Best 10 Projects of the Decade (2000-2009)

[briv]

CHOOSE 10

In no particular order (photo credits coming):

1. Blackfan Life Sciences Building


2. One Lincoln (State Street Financial Building)


3. Millennium Place


4. Mandarin Oriental


5. Rollins Square


6. 303 Third


7. 45 Province Street


8. MIT Brain and Cognitive Science Center


9. Trilogy


10. Jill Brown-Rhone Park


11. Landmark Center Renovation


12. Zakim Bridge


13. Courthouse MBTA Station


14. Opera House Restoration


15. Alston Public Library


16. Boylston Street Apple Store


17. North Point Archstone


18. Atelier 505


19. Battery Wharf


20. Brighton Community Boathouse


21. Northeastern Building H


22. Cambridge Public Library Addition


23. Central Square Theatre


24. Boston Children's Museum Addition


25. Fenway Park Improvements


26. FP3


27. Genzyme HQ


28. Harvard Northwest Science Complex


29. Harvard Memorial Drive Graduate Student Housing


30. Boston Institute of Contemporary Art


31. Logan Airport Terminal E


32. MacAllen Building


33. MassArt Dormitory


34. Richard E. Griffin Academic Center


35. 111 Huntington


36. Shapiro Brigham & Women's Hospital


37. MIT Simmons Hall


38. South Station Headhouses


39. MIT Stata Center


40. UMass Boston Campus Center


41. Cambridge Valentine Houses
Valentine Houses

42. Zero Arrow Theatre (need a better photo)

[briv]

Ron, Van and Ablarc, unfortunately those posts you posted with the previous version of this thread were lost. I made a mistake and had to delete the thread. Sorry guys.

[Ron Newman]

What I posted before:

Millennium Place is the correct spelling of the two towers on Tremont Street. (Or Ritz-Carlton Towers.)

If you are not going to include the Paramount, then the decade-ending year should be 2009 rather than 2010.

[Pierce]

I had no idea that the State Street building was from the last decade. Yikes, it looks like the stuff Philip Johnson and Burgee farted out in the mid 80s. It looks waaayyyyyy out of place with the rest of those above (except its partner 111 huntington, which looks very 1992ish). 111H seems to have closed a chapter on Boston development, there is a marked shift in expression after it was built.

Also that cambridge park is probably a great planning project in terms of the urban structure of cambridge, but its a pretty poor design project i'd say. It shoves all bike traffic out with cars, unlike the streetscapes a few blocks away near the Stata Center that deftly weave bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicular traffic into one corridor but each with its own discrete zone. I would suggest in 2011 a separate category for open space, best/worst. There is a standard of compelling contemporary expression at work in [most of] the building projects listed that this is not being held to this project only because this one is such a smart urban move.

EDIT: forgot about zero arrow--- who let him in here?

[Ron Newman]

Zero Arrow was one of my nominees, as was Central Square Theatre. I like any project that adds live performance spaces, and these two are tasteful, contextual infills. The same bias caused me to vote for Atelier, Opera House, and ICA.

Wonder if 111 Huntington will win both Best and Worst?

[czsz]

I can't believe all the votes for One Lincoln. I wonder if there are still a lot of "tall = good" people lurking among us.

Also: holy fucking shit is that photo of 45 Province amazing. HDR, I assume?

Briv, is it possible for you to add a vote? I forgot to put in one for the Brighton Community Boathouse.

[blade_bltz]

The Fenway Park picture you chose doesn't reflect the full extent of the renovations. That very vantage point - second-deck, behind home plate - is no longer shielded in glass, as of 2005. (600 club/.406 club => EMC club).

^^ which is, I assume, a huge improvement for those well-heeled enough to sit there. I went on a Fenway tour as a kid, and remember feeling acutely disappointed when they brought us up to the 600 club. Like watching a game in an icky movie theater.

[ablarc]

Couldn't vote for more than seven.

[ablarc]

Couldn't vote for more than seven.




Btw, as a nitpicker it's my duty to point out that 1999-2009 is eleven years, not a decade.

[briv]

CZ, I think I can add a vote for you for the Brighton Boathouse.

I also fixed the time frame.

Which ones did you vote for, Ablarc?

[bdurden]

I forgot all about Rollins Square (and I live right around the corner); perhaps a testament to it's success is that it fits into the neighborhood so perfectly. It's a little slice of back alley Paris right in Boston.

[ablarc]

Originally Posted by briv

Which ones did you vote for, Ablarc?

4,5,16,23,26,39, and 42.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Rollins Square is also seen as a textbook case of how you do mixed income housing correctly (or as correctly as it can be done).

[Shepard]

Why do people like the Zakim Bridge so much? It's nice eye candy for cinematic Boston flyovers, but Golden Gate Bridge this ain't. What does it actually do for the city? Isn't anyone peeved that its sole purpose is to get cars downtown, and that we'll never be able to walk or bike over it?

[Ron Newman]

I like it as a sculptural landmark that you can see from many different places on the ground (not just in the air). I don't resent it for being inaccessible to pedestrians and bikes, since it's right next to the Charles River Dam crossing which accommodates them just fine.

[czsz]

What's wrong with eye candy?

It's become a nice landmark for Boston (this city is chronically short of really recognizable feats of architecture and engineering) such that it's even featured in Amtrak ads.

[BostonUrbEx]

2 One Lincoln
14 Opera House
19 Battery Wharf
35 111 Huntington

I wish 33 Arch Street was on here, it's my favorite building.

But luckily One Lincoln is my second favorite.

And I think the other 3 votes I made were nicely done as well.