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Looks like a plaque on Tremont Street will need an adjustment
By adamg on Fri, 09/12/2014 - 12:35pm
This plaque is embedded in the sidewalk on the Tremont Street side of the Parker House. It's easy to miss - who looks down while walking down that particularly busy sidewalk? - but once you see it, you just know you have to stop and take a look.
And for years, your view was, in fact, of Old North Church, just to the left of City Hall. But now, well, look at what Aaron Helfand saw this morning when he stood on the plaque and looked out:
That's the shell of the new entrance to the Government Center T stop. The space will be filled with glass panels, but still:
To be fair, the renderings I've seen show that it will be mostly glass...but glass buildings are a lot less transparent than people tend to think.
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Comments
must be because..
of all the shoddy record keeping at the BRA that someone neglected this promise.
http://tinyurl.com/makf34x
Or, more aptly...
"Friend--we tore down all the buildings directly in front of you, where people used to live. One side effect is that now you can see this historic building on the other side of the resulting enormous vacant space."
Got the history wrong to boot!
OMG your sarcastic take is spot on! (and unfortunately true)
As to the history:
The two lanterns at Old North Church did not "send" Paul Revere on his famous ride - they were signals he arranged (conceived by Joseph Warren and executed via Robert Newman and John Pulling) to the patriots on the Charlestown side of which route troops would begin their journey towards Lexington/Concord so that if Revere failed to get to Charlestown a back-up rider privy to the same info/message Revere had (troops were to arrest John Hancock and Sam Adams and continue to Concord to destroy munitions) another rider of "Sons of Liberty" pedigree would take his place.
Either way this plaque was nothing but an exercise in vanity - I've never liked it.
BRA
Was the BRA a noble organization in 1960, worthy of being commemorated on the same plaque as our nation's revolutionary war?
The West End, Bay Cove, and
The West End, Bay Cove, and New York City Streets neighborhoods think not.
Oh?
I'm familiar with the West End, but I'd like to hear more about these other two.
When the Herald whines about the demise of the West End
Remember: the New York Streets were destroyed so that they could build their modern newspaper production facility.
Yep. The land was taken and the buildings and neighborhood were torn down entirely for their benefit.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/08/18/boston-vanished-new-york-str...
Is that accurate?
You say the neighborhood was torn down "entirely for their benefit". How so? The neighborhood was torn down so that industry could be located there, but nowhere have I read that the Boston Herald somehow arranged it so that they would get the right to build there.
Cool!
Thanks for the history. I've always wondered how Albany Street got its name.
Absolutely
Without the help of the BRA, we wouldn't have the vibrant, diverse Scollay Square that we all love.
Start over, I guess
Clearly the only solution to this problem to this is to tear down the new head house and start over from scratch with a new design.
Nobody has a problem with that, right?
Another possibility
Turns out that the "view" referred to is actually the engraving on the plaque. So that building blocking your sight of the actual church is really no problem at all!
Surprised the BRA put this
Surprised the BRA put this plaque in. They've never seemed to care about the historic charm of Boston.
Variations on the theme of
..Boston doesn't do authentic well as it's in too much of a rush to grub money.
With such an obsession well housed in the minds of the many converging parties it's a perpetual lemonade stand, writ large, world class, and no shortage of lemons.
What is the purpose?
I've seen the schematics for these designs - what purpose does the 3-story-tall headhouse serve? It's empty space, and the main entryway only seems to be on the first level. There is no machinery or ventilation in the upper compartment to justify it, it doesn't even look good (a la Kenmore Sq or South Station's glass entrances), and obstructs several major views (one of them is OF City Hall so that's okay I guess). Does anyone know why it's there, if not for function or aesthetics?
Tendency towards overbuilt buildings
There is a major tendency towards overbuilt buildings with wasted space. The T is a main offender of this. Honorable mention to the new East Boston Public Library There could have been at least another floor to it instead of so much empty, cavernous space.
I just saw this monstrosity
...the other day as I walked up Cambridge St. from the Charles T stop. I don't care if it will be all glass, I don't like it. It towers over the plaza & ruins the effect of the Sears Crescent curve by blocking it. I have always liked the contrast that swoosh of warm brick made to the stark straight lines of City Hall et al. Now it's all marred by those columns.
Hanlon's Razor
If you had asked me a year ago if the city could do something to make City Hall Plaza architecturally worse, I would have laughed you out of the room. But they finally really did it. You Maniacs!
Oh right - my original prediction for what they would use that space for (prior to it breaking ground), based on the prior art of Kenmore and Mass Ave stations, is "to drape 3-story-tall ads from". Mark my words.
That Sears Crescent is a gem
That Sears Crescent is a gem of a building in that blighted area. What a shame.
Conspiracy theory time!
I'm sure we can come up with some good ones. Any ideas?
Refraction
The glass panes will be curved and the BRA will use it as a focusing device for their building-leveling laser beam.
OR
It was designed during the Menino administration and was going to feature mirrored glass so he could look at himself all day.
Tax break
Somebody offered the BRA $1 million for that spot as long as they got our grossly underpaid City Council to sign off on a $5 million tax break for an oversized 100 story building proposed for construction on the current site of a garage next to the New England Aquarium. In addition, said developer offered to pay for relocation of the plaque 50 feet down the street, hoping nobody would notice.
Everybody's happy - BRA gets $1 million in extortion money, developer gets a $4 million bonus from the city for nothing, unions get jobs and the City Council says - look we made all these wonderful things happen, you should give us a 24% raise and the developer should donate to our re-election campaign.
The only losers are the taxpayers (and anyone whose view gets blocked) - but they'll never notice any more than they ever noticed this plaque in the sidewalk.
Oh, wait, that's not too far from what happens in real life - does that still count as a "theory"?
Later,
After The Reefer is fully legalized, the City will use this greenhouse as a grow room, and sell the product in kiosks at all T stations.
furthering the conspiracy theory...
Dunkin Donuts will then be opening new stores in multiple stations to cash in on people with the munchies
........
But at least then the stations will be more secure, what with all the cops coming in for Dunkin's. How's THAT FOR A CONSPIRACY? Dunkin does all this behind the scenes so they can sell more coffee?
Gov. Center MBTA Statation
I think the new Government Center station is a disaster. Too high! Who approved this? Were abutters in on the design approval? Just when I thought City Hall Plaza could not get worse it has! A 4 story glass box does not fit with the surrounding brick and stone buildings and streets.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??? Start over!