can have a cocktail outside on the deck similar to the Shard in London.
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The Shard is great, but I wish Boston would go for a Sky Garden like the one at 20 Fenchurch. Gorgeous year round, free and open to the public, and with multiple bars (and a small outdoor space too). I don't think that the Pru has the available space for something even comparable, but it would be really nice. Maybe on a future fatty - I'm sure we'll have a few more of those.
 
Lrfox said:
The Shard is great, but I wish Boston would go for a Sky Garden like the one at 20 Fenchurch. Gorgeous year round, free and open to the public, and with multiple bars (and a small outdoor space too). I don't think that the Pru has the available space for something even comparable, but it would be really nice. Maybe on a future fatty - I'm sure we'll have a few more of those.
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I went to the Sky Garden for a business meeting and thought it was GREAT! Later that trip, I took my husband so we could have a few drinks and they wouldn't let us in because we were wearing SHORTS! Dressy shorts and not some casual cut-offs. I was upset that we had made the Tube trip all the way over to this financial area and couldn't go up. So, we went to dinner across the street and saw a play later on. So...........the Sky Garden is on my naughty list. (n)
 
Java King said:
I went to the Sky Garden for a business meeting and thought it was GREAT! Later that trip, I took my husband so we could have a few drinks and they wouldn't let us in because we were wearing SHORTS! Dressy shorts and not some casual cut-offs. I was upset that we had made the Tube trip all the way over to this financial area and couldn't go up. So, we went to dinner across the street and saw a play later on. So...........the Sky Garden is on my naughty list. (n)
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I didn't know they had that dress code! I have been twice (it's a great free thing to do while in London) and both trips were in fall/winter so nobody was wearing shorts. But most people were dressed very, very, casually. So I'm surprised that's where the line was drawn. Shorts are far more widespread in the U.S. than the U.K./Europe, so if the Pru or a future observatory (that wasn't solely an upscale restaurant) were to be modeled after Sky Garden, I can't imagine they'd turn shorts away.
 
DZH22 said:
The original Skywalk was the floor below that outdoor part. What are they planning on doing with that? I loved hanging out on that floor (50) for 2-3 hours at a time. I don't know if I'll be able to say the same about this new deck. Plus, they played great catchy tunes from the 70's and 80's!

This whole thing really seems pointless to me. The view is the draw, not any of the other crap they come up with. It's always about the view.
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The money maker in the reconfiguration is use as $$$$ event space. That is where they can recoup the investment.
 
So those in construction estimating, or familiar with it, does the originally reported $125 million+ renovation budget make sense? I don't know the existing conditions, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this costing the equivalent a new small lab building. Net gross area gained/renovated seems to be ~20k SF ($6,000+/SF).

The PDA notes facade enhancements on the 3 floors, and new signage, which I can imagine result in significant costs, but still not 125m.

I'd garner they have high prices in mind for visiting and renting this to break their IRR if they're going forward.
 
They put this back, I see. I hope that they change or clean the facade. It makes the whole building look like a dirty crumbling shit hole!! :mad:
 
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im excited to see what they ultimately do, but based on the pix in the presentation, i don't really see how three floors (level 50, double-height indoor/level 52, plus outside platform/level 51) are being used well. there's "no there there" -- the view will be nice, sure, but compared to other observation decks, there's really nothing *but* the view. so long as they keep it really affordable/cheap, then that's sufficient, i suppose, but i figured a giant overhaul would have some bells and whistles (an area with plexiglass floor or a bump-out where you can see down or something). i also don't see what the new usage of what HAD been the skywalk (level 50) is going to be. is that floor just gonna be more weird interactive video screens or...? will there be no restaurant or even bar/cafe anywhere up towards the top of the tower?
 
The outdoor deck is definitely a massive upgrade. Outdoor observation decks are just so much better. That being said I also dont see why they need the top of the hub space too. The outdoor space could have been accessed via escalator from the old observation floor and instantly doubled available space, not sure why they need 2 more above that.

That model of the city is pretty badass tho.
 
Did P&W even spend any time designing anything above the lobby?? The observation desk is just an empty deck with a nondescript plexiglass barrier. Whatever that thing on page 33 inside is... pitiful? 5 layers of stone(?) slabs with curved ends in the middle of the space with the most generic accessibility ramp and railing behind it. The view on 32 is just a blank room lol. They couldn't even be bothered to render it as an "exclusive event room" or something like the previous marketing pitched it as? Handful of people just standing around...

We lost Top f the Hub for this????
 
Bananarama said:
Did P&W even spend any time designing anything above the lobby?? The observation desk is just an empty deck with a nondescript plexiglass barrier. Whatever that thing on page 33 inside is... pitiful? 5 layers of stone(?) slabs with curved ends in the middle of the space with the most generic accessibility ramp and railing behind it. The view on 32 is just a blank room lol. They couldn't even be bothered to render it as an "exclusive event room" or something like the previous marketing pitched it as? Handful of people just standing around...

We lost Top f the Hub for this????
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I wonder if they're waiting on an interior designer or a museum-type partner to program that space. Perkins&Will might just be retained to do the shell, so that's all they're showing.

Plus, it really emphasizes that you'll see the letters from the inside, which is cool as hell.

And let's be honest here, Top of the Hub would have gone out of business during COVID anyway.
 
The presentation seems incomplete. It focuses almost exclusively on the "ground floor" plaza, with only a very cursory study of the observatory. Hopefully they will do a follow-up with the thing we actually want to see. I frankly couldn't care less about the plaza next to the shopping mall.
 
HenryAlan said:
The presentation seems incomplete. It focuses almost exclusively on the "ground floor" plaza, with only a very cursory study of the observatory. Hopefully they will do a follow-up with the thing we actually want to see. I frankly couldn't care less about the plaza next to the shopping mall.
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The function they're proposing is not dissimilar from the Great Hall at Winthrop Square, and a lot of people cared about that...
 
Equilibria said:
The function they're proposing is not dissimilar from the Great Hall at Winthrop Square, and a lot of people cared about that...
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Well, maybe. But the Prudential Center already serves such purpose to a large extent. I'm not against them doing it, I just don't think it's a big selling point for this project, and it was kind of strange that they focused on that and only on that. If the plaza were replacing a dismal garage, then sure, that would be worthy of some excitement.
 
I'm hopeful for more on the upper levels at a future date. However, I will certainly geek out over that model.
 
It seems like on the 50th floor they are going to be installing a scale model of Boston. That would be very cool.
 
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