Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Some details are finally starting to emerge surrounding Apple’s plans for the construction of a signature Flagship retail store in the Back Bay, Boston. IfoAppleStore reports that renderings of the proposed design have leaked (see left), and that the backward-looking Back Bay Architectural Commission has serious misgivings about the 3-story modern glass structure.

This is a shame… our wonderfully acerbic alternative newspaper, The Weekly Dig, said it better than I can:

Putting aside the mental gymnastics it takes to believe that one glass building would destroy the neighborhoody feeling of a three-lane boulevard that hosts a mall, a convention center and the city’s second-tallest tower, Apple’s run-in with the BBAC raises a more immediate question: Is a cabal of frigid elitists stifling Boston’s growth while they defend some bullshit Brahmin conception of what an ex-landfill should look like?

I sympathize with those urban planners and critics who reject the strip-mall/parking-lot 20th-century method of development – God knows, Boston is as pedestrian-friendly as any city in North America, and we’re better for it. But, there are many examples of new projects designed to mimic the look of 19th-century Boston, without succeeding in preserving any sense of neighborhood cohesion. One glaring example of this is the mammoth Hotel Commonwealth, in Kenmore Square, which I’ve commented on in the past. That building has as much “old-world charm”, as a 1970s-era French Tudor style suburban tract home.

What I find strangest of all, is that this is a relatively small parcel of land we’re talking about. Consider that on the very same block, across the street, Mandarin Oriental is building a huge hotel, in front of the Prudential Tower/Mall, at street-level.

If one of these developments is going to change the character of the neighborhood, I’d worry more about that project.