View Boston (Observatory) | Prudential Tower | Back Bay

Well, what about something for senior citizens? What's in it for us? Cheap fares, discounts on food & drink, what?!! :unsure:
The $19.99 price is for everyone, students get an extra 2 bucks off. I believe it runs Thursday through Saturday all of September. They also have a lunch special now, $35 ticket includes a priority ticket, a non alcoholic drink, and a salad, appetizer, or handheld
 
The $19.99 price is for everyone, students get an extra 2 bucks off. I believe it runs Thursday through Saturday all of September. They also have a lunch special now, $35 ticket includes a priority ticket, a non alcoholic drink, and a salad, appetizer, or handheld

If I go up there, I'm having a beer in the sky, or a cocktail!!! Like I did at the John Hancock Center in Chicago. :unsure:
 
The $19.99 price is for everyone, students get an extra 2 bucks off. I believe it runs Thursday through Saturday all of September. They also have a lunch special now, $35 ticket includes a priority ticket, a non alcoholic drink, and a salad, appetizer, or handheld

If I go up there, I'm having a beer in the sky, or a cocktail!!! Like I did at the John Hancock Center in Chicago. :unsure:
Me having a beer in the sky..jpg
 
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I think that it's much cheaper to eat downstairs at a place like Shake Shack, have a burger, fries & a beer or two, if they have beer (most of them do), then pay a cheap price to go upstairs. The prices to most of the things up there are ridiculously expensive, just like at the new World Trade Center in New York City!!!! :eek:
 
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Great picture, and it also illustrates one of my great frustrations about Boston at night - there is nowhere near enough lighting. The Back Bay and South End both look like they could be some leafy, sprawling suburb, for all the light they are putting out here, not two of the best examples of dense, urban neighborhoods in the United States. Why is it so dark? It makes it so much less safe for pedestrians and bike riders.

/end tangent rant
 
I wouldn't mistake anything in that photo as a leafy sprawling suburb. The city has also invested a ton in direction LED street lighting with the one the aims being reducing light population which they had measured as pretty drastic reduction given the direction nature of LEDs (i.e. the light shines on the street, not up into the sky), so I am not sure I would judge the brightness at street level by an aerial photo.
 
I think that Boston looks just as beautiful at night just as it does on a bright sunny day!!!! :)
 
I wouldn't mistake anything in that photo as a leafy sprawling suburb. The city has also invested a ton in direction LED street lighting with the one the aims being reducing light population which they had measured as pretty drastic reduction given the direction nature of LEDs (i.e. the light shines on the street, not up into the sky), so I am not sure I would judge the brightness at street level by an aerial photo.
I took HenryAlan’s comment to be more about how Boston, with shockingly few exceptions for a major city, has a weird aversion to/fear of lit crowns and the like. Compared to nearly any other major skyline, Boston is ridiculously dark.

Of course, after rereading his post he wasn’t talking about lit crowns, so my own issue with Boston’s relative lack of lighting is different than his.
 
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I took HenryAlan’s comment to be more about how Boston, with shockingly few exceptions for a major city, has a weird aversion to/fear of lit crowns and the like. Compared to nearly any other major skyline, Boston is ridiculously dark.

Of course, after rereading his post he wasn’t talking about lit crowns, so my own issue with Boston’s relative lack of lighting is different than his.
It's so weird leaving Boston and going somewhere like New York, Chicago....even Atlanta or Charlotte. Their buildings are so prominently lit up, it's nice to see. Here, our dark skyline just adds to the feeling of sleepy old Boston.
 
I took HenryAlan’s comment to be more about how Boston, with shockingly few exceptions for a major city, has a weird aversion to/fear of lit crowns and the like. Compared to nearly any other major skyline, Boston is ridiculously dark.

