Charles River Park

[DowntownDave]

Work underway for the new Charles River Park buildings:





Yes, they are more of "those buildings".

[ablarc]

They need to install stores in the ground floors of all those slabs.

Postwar construction in Boston falls in two categories:

1. individual buildings fitted into existing contexts established by prior development. Examples: Hancock Tower, all the new skyscrapers of the Financial District, Holyoke Center, Five Cents Savings Bank. These are mostly good, because in spite of their tendency to height they don't change ("overwhelm") their context, which is old urbanism.

2. collections of buildings large enough to be considered districts. These include the West End, the Government Center, the Seaport District and Kendall Square. These are mostly wretched, because despite not being tall, their component buildings overwhelm the former context and substitute a modern one. They do this by the simple expedient of displacement. Their hallmark is a large new area of unified gigantism ("out of scale", "not pedestrian friendly"). Substituted are modern planning principles: large footprint behemoths, oversized roadways, functional zoning, excessive and meaningless (because residual) open space --all resulting in gigantism of scale and the death of variety. Face it folks, it ain't building heights; it's coarse-grained fat leviathans that take up a whole block with their boring ways.

A few districts are transitional: Christian Science integrates some old with the new in a fairly traditional way to almost create urban space; Prudential is being covered with barnacles that humanize its edges and mallify its interior; Navy Yard, though old, started as already halfway to modernity (after all, it was military), with its large footprints, its big residual spaces and its segregated functions. It effortlessly morphed into a truly execrable demonstration of modern planning blunders, and is as nearly uninhabitable as a place so close to a city can get.

[Mike]

Paul posted this link in another thread:


http://www.charlesriverparkapt.com/development.asp

[shiz02130]

Here is a larger version of one of the pics from the above website:

[aws129]

Just out of curiosity, what's up with the (what looks like) green fences in the rendering above? It looks like they block of the sidewalks in parts...I sure hope they're not turning CRP into more of a gated community than it already is.

[Ron Newman]

One of them also blocks a driveway. I'm guessing they are just project-area boundaries but I don't know for sure.

[Merper]

instead of taking this opportunity for new construction to start 'fixing' Charles River Park, it looks like we're getting plenty more of the suburban crap we got there now.

[chumbolly]

Originally Posted by Merper

instead of taking this opportunity for new construction to start 'fixing' Charles River Park, it looks like we're getting plenty more of the suburban crap we got there now.

I think that's because the existing buildings appeal to, and have become occupied with, lovers of suburban crap. As entrenched interests that fear change (just like residents of Back Bay fight for their brownstones) the residents of CRP have insisted that any new development must adhere to craptacularly suburban standards. It's hard to begrudge them that.

[Merper]

oh, i know WHY we're getting them... i was just lamenting the fact...

[DowntownDave]

More views of progress:







I am in awe of the creative genius shown in these facade mockups:

[vanshnookenraggen]

Jeeze, I never thought I'd say it but those are uglier than the original CRP facades.

[Joe_Schmoe]

For a while now I've wanted to do a thread/essay called "Boston disasters." It would be about all the monumental mistakes that have been made since WWII in Boston and would cover the usual suspects. But one part of the essay would be called "The Charles river" and point out how all the recent development along the Charles is horrible. Those Miami style pastel horrors in the West End would be exhibit one. Too bad the new developments won't block the view of these nightmares from the river. Taking a boat ride down the Charles should be a visual feast (and in some areas it is), but the lack of beautiful buildings lining the Charles is a tragedy. There's the Back Bay and old Harvard, but everyhting else is terrible.

[Ron Newman]

I like most of the MIT buildings along the river, but I'm biased because I went to school there. I also like the ziggurat of the Hyatt Regency hotel.

[kz1000ps]

And I forget what project this is..

[Waldorf]

Archstone Smith Apartments?

[Merper]

c'mon, as uninspiring as those mockups are, they are eons better than anything currently found there.

[kz1000ps]

-



This is looking at the side wing you can see in the picture two below

[Mike]

They sure moved fast on this project. A year ago this month they were just starting to take down the old garage on Blossom street.

[FastLane]

In the building adjacent to Storrow Drive, are there going to be apartments on the second floor? There doesn't seem to be much privacy with the pedestrian overpass there!

[bowesst]

I think physically Boston would seem a lot bigger if not for developments like this.