This was my first time back to Boston since 2002. I was there from 5pm until noon the next day, but luckily had great weather both the first afternoon and the next morning. Many of the photos come from a morning walk from Harvard to South Station, which is about 4-5 miles. I was dragging my luggage but made it no problem. It's all about how bad you want it, baby.

 

1. I will post more Big Dig photos in the Big Dig thread.  Here is the entrance to America's most expensive tunnel:

 

2.

 

3.

 

4. The North End

 

5. The North End

 

6. The North End

 

7. The North End

 

8. The North End

 

9. The North End

 

10. The North End

 

11. The North End

 

12. Horrible new South Station subway entrances:

 

13. The North End

 

14. Cafe Pamplona in Harvard Square:

 

15. Harvard's Carpenter Center -- I worked here:

 

16. Near Copley Square

 

17. Back Bay

 

18. Commonwealth Ave.

 

19. Commonwealth Ave.

 

20. Commonwealth Ave.

 

21. Commonwealth Ave.

 

22. Commonwealth Ave.

 

23. Downtown:

 

24. Near Copley Square:

 

25. Downtown:

 

26. Downtown:

 

27. Downtown:

 

28. The Orange Line subway travels under this street:

 

29. Downtown Crossing subway station is under this area:

 

30. Filene's and Macy's:

 

31.

 

32. The building on the left reminds me of Alms & Doepke and the one on the right of McAlpin's:

 

33. This reminds me of what could have happened to Inn The Wood, except nobody listens to me:

 

34.

 

35. Looking toward South Station:

 

36. An affront to all that is good & decent:

 

37. Jank commuter rail station next to the Turnpike:

 

38. Customs House Tower:

 

39. Tourist Crap:

 

40. Menino's still mayor?  Whowuddathunkit?

 

41. Andre the Giant has a Posse:

 

42. Harvard's subway station:

 

43. This thing:

 

44. Longfellow Bridge:

 

45. Harvard Square:

 

46. I used to work in the 5-story building at center:

 

47. Mass Ave.:

 

48. Central Square:

 

49. My old subway stop:

 

50. MIT's subway stop:

 

51. My old subway stop:

Great pics of an incredibly photogenic city. I briefly lived in Brookline in 2000, but worked in Cambridge.

 

Central Square was the stop closest to my office, so I become very familiar with it. Cincinnati's never-completed subway stations are almost identical in design to the original Red Line stations in Boston/Cambridge, so it's always a bit depressing to see what Cincinnati came so close to having.

Great pics of an incredibly photogenic city. I briefly lived in Brookline in 2000, but worked in Cambridge.

 

Central Square was the stop closest to my office, so I become very familiar with it. Cincinnati's never-completed subway stations are almost identical in design to the original Red Line stations in Boston/Cambridge, so it's always a bit depressing to see what Cincinnati came so close to having.

 

You're just a Nomad aren't you?  Or are you on the lamb?

Mostly the former, except for a couple years when I had to stay outside of New Jersey because of an unpaid speeding ticket. But that wasn't much of a burden.

I just moved to Cleveland in August after living in Boston for the previous five years. I lived in the South End and Fenway at different points in my time there, but loved spending weekend afternoons in Harvard Square and nights out in Central. I worked downtown by the Macy's at 33 Arch Street (blue glass, bow-sided building). The pictures make me miss such an architecturally beautiful city, but I am also glad to be back in Ohio where my roots are :)

What's become of the old Filene's building across from Macy's? I know the Filene's brand disappeared at some point after becoming part of the Federated/Macy's empire, but I had assumed Macy's simply took over the old Filene's building instead of building what looks like a new structure across the street.

Ah yes, Boston.  The Hudson, Ohio of New England.

The old Filene's building is still there, but it is not open. They demolished the rest of the block and the Filene's building was supposed to be incorporated into a condo/office tower with retail at the base. I'm guessing they're looking at an empty lot and empty Filene's building for ten years.   

Since you were intimate with it, what do you think of Le Corbusier's only US building?

I worked in the basement, which was home to the photography department and labs, a film editing room, and several classrooms.  The basement was accessed by a staircase near the building's ground-level "front" door in the main art gallery. I never got up to the second floor, which I think was only accessed via the outside ramp. The exterior ramp kept the design from wasting interior space.   

