Hall of Shame Nominations

[statler]

I'll second the O'Neil Building

Also

Tremont on the Common

I know it has ground floor retail and forms a coherent street wall but I hate that building.

Challenge:
Can anyone come up with a pre-1900's building for this list?
I can't even think of a pre-1940's building I would put here.

[kennedy]

I know I got the names wrong, but I like the Hurley Building. I'll second the JFK and third the O'Neill.

[statler]

I've edited my initial post to include a list on nominees so far.

I didn't include ablarc's rogues gallery because it is a bit too long. If someone wants to pull out a few specific examples I'll add them to the list.

I also didn't include JSic's nomination of the Hurley Building. Too much debate on it, I think. If it gets seconded I'll include it.

[Lrfox]

Can I throw the Midtown Hotel into the mix? It sits directly across Huntington from one of the best modernist urban spaces I've ever seen, the Christian Science Plaza, (which fortunately takes some of the attention away), but it is an atrocity. Contextually, it would fit just fine in a flat, arid expanse in rural Nevada as a decrepid old highway motel. At least some of the nominees were an effort to be bold and groundbreaking... the Midtown Hotel was neither an attempt to fit in or an attempt to stand out... it's a waste of space and an ugly one at that.

[statler]

^^ Seconded. Good call!

[czsz]

Can anyone come up with a pre-1900's building for this list?

Honestly, I hate all of New England's triple deckers.

They look cheaper than the brick rowhouses that house urban working class populations in other East Coast regions. They're overcrowded. They light up like matchsticks. They have tiny scraps of suburbanesque lawn dating from a time when this was seen a salvation for the working poor, but which detract significantly from the urban feel of most of metro Boston. I'll only concede that the balconies are cool.

Can I throw in one story taxpayer commercial buildings too? They date from the same era of "enlightened" zoning as the triple deckers...the idea being that if commerce were separated from residential use, all would be fat and jolly. I would trade any of Boston's one story retail streets, no matter what the quaint 1920s terra cotta detailing, for new strips of four-story mixed use buildings.

It's really embarrassing to have friends come to Boston and ask to see interesting neighborhoods outside the gentrified city center...and then, when they see places like David Square and Jamaica Plain, remark on how much they resemble [insert New Jersey suburb here].

[BarbaricManchurian]

^^I'll have to disagree with you on this. Three-deckers are something unique to New England and provide high density, allowing a little amount of green space. Isn't that what we aim for here, higher density buildings to allow green space (vs the NIMBYs' goal of low density and green space)? It's an urban area, and the urban part is one of the densest in the US, so of course they're going to be "overcrowded". I agree with one story commercial buildings, it's past time for them to go, but in some places the demand just isn't there.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Gotta go with BM on the Triple Deckers. I'm a big fan. Are they perfect? No. But they fill their purpose better than the tenements of NYC.

[JSic]

Can I throw in one story taxpayer commercial buildings too? They date from the same era of "enlightened" zoning as the triple deckers...

I like triple-deckers; they are uniquely Boston and when built close together and front the sidewalk, they do beget an urban environment. Granted, I would trade them for brick rowhouses, but even so...

However, I could not agree more on the one-story commercial buildings that line all of Boston's main streets outside the downtown core. They just scream "what were they thinking?!?" Tear them down, and replace with 4-5 story brick structures with ground-floor retail.

[commuter guy]

I see One Beacon on the nomination list. I don't love the building, but I don't think it deserves to be on the list. At least the windows are recessed, gives the building a bit of texture. IMO One Post Office Sq. is a comparable tower that is much more akward and clumbsy in its design.

[Beton Brut]

Is it too early to nominate the new "shelter" at Kenmore Square?

[Ron Newman]

I'm going to disagree on the one-story commercial buildings, because sometimes they are just what the neighborhood needs. Case in point: the row of six restaurants that recently burned in the West Fenway.

My nomination: Boston City Hall. Citizens should be proud of their civic centers, not ashamed of them. The building fails at every level - symbolism, functionality, energy-efficiency, relation to the surrounding streets, etc.

(I'm surprised nobody has nominated Hotel Commonwealth. My guess is that the last-minute city-ordered re-facading has diminished people's former hatred for the building.)

[kennedy]

Originally Posted by Beton Brut

Is it too early to nominate the new "shelter" at Kenmore Square?

That's a wonderful structure, what's your issue with it?

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

...the building fails at every level - symbolism...

...(I'm surprised nobody has nominated Hotel Commonwealth. My guess is that the last-minute city-ordered re-facading has diminished people's former hatred for the building.)

City Hall is very effectively symbolic. It broods over the happy neighborhoods, a monstrosity of mass just waiting to crush someone's day. Set back from the street, not fitting in with the neiborhoods...exactly how our city government works. Doesn't care about the people, is only concerned with it's own power. Odd how Menino doesn't like it...

Hotel Commonwealth is only awful on it's own. If there was more in Kenmore Square, it wouldn't seem so awful. Fill in the streetwall with clubs and restaurants, and you'll hardly notice it.

[Ron Newman]

Except for the BU parking lot on Deerfield Street, I'm not aware of vacant property in Kenmore Square. What streetwall gaps are you referring to?

[kennedy]

Along with the parking lot, the one story...motel(?) next to it, and the Citizens Bank on the corner of Beacon and Comm. Ave.

Plus, just because there is a building, doesn't mean that the streetwall is full. There has to be stuff going on within the streetwall...thats sort of what I meant.

If you stand at that bus shelter, are you telling me that you feel like you're in an enclosed, vibrant urban square?

[Beton Brut]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

(I'm surprised nobody has nominated Hotel Commonwealth. My guess is that the last-minute city-ordered re-facading has diminished people's former hatred for the building.)

It still sucks, Ron. I think justin said it best. The city-mandated "revisions" make it "forgettably ugly" instead of utterly repulsive. In my opinion, only dynamite could fix it properly.

Regarding the brontosaurus ribs:

Originally Posted by kennedy

That's a wonderful structure, what's your issue with it?

Is this a serious question?


photo by statler (I think)

Originally Posted by ablarc

^ God, that thing is awful.

Completely anti-urban, it channels space to abrogate the "Square." It's exhibtionistic, pretentious and too complex by a factor of ten. Did I mention ugly?

No amount of scorn is excessive when heaped on this stupid abomination.

Thanks, ablarc! Where can I send your cigar.

[kennedy]

No. I disagree. Bus-stops are not anti-urban. How dare a bus-stop force people to congregate in a specific location, especially in the middle of a city "square!" "Exhibitionist, pretentious, ugly, and complex" are all personal opinions. In my opinion, it's a nice piece of functional contemporary art. But I guess that's what an awards process if for, for people to defend their personal opinions.

[Ron Newman]

The ex-HoJo motel, now BU dorm, may be ugly and non-urban, but it certainly is not "one-story". It's taller than many of its neighbors.

[kennedy]

No, the actual one-story building. Street-view isn't too good, maybe it's the lobby of the hotel.

[czsz]

[Triple deckers] fill their purpose better than the tenements of NYC.

Would you like Manhattan as much if it were covered with triple deckers instead of 6-13 story apartment buildings? Would anyone?

I'm going to disagree on the one-story commercial buildings, because sometimes they are just what the neighborhood needs. Case in point: the row of six restaurants that recently burned in the West Fenway.

It doesn't at all logically follow that the same uses can't be located at the bases of taller, mixed use buildings - and they often are, where these buildings exist.