Re: Trans National Place (Winthrop Square) Part 2
I realize I am a monirity of one, but this tower is not worthy of Boston, nor is it a very good example of Mr. Piano's considerable talents. Shadows are the least of it. This generic tower could just as easily exist in any other city, distinquished only for its height and its star architect. If we are intent on reconceiving our skyline (the merits of which completely escapes me), shouldn't it be done with great care or not at all. A mayor's intention to create a thousand foot personal legacy seems, lets call it what it is, adolescent. Height for height's sake? Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Denver (it's a long list) -- that's their idea of urban planning and city building. We are Boston, and though we certainly have more than our share of knuckleheads in positions of power, should we be altering our city according to their whims?
I guess the visual appearance isn't exactly groundbreaking; at first glance, it's little more than a glass box with a spire tacked onto the side. However, it's what's on the inside that makes this building innovative. It has all sorts of environmentally friendly "Green" features including (but certainly not limited to) rainwater collection plates that allow the building to reduce it's dependency on city water.
Then you have the ground level park and the elevated lobby that's designed so sunlight will hit the ground at all hours of the day. Furthermore, the indoor garden on the top will be fantastic. I think that looks alone are not what will define this buildings place in Boston's history.
Great buildings have a tendency to be a window into what defines their generation. When you think of the Empire State Building, you are brought back into an era of zepplins, art deco, races to build the tallest building, etc. when you visit a Newport guilded-age mansion, you're reminded of the Vanderbuilts, or the Carnagie fortunes; excess, and grand times. Hell, I am not old enough to know what it was like during the construction of the Hancock Tower, but I bet there were doubts when you looked up and saw plywood patching windows like some massive hurricane preparation.
I guess that if this building is done the way it is in the renderings, It'll be innovative now; and in the future it will be a window into a time when people were starting to become environmentally aware and forced to take more advanced measures to preserve and not waste.
I can picture telling my grand kids 40 years from now about how that building was built with special measures to conserve energy, water consumption, and produce a green oasis while at the same time create new office and mixed use space. This building is anything but generic, even if the first glance tells you otherwise.
