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Ground broken for tallest Back Bay building since the Hancock

Dalton Street builidng in the Christian Science center

Architect's rendering.

WBUR reports on this evening's formal groundbreaking for a 61-story, triangular tower that will feature the city's second Four Seasons Hotel and luxury condos on Dalton Street at the Christian Science Center.

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Comments

Looking at this, all I can think is, "Will they FINALLY reopen the Boylston Street exit at the Hynes stop?"

But, also, looks pretty good. Nice to see large new development that doesn't destroy a historic building or cast a massive shadow on greenspace.

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This one, which includes a overhaul of Hynes.

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Ah hah-- so I had the location of this one wrong. Hm.

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Will there be an observation deck on the very top floor, or a ritzy restaurant, once completed we will see this tower from Foxboro stadium, and areas miles away from Boston.

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First we got the roll-on, now we have the solid stick.

Are they getting inspiration from anti-perspiration?

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comment in a longggg time, Swrly. You have forever changed the way I will look at the Boston skyline!

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Do we need another Four Seasons? There's nothing wrong with the present one. And ask some of those old Brahmins how they feel about the shitshow that is now the new Ritz Carlton. Answer: they hate it.

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can you amplify that comment a bit?

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The new Ritz is a terrible hotel. It's horribly located and Avery Street is a mess between the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM with delivery trucks, cabs, valet parking and limos all crowding for space. It's also two way until the last hundred feet or so in front of the Ritz condos where it becomes one way until Washington. It has retained none of the charm of the old Ritz and certainly does not have the same level of service that the old Ritz had. Thankfully the Taj had the good sense to retain as much of the old staff as they could and the level of service there far surpasses the new Ritz.

Little anecdote. One of my prized clients is the dowager of an old money family from the West coast whose husband made his money in the hotel business. Very important lady. So, she's in town and she decided to stay at the Ritz as the Charles was booked as her first preference. So she then decided to take an earlier flight to DC on a Sunday morning as opposed to the 2PM she was booked on.She asked the Ritz concierge to change her flight. The concierge then erroneously informed her that US Air only had one or two flights to DC on Sundays and that he couldn't do it. I was aghast. A simple check of the website shows that US Air flies to DC almost on the hour.

I informed my client of this and she asked me to accompany her into the Ritz to inform the concierge he was wrong. When we told the concierge (some kid) that a flight was available at the desired time and that he was wrong and that we'd like it changed, he said to my client,"Well, I was just going to go home...."

Now, am I a classist? No, but when you stay at the Ritz Carlton and you're paying Ritz Carlton prices and some kid in a poorly fitting suit tells a VIP guest that they'd rather go home than change a simple flight says volumes to me about the level of service one can expect at Boston's Ritz Carlton.

And while I certainly can't prove any type of financial collusion, I've always found it strange that out of any hotel in the city, the autograph loonies always know which celebrities are staying at the Ritz. I mean, it's not like the doormen have a lot of spaces to hold nice cars for cash in front of the joint or anything like that. And I'm certainly not going to say that I've ever seen a doorman favor particular Uber drivers with cash runs when there's no cabs around in total violation of the city's no soliciting off of the street law either. No sir, not me.

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You know, I wish I had the kinds of problems you and your clients have.

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For every story like that one, I have more involving me, an about to be broken window scraper and sub-zero temperatures just to drive some middle level tech manager to the airport for a 5AM flight. From his house in Marshfield.

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The bar at the new Ritz sucks as well, the modern middle bar is pretty cool but the one on the right is always cold and damp.

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I hope they keep both, although the ugly red carpet in the Bristol Lounge needs to go, I love the location and layout of it.

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This is a second location, it's not replacing the old one.

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If I had my way I'd move the W here. It's definitely more a W location with the option to design all the fun modern stuff the hotel is known for. The current location sucks..

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Having two Four Seasons hotels a mile apart will forever confuse tourists, cabbies, and Uber and Lyft drivers.

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By the time this hits the century mark, it could be the Two Seasons.

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The new hotel should be the Four and a half Seasons, the next one the Four and one quarter Seasons, etc.

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Shadows! Ack! Phhhfft!

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Ronald A. Mayville
The Great Boston Molasses Tank Failure of 1919
A structural and metallurgical perspective of design practices at the time and fracture evidence based on current understanding
http://cenews.com/article/9864/the-great-boston-molasses-tank-failure-of...

> ...the walls of the tank were at least 50 percent too thin and the type of steel used was brittle because it contained a low amount of the chemical element manganese, making it more likely to crack
https://www.centralmaine.com/2015/01/14/engineer-sheds-new-light-on-bost...

By Peter Schworm
Nearly a century later, structural flaw in molasses tank revealed
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/01/14/nearly-century-later-new-ins...

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MANGO CHUTNEY! MANGO CHUTNEY! MANGO CHUTNEY!

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Let's make sure they don't build this luxury hotel planned for years the same way the hastily built a tank in the 1910s?

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Because structural steel now is the same as it was in the 1910s AND we would thoroughly regret an upscale business traveller/tourist spill.

The recent bridge collapses are not due to this ductile-brittle transition problem, but due to structural engineers in the 1950s and 1960s saying "whee - this is stuff is strong and we don't have to use much at all!", ignoring the possibility that tax revolts and excessive salt use would cause maintenance and corrosion issues.

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they plan to fill that entire building with molasses.

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100 years from now, tour guides in the Back Bay will gesture to the building and say, "some older folks claim that on really hot days, you can still smell a hint of molasses in the air".

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good ting they didn't fill it with cabbages and broccoli!

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With the Hilton, Sheraton and now Four Seasons, the incessant whistling of doormen hailing cabs is going to reach an unbearable crescendo.

I lived on St. Germain for 2 years (which is basically the street from which the perspective of the rendering is made), and I'm absolutely amazed that they're cramming a building in that little triangle of land.

The building itself is gorgeous, so I'll be interested to see what it looks like when completed. But now St. Germain, which was one of the more picturesque streets in the city, will bookended by 2 huge sky scrapers. This one, and the new Berkley building on the other end. It'll change the entire look and feel of the area in both good and bad ways, I'm sure.

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I find this street to be so pretty... the entire street is owned by the Church so its very well maintained. Almost puts many streets in the BB to shame on how well maintained, and well lit it is. But I digress.

I agree, its on a TINY piece of land. (I also think the picture above is inverted). Its actually going on top of the parking garage for the church. So small.

That intersection is gonna suck.. already does with people using it as a cut thru between Huntington and Boylston, Taxis for hotels, and tour buses. Now you wanna add a hotel and residences? Too much for a side street.

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Totally agree that intersection is going to be terrible. It's already bad. Those streets are some of the more narrow in the city, and drivers used to FLY around the bend on Clearway toward Dalton at crazy speed. Can't say how many times I had to run out of the way of some maniac driving way too fast... usually a Boston Taxi.

As for St. Germain Street, I can only imagine that a huge skyscraper adjacent will now make the street feel even more picturesque. Hopefully Abbey Saint Germain (the company that owns all of the real estate on that street) keep maintaining it as well as they have.

I'm glad I lived there when I did, because it'll no longer feel as much of a "secret corner" of the city.

Also, this is probably going to increase ridership on the Green E line and the Prudential stop quite a bit.

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Some people are going to benefit tremendously from this building. Not me, though.

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