I'm in agreement, especially when comparing to other East Coast cities. Have you been to Philly / Baltimore / DC lately? Sure, there are some areas that are rundown but, for a city as old as Boston, it's rather impressive.
Wasn't there a proposal about 5-7 years ago to replace the old dilapidated Northern Ave bridge (or whatever its called) with some slick looking pedestrian bridge? Aesthetically, that would go a long way and help to draw more people (foot-traffic) to the Seaport.
I think the tag line "the connector" was not meant as a cut-through but as a way for people to connect and socialize in the lobby. ref :https://theconnectorwc.com/
When I first saw the rendering, my initial reason was big woof, another downtown glass tower. But the finish product is quite impressive and (imo) a big improvement. My only mild criticism is that I wish they were a bit more aggressive with the red highlights, perhaps at the crown. It does make...
Maybe so, but how many times do you order from amazon instead of patronizing your local businesses? That's the society we live in. Next, amazon will be using drones to deliver packages to our doorstep.
It's clear that Millennium didn't deliver on what was "promised" in its proposal but let's be real here ... open 18 hours a day as a "great hall", huh? What we have is a beautiful lobby for the locals to grab a sandwich and coffee at lunch time but nothing more.
Pre-pandemic, this was just fanciful marketing hype. Post-pandemic, it's dead on arrival. There are major malls going out of business now. We don't congregate like years ago. I've been working remote for 3+ years, never to return to the office and the insane daily drive to the city.
I know there was a lot of hoopla when they were designing the tower regarding the lobby but I wouldn't expect much from it nor would I want to go out of my way to visit/patronize it. I suppose if I worked locally I might feel different. In the end, it's just a lobby in an office tower.
The setback in the final phase will provide a different dimension, which IMO will be a nice complement. We should relish this one. I believe there are no further high-rises in the planning stages, just a few mid-rises (~300').
Agreed and I doubt we'll ever see the high-rise expansion that we've seen during the past 10 years or so, ever. There is such a glut of commercial real-estate with more vacancies coming as leases come to term that they will need to re-purpose existing building.