 

I think the overall strategy of the building worked well for a building of its size and purpose. There were a lot of really interesting details that you noticed over time, and the concrete itself was attractive. But we can pick on certain aspects of it -- why was the windowless basement more important, functionally, than the ground floor? I remember a few department offices opened directly onto the main ground-floor art gallery without a hallway, which worked well if they never needed more offices, but what if they do? I think when a building is "hard-wired" for a very specific usage (a department of a very specific size and with very specific technical needs) it sets the stage for sudden and complete obsolescence, at least in the real world.  It's a problem at Harvard too, despite it being the wealthiest institution in the world excepting the Catholic Church, because space is very, very limited in Cambridge. I seem to remember them resorting to drastic measures to increase space, like proposing to build classrooms and offices directly beneath city streets. And everyone knows a school or office moved across the river to Alston is an insult -- it's inconvenient for class changes and inconvenient to public transportation. 

 

 

Also, there's really no single subway station on the red line that is identical to any of the three Cincinnati stations. None of the side platform stations have pillars in the platforms like all of Cincinnati's do:

 

 

However, the support system between the tracks in Central Square is quite similar to what was built at Brighton and Liberty St.:

 

 

Also, the roofs are flat, which is similar, and the whole things is concrete, which is identical.   

 

The Cambridge stations are about ten years older than the Cincinnati ones, but the Dorchester stations with the island platforms are from the same time period.  They have similarly-sized pillars to Race St., but there are no center stub tracks so the whole layout is totally different.  They do feel more like Cincinnati's stations though than do the Path island subway stations, for example. 

 

 

Mostly the former, except for a couple years when I had to stay outside of New Jersey because of an unpaid speeding ticket. But that wasn't much of a burden.

 

I wonder how much I could get for turning you in?  :?  I'll have the Police stand outside of the 190 st. train station.  LOL

I wonder how much I could get for turning you in?

 

You're a couple years too late; I've paid my debt to the State of New Jersey, and am now free to travel to such beautiful places as Newark and Weehawken.

 

As for the subway stations, some of the details are different, but the overall forms are pretty similar. The Cambridge stations have been nicely maintained over the years and still look fairly clean (especially compared to typical NYC subway stations), so there's hope that the Central Parkway stations may yet be brought up to a similar state.

Ugh, I hate Boston and the Red Sox, but what a beautiful city. Some really nice photographs here, you had great lighting. Seeing the comparisons between Boston's Red Line stations and Cincinnati's subway makes me even more annoyed about how we missed out on a great opportunity.

Love the North End

>you had great lighting

 

I forgot to pack my polarizer filter, but what's funny is you can see that the bus I was in had polarized glass (top photo of the Big Dig tunnel). The other thing is most of those shots would have sucked if I hadn't shot raw and spent a minute with them in photoshop. I quit working for a lady because she insisted that weddings be shot as jpegs.  Sure, it takes 2 days to edit 900 raw files, but you lose too many good shots due to stuff beyond your control.     

One of my favorite cities... such a fantastic place to spend a day walking around.  I would love to get back there sometime...

for only being there such a short amount of time you really got around!

I agree with you, GB. 

I wonder how much I could get for turning you in?

 

You're a couple years too late; I've paid my debt to the State of New Jersey, and am now free to travel to such beautiful places as Newark and Weehawken.

 

As for the subway stations, some of the details are different, but the overall forms are pretty similar. The Cambridge stations have been nicely maintained over the years and still look fairly clean (especially compared to typical NYC subway stations), so there's hope that the Central Parkway stations may yet be brought up to a similar state.

 

Don't forget Camden.  You + Gin + Camden = a perfect mix.  he he he

Boston's always been perplexing to me.  As this great photo set shows, I don't think there's a medium-sized core-city metro area that has more going for it in terms of history, architecture, culture, mass transit, density, excitement, education, etc, etc... but the Black-White race problems have always been somewhat off-putting, esp among the large group of working class, Irish-Catholic whites... But I've heard things are changing and the Harvard/MIT/BU (other collegiate-oriented crowd) is making Boston more diverse and open -- hey, they elected a Black guv and were one Obama's strongest of strongholds, and obviously, is the Kennedy birthplace/nurtureres (esp to the late, great Teddy) ... so Beantown can't  be all bad... I guess.  (I still hate that annoying NE accent

Boston is just too great for its pathetic skyline. I hope not to offened anyone, but that is what I have always thought.

Awesome tour of Boston. What a shame that I only drove basically around it when at Martha's Vineyard several years ago.

 

I didn't know they had a Paramount theatre. I've been to the ones in Charlottesville and Ashland (Ky.). Always a treat to visit one!

At street level Boston has one of the better downtowns in the country but I agree, the skyline when viewed from the distance, at any angle, is unimpressive or even ugly. It really needs one new building to dominate and give it some kind of definitive reference point. 

