Here's an idea: Surround the Filene's Memorial Hole with a nice white fence
By adamg - Thu, 07/09/2009 - 10:23am.
That's what they did in Wellesley, which has its own giant hole in the ground (where the Wellesley Inn got torn down for condos that never materialized). The Swellesley Report notes the developers actually agreed to do something to keep part of the town from looking like London after the Blitz:
... We'll miss seeing the tumbleweeds blowing across the vacant lot, but I guess we can't have it all. ...
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How about tents?
Tents in the pit, in which the developers and (whoever else is responsible) will be living until development resumes.
Meanwhile, popular discount stores can move into developers' houses, with parking available on their lawns.
That's a great idea
A white fence wouldn't exactly fit in with downtown, but it'd certainly be better than the orange-fence or whatever's there now. Are there other low-cost materials that would be even more suitable, and maybe even help set the tone for that area the way the art windows try to?
I think of the difference between typical downtown construction screening (painted plywood) and that "Here's what this could look like" cutaway silk-screened drape over that biotech building on the Mass Pike.. night and day.
What they really should do
What they really should do with the wall decorating is just continue that insipid "X meets Y" campaign that they threw up on the ground floors of the remaining Filene's building. Only now they could use such bon mots as
HOLE meets GROUND
HUBRIS meets REALITY
FAILURE meets MENINO
BUBBLE meets PIN
ECONOMY meets TOILET
FILENE'S meets GODZILLA
HURF meets DURF
Hey kids! Come up with your own! It's fun!
Why not?!
Walking around Downtown Crossing, it's clear that the whole area is becoming one giant facade of dressed-up empty storefronts. This would add to the motif!
At the risk of being repetitious: It's a colossal civic clusterf**k that the hub of the Hub looks the way it does.
Back in the day in the Bronx
The city's response to mile after mile of decaying tenements along some major highway (hmm, might've even been the Major Deegan) was to board up the windows and paint little bucolic scenes of domestic bliss on them.
Oh!
Like what they did with that building in Allston next to the Sports Depot, with the likes of Mr. Butch and other locals looking out and stuff?
Yep, except no people
They basically painted curtains and flowerpots and such.
how 'bout some dogs and cats
Maybe they can add some nice little critters to the white picket fence...
Good thinking
The dogs will scare away the rats.
I remember that
Major Deegan, by Yankee Stadium. And probably other places through the South Bronx as well, but that's where I always noticed it. It was a fine welcome to New York.
That was the bad old days, when the South Bronx was half knocked down and always on fire and full of German-speaking werewolves.
Painted, hell
They were "vinyl window decals".
Essentially: Colorforms.
So what do my unbelieving
So what do my unbelieving eyes see at Downtown Crossing this noon?
A group of kids with Menino signs.
I suggested they go stand by the crater.