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Why, yes, of course the Pru now has a lawn out front

Prudential Center lawn on Boylston Street

The new lawn. Photo by Shawn.

Microsoft, which apparently has more money than it knows what to do with, hired contractors to spend a couple days putting in a lawn on the Boylston Street side of the Pru so that its own workers can spend today giving harried city dwellers the chance to experience suburban life made even better with Microsoft products, just in case they were unaware the Pru has a larger, more permanent swath of grass on the Huntington Avenue side.

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Comments

I think the Microsoft Store here hires nothing but arseholes. When the store opened I wanted to at least check it out even though I only own Apple stuff. I nearly had a seizure from the incredibly bright lights (since I have an unusual condition involving overy "hot" light temperature).

I mentioned this to the manager and was told "we like them like that" and nothing ever happened and I've never been in since. This isn't a policy or corporate design because the MS store in Salem, NH doesn't have lights like the Pru store's at all.

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I suggest contacting the Disability Law Center. http://www.dlc-ma.org

It sounds like they may be violating the ADA. You have every right to be there and not risk injury. The manager sounds like a real asshole for dismissing you.

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Why do they want to trigger memories of every suburban office park hotel that passers-by have ever been stranded in on their most boring and isolating business trips?

This is like being trapped in RTP or a Holliday Inn in Albany, NY with only the local pizza delivery or the hotel "pub" for dinner options.

I guess that might make you want to escape using technology, though.

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Hey! Albany has Bomber's and Wolff's now!

Though trapped is a good way to put it.

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more 'green space'.

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Last night I heard on the radio a discussion of so-called innovation districts, such as that in the Seaport District (an aside: is the innovation district a subset of the Seaport District?). I think the show was On Point on WBUR. An aspect of the discussion included that fact that innovation districts, particularly in the context of computer software, are urban - opposite from the Silicon Valley, Redmond and Research Triangle models where software businesses are centered in suburban areas. One time mentioned about the Research Triangle in North Carolina is the work to give that suburban sprawl an urban feel. So is this bit of suburban landscaping by Microsoft an attempt to insert its identity of suburban mowed lawns to the city?

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has become an overused buzzword that is synonymous with overpriced, gimmicky, and trendy. $4 cupcakes the size of my big toe? $1700/mo "apartments" the size of my current bathtub? Sticking a lawn on the Pru? Check, check. and check.

That dirty "I" word is up there with "Big Data" or the overuse of "like" and "literally," and I tend to just shake my head when I see/hear it being used in most contexts today.

And this is from someone who worked for a very large, well known iCompany for like, 6 years and literally left to join a startup.

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Check your last sentence again.

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This may explain: http://bit.ly/I5OKIq

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SaaS is my favorite useless buzzword.

SaaS just put a name on something that many software packages have been doing for years.

Other fun, useless, and over used buzzwords:

"Rock Star"
"Big Data"
"SaaS"
Anything that starts with "my" or "i" or "g"

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Go synergize some support solutions why doncha

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Perhaps Playtex needs to modernize the whole "lifts and separates" thing and instead start making bras that synergize and support?

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.

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or something

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Menacing clouds move in from the west.

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I won't spell it out because it's just gross. But it is what I think of buzz mentality. Same goes for all the hoopla about excellence, reaching for the stars, etc. It's as though business and corporate buzzwords are used to cover up mediocrity. Peter Principle rules!

The folks I work are a good bunch for the most part. At least the people who work on the line of dealing with the public. But the managers spout business school management philosophy and focus on stupid books that whine about who stole their cheese while ignoring the failures of their decisions that then have to be cleaned up by people doing the bread and butter work.

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There's actually a plan to start building housing in RTP, presumably to give it more of an "urban" feel (good luck with that).

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Harrumph harrumph... get offa my urban property!

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As long as they leave my little lunch spot on the side of the Pru under all the apartment buildings alone then that's fine. That little green space is such an oasis to get away from work for an hour.

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I walked by there and it was loud and obnoxious. A guy with mic was calling people up on the stage in some stupid game show type setting.

On the plus side, seeing all the microsoft crap reminded me that I needed to walk down Boylston st a short piece and pick up an accessory for my iPhone.

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