Of course, after rereading his post he wasn’t talking about lit crowns, so my own issue with Boston’s relative lack of lighting is different than his.
Yeah, I was talking about street level ambient lighting. The LEDs do not cast a diffuse light pattern. They are great if you happen to be standing under one, but if the next one is 25 yards away, there is a lot of darkness in that gap, which is what you see in the South End and Back Bay in that picture. If you walk or bike from Forest Hills toward Roslindale Square, for example, you'll see the darkness impact from LED lighting illustrated quite clearly. From the station to Ukraine Way, it is very easy to see. I don't know what sort of lighting is in place there, but it fills the street level with enough lighting that you can see pedestrians, bike riders, pot holes, etc., without any difficulty. At Ukraine Way, the street lamps switch over to LED lighting and suddenly it is very dark. You'll see the same effect if you are on the South West Corridor path, then head off in to a neighborhood street. My eyes aren't what they used to be, but I can't be the only person who finds it too dark for safety purposes. As for your comment about lit crowns, I agree with you there, but I don't think it's as important as street level.
 
It's so weird leaving Boston and going somewhere like New York, Chicago....even Atlanta or Charlotte. Their buildings are so prominently lit up, it's nice to see. Here, our dark skyline just adds to the feeling of sleepy old Boston.
Sad, but 100% true. And, shit -- forget about comparing with Shanghai or Hong Kong (or even Paris or London). Other than the new SST (which in any other city would already seem "old fashioned" lighting-wise) and the new, post-refurb Pru crown, we are still stuck in 1982.

At least One Financial made a bit of an effort with the up-lighting they've got going of late. That we couldn't even get the super-subtle 4 Seasons Logo on top of the tallest new building since the '70s with 1 Dalton (and likely to remain the tallest, post-'70s project for decades to come) was a wasted opportunity, too.

And, speaking of missed opportunities -- nada in the way of lighting for MT and, as for the promised "iconic lit crown" of Winthrop Center, ha!

The all-too-brief lighting of the old John Hancock, which was nixed in the... '90s(? Can't recall exactly) was very nice and also very "classic NYC" in its own, small-scale way. Maybe with the new JH signage going up on that high-rise (which I'm not sure I'm a fan of. We'll see...), they'll bring that back. Hope so, b/c it looked great.
 
Of course, after rereading his post he wasn’t talking about lit crowns, so my own issue with Boston’s relative lack of lighting is different than his.

To be fair based on the shot above.... The best lit crown in the city is the Pru itself, where the picture was taken from. The most impactful new lit crown is Winthrop Square, which is completely hidden behind the Hancock. Third, the new State Street building at 1 Congress has weird angles where the lighting does or doesn't stand out. You can barely make out the lit sign and it usually has the lighting running up the side facing the harbor, which is also blocked from this view.

The expectation based on the renders is that South Station will be lit similarly(ish) to Winthrop Square, which will give 2 clear nighttime delineations at the top of the financial district skyline.

Regarding LEDs replacing streetlights, I too miss the older types of lightbulbs. If I had thought about it hard enough, I probably would have been like this guy.
 
The all-too-brief lighting of the old John Hancock, which was nixed in the... '90s(? Can't recall exactly) was very nice and also very "classic NYC" in its own, small-scale way. Maybe with the new JH signage going up on that high-rise (which I'm not sure I'm a fan of. We'll see...), they'll bring that back. Hope so, b/c it looked great.

I’m not sure I remember ever seeing a picture of this, does anyone have a picture of the hancock lit up? I’m definitely interested to see how it looked.


Ive always loved how it looks when the slits on the side of the tower catch the light when the sun is setting, making it almost look like it has an led strip running up the side. It would be really cool if they added some led’s to make it so they could have this effect last all night and also change colors.
buildings-at-sunset-john-hancock-tower-boston-massachusetts-usa-2EFJ38A.jpg

https://www.alamy.com/buildings-at-...-boston-massachusetts-usa-image405456026.html
 
I’m not sure I remember ever seeing a picture of this, does anyone have a picture of the hancock lit up? I’m definitely interested to see how it looked.


Ive always loved how it looks when the slits on the side of the tower catch the light when the sun is setting, making it almost look like it has an led strip running up the side. It would be really cool if they added some led’s to make it so they could have this effect last all night and also change colors.

https://www.alamy.com/buildings-at-...-boston-massachusetts-usa-image405456026.html
I was talking about the old Hancock, which for a few years had uplighting along the sides. It was turned off when we were having whatever momentary fuel or economic crisis and never came back.
image.jpeg
 

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