Hey, there! Log in / Register
Fountain to replace Robert Burns and his dog in Winthrop Square
By adamg on Thu, 03/28/2019 - 10:54am
At a Boston Civic Design Commission meeting on Tuesday, Millennium Partners showed off its plans for a re-done Winthrop Square in front of its skyscraper there, in which an oval water fountain replaces the statue of Robert Burns and his faithful companion, Luath, which the company will pay to move back to its original home in the Back Bay Fens.
Millennium Partners says the design is focused on the idea of a ripple:
A ripple, the pattern created by a raindrop hitting a body of water, is the concept for this scheme. An active and dynamic pool of water is the pulse of this plaza. It will be designed to create visual and acoustical interest throughout the day and throughout the year. The sound of moving water will echo across the square. Change in elevation is achieved through subtly tilting the plane of the plaza. The shape of the pool undulates outward, repeating the rippled form in the paving. The ground plane emerges at varying levels to frame planting beds and create seating. Lighting will be used to highlight the walls and paths. These nestled linear elements create an elegant and contemplative atmosphere that can be enjoyed by individuals or groups of people.
The Burns statue, unveiled in 1920, originally sat near Daniel Chester French's monument to John Boyle O'Reilly - in part in homage to the contributions of both the Irish and the Scottish to America. The city had it moved to Winthrop Square - named after John WInthrop - in 1975, when the CEO of the company that rehabbed 1 Winthrop Sq. couldn't convince a Back Bay church to give up its statue of Winthrop and he didn't feel like commissioning one of its own.
Millennium Partners presentation on the square (11.7M PDF).
Millennium Partners presentation on the public space inside its tower (7.8M PDF).
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Even better, they should
Even better, they should replace it with a statue of C. Montgomery Burns!
Excellent.
.
A missed opportunity to make
A missed opportunity to make it an actual city square, just for people, instead of a tiny park surrounded by cars.
"greening downtown"
The "Greening the Downtown" slide is pure parody.
I think I saw that park once
in Sim City 3000.
Will quickly become a wasted space...
Pedestrianize the ENTIRE intersection and expand the plaza out to he surrounding buildings edge. Create beautiful and ACTIVE spaces for community and commerce in the public realm.
Mildew and Mold generator
That park sees very little sun. This will just add humidity for microbes when not being used as a urinal.
It even looks like a toilet seat.
Right Room Wrong Appliance
The word is Bidet -- google if unfamiliar
Summer bidet, winter toilet
Or maybe it is one of those Japanese retrofit Toto models.
Shadows don't exist in their world
Reality and renderings don't mix
Bike messengers are gonna snap. (Again)
They currently use that space for curb jumping and hiding from responsibility. Any time your package is missing in Boston it's in a bag down in Winthrop Square. Just gonna start getting to JJ Foleys earlier.
Too funny!
Too funny!
Er, I mean they shouldn't because of mold & mildew!
Yes, that's the ticket. Although personally I don't think mold & mildew is much of a concern for bike messengers.
Yes, your important "package"
is down at the park.
*wink*
Bike Messengers
That very spot was once a popular gathering place for far-out looking bike messengers during the heyday of the bike messenger era.
Ripple design
I think the street skaters may replace the messengers, that looks like a fun design.
In the meantime the construction is not doing the park any good
They've installed what seems to be a big concrete-batching plant at the edge of the park and it's covering everything (including the Burns statue) in crud. Last week they put up notice of a public hearing on April 4 to discuss removal of all the trees. Looks like they intended to preserve the park during construction, but it's not exactly working out that way.
The park is tiny, but has some age and character, like the buildings around the square. I'm lucky to walk through every day, although the construction mess and noise are pretty dominant right now.
I'm assuming/hoping that they
I'm assuming/hoping that they're keeping the mature trees that are there currently? I'm not a huge fan of this design--it looks very chintzy, not like a park but more like an office plaza. It would be nice to have more green and less pavement.
Ramp
That ramp inside "the connector" looks awfully clunky and difficult to use. They have though length to basically gently grade the whole thing, but instead create a barrier for people ho have trouble with stairs.
Sad
This makes me sad. I work nearby and have sat in that park many times for a quick lunch break or when I needed to get out of the office for a few. I will miss the statue.
So basically a smaller
So basically a smaller version of Park Plaza... Keep it as it, at least it has some individual character and won’t turn into a toilet/bath for the homeless.
January 2020 Robert Burns Supper
January 2020 Robert Burns Supper http://www.bondircambridge.com/bondir-winter-series-2019/#robert-burns-s...
I like the Virtual Wall Art
Looking at the Millennium Partners presentation for the former "Great Hall" aka the Connector -- I like the Virtual Wall Art idea showcased in a number of the renderings in the presentation
Back in the later 1960's my father predicted that within a decade or two people would dial-up whatever kind of wall environment that they wanted and it would be displayed on flexible wall coverings
I've been waiting for this to happen for many years -- it looks like the major walls of the "Connector" will be covered with large-scale OLED or possibly the newer generation QLED which uses nanotech to create a nearly unlimited range of colors with extreme levels of resolution spatially., Bonus since the individual pixels are LED they respond amazingly fast so that large-scale live or "canned" video of virtual waterfalls, volcanoes and rocket launches, etc., are very realistic.
Throw in some good quality sound a few large potted palms and you could be lunching in a Tropical Rain forest in the middle of a Boston Winter
The whole has the potential to become a Boston "must-see" Kudos to Millennium Partners for an "out-of-the-ordinary" proposal
ok?
n/t