architecture

Covering eyesores until they can be permanently fixed

lex.galloway — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:32:32 +0000

Imagine City Hall or the Hynes covered in vines.

If Nate Swain has his way, it could happen. For the past couple of years, he's been covering eyesores in the North End with vinyl canvases covered with high-resolution photos. See if you can spot his work in the photo above.

His first project was in a building facing Salem and Prince streets in 2009. He photographed and then printed scenes such as a cat on a windowsill with flowers in pots; a goldfish swimming in a bowl, printed them onto a mesh vinyl back, then installed them over the windows. The idea is to create a sort of an "idyllic" concept, as he calls it.

Ever want to ask the architects of Government Center what in the world they were thinking?

adamg — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:36:01 +0000

The Boston Preservation Alliance is sponsoring a walking tour of Government Center:

It will begin at the Lindemann Center in Government Center, and will include a broad range of works showcasing the variety and quality of modernism in Government Center.

Aug. 17, 5:30 to 7 p.m., free to alliance members and $15 for everybody else. Reservations required: admin@bostonpreservation.org or 617-367-2458.

In just the right light ...

Sean — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:31:21 +0000

Against the philistinism of a bunch of tourists, there comes a City Hall defender.

A lot the tourists know. Without City Hall, there'd be none of the "more aesthetically pleasing ameneties" nearby, like Faneuil Hall.

Downtown Boston in the 1970s

adamg — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:30:48 +0000

Some interesting photos: See how downtown has changed - and hasn't.

Awful Harvard architecture

adamg — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:14:09 +0000

No, this time we're not talking about that soul-sucking dormitory at 1 Western Ave. Turns out criticizing Harvard architecture is a pastime that goes back generations. Charles Swift uncovers a biting critique of Harvard's building style way back in 1836, by George Cleveland:

... We would cite these as very perfect specimens of no known order of architecture; vast brick barns, destitute alike of symmetry, ornament, and taste; and with all their plain and uncouth proportions, there is a sort of horrible regularity and squareness about them , which heightens their deformity. Four of these edifces are guiltless of any attempt at elegance of architecture, and, making no pretensions. perhaps hardly deserve to be noticed. But what shall we say of the stone edifice, which insults us with its long piazza, and its wooden Ionic pilasters, and the entablature which extends part way across the front? ...

Then again, Cleveland may have been the Mikey of 19th-century architectural criticism: He didn't like anything, including the Bullfinchian Boston that we all so love to death today.

Ruining a graceful house

adamg — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:31:38 +0000

Sandouri Dean Bey discusses a 19th-century "stick style" house that is getting ripped apart around the corner from his house:

... The house sold for over $500K, a sad testimony to an inflated real estate market. Worse still is that after paying such an exorbitant price, the new owners proceeded to begin their half-assed renovations without pulling any permits whatsoever. The city quickly shut them down, but not before the jackasses had ripped off the front porch, which - even though it had fallen into disrepair - was quite lovely with fluted Doric columns. Now it's gone, and in its place is an ill-suited, poorly designed, and shabbily constructed deck. ...

Boston buildings that suck

adamg — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 13:20:00 +0000

Mike Mennonno starts a series on architectural abominations, beginning with the Tip O'Neill federal building, even though he allows as how it's not a complete abomination:

... The architect's inspiration seems to have been a stingy slice of tiramisu. ...

My pick for the ugliest building in Boston.

The ugliest building in Boston

adamg — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:41:32 +0000

The state Department of Mental Health's Hurley Building was designed in the same "brutalist" mode as the nearby City Hall. But City Hall is a delightful little confectionary compared to this truly brutal, depressing series of concrete fists smashing the spirit of onlookers into a thin pulp. Elephantine concrete columns follow one after another, with no visual relief, figuratively pounding you in the head without stop. Dynamite would be too kind for this monstrosity, which would be far better suited as the headquarters of the KGB circa 1965 than a building in the cradle of American liberty. It's especially depressing given its location across the street from the classic West Church and, for that matter, all of Beacon Hill.

Pedestrian addition to the MFA

adamg — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 22:49:57 +0000

Marc is not at all upset that the construction schedule for the MFA's proposed $385-million addition seems to have slipped by more than a year:

... It's another entirely forgettable, vaguely irritating design of straight lines and cubes, and the best that can be said of it is that some of it is glass. ...

MFA background info on the expansion.