 

>I don't think there's a medium-sized core-city metro area that has more going for it in terms of history

 

You're probably right.  But if you live there you'll come to be surprised by just how small the "city" part of the city is.  If you don't have a car and walk everywhere, it's plenty big, and it still seems big in a car since it takes forever to go two miles, but on a bike you can zip through the whole core area in just minutes. 

 

The city is actually quite fragmented by the various waterways and while a lot of the neighborhoods are old and dense but nevertheless cheaply built. East Boston is not attractive, nor is most of Cambridge and Sommerville. The actual Boston part of Boston starts getting really fragmented and row buildings give way to single-family homes about 2 miles from downtown.     

 

Again, I didn't really understand how small the actual city part of the city was until Google Earth appeared and you could measure things precisely.  But I had the hunch previously from biking around the city a fair amount.  I would think I'd gone on some epic bike ride and realized I'd only gone 4 miles. 

 

The city is actually quite fragmented by the various waterways and while a lot of the neighborhoods are old and dense but nevertheless cheaply built. East Boston is not attractive, nor is most of Cambridge and Sommerville. The actual Boston part of Boston starts getting really fragmented and row buildings give way to single-family homes about 2 miles from downtown.     

 

 

I think you're short changing some of the 1-4 family housing stock in the Boston area a bit.  Triple deckers are certainly "cheaply built" compared to the brick bowfronts of central boston, but are pretty solid- certainly moreso than much of the worker housing in other old cities (e.g., great lakes cities, southern cities).  And even though not masonry, I don't think they look any cheaper than the modest rowhouses of Philly or Baltimore.  But I agree that the visual transition from brick rowhouses to detached frame is pretty stark.

Boston also feels very small to me as well for such a large metro population. Really kind of weird.

I lived in one of those but ours had been gutted and rebuilt inside and out.  It was typical of the triple-deckers that were reclad with aluminum siding. 

 

On the race issue I totally agree that there's something just plain odd about the overall class culture in Boston and the quite obvious segregation of the black population. The other thing is a lot of the public housing is populated by Irish who are uneducated and extremely obnoxious. Around those areas it's not uncommon to see parents whacking their kids, drunks duking it out on the street corners, etc.  I saw an Irish lady once yanking her kid around with a homemade leather leash/muzzle. The other thing is that the homeless there will often single out Irish-looking people, claim to be Irish, and give you puppy dog eyes like you owe them something.

Boston is one city I don't feel comfortable in at all.  I feel more comfortable in forgotten triangle, Downtown Miami/Overtown, Kendall, College Park, Gardenia, or Anacostia than in all of Boston.

I'd like to visit again someday and just wander around.

Boston is one city I don't feel comfortable in at all.

 

I had pretty much the same reaction when I (briefly) lived there, and even when I've visited. It's an incredibly beautiful city with a great public transit system -- although I'd argue that the Green Line during rush hour is like the ninth circle of hell -- but something about it has always rubbed me the wrong way. Probably something to do with the fact that many parts of the city seem to have a clubby, fraternity house vibe to them. The other parts are insular, old-school Irish areas where old men glare at you from their front porch if you walk down their block and you haven't been living there for 30 years.

 

My biggest problems with Chicago have to do with all the ways it is becoming like Boston on steroids. As far as East Coast cities go, NYC and Philadelphia have always seemed like a better fit for me than Boston.

In all reality Boston doesn't even feel any larger than Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or St. Louis IMO. Philly, NYC Chicago, Toronto etc are my favorite cities within an easy day drive, though Chicago does have a big ego nowadays and is getting worse. The segregation in Chicago is astounding as well, and not talked about enough by the white population. Chicago used to have midwestern sensibility and hospitality, now it has that superiority complex. They will not acknowlege the city's major problems. As long as the Northside is good, that's all that matters type attitude. It has become so white collar and corporate like the Trib newspaper. Push all of the major problems under the rug.

 

I hope some forumers can elaborate? Thanks!

In all reality Boston doesn't even feel any larger than Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or St. Louis IMO. Philly, NYC Chicago, Toronto etc are my favorite cities within an easy day drive, though Chicago does have a big ego nowadays and is getting worse. The segregation in Chicago is astounding as well, and not talked about enough by the white population. Chicago used to have midwestern sensibility and hospitality, now it has that superiority complex. They will not acknowlege the city's major problems. As long as the Northside is good, that's all that matters type attitude. It has become so white collar and corporate like the Trib newspaper. Push all of the major problems under the rug.

 

I hope some forumers can elaborate? Thanks!

 

Philly, Chicago and Cleveland have the same feel to me.  Although, Chicago and Cleveland with regard to segregation, but not nearly as bad as Boston or Seattle or San Fran.  However residents of the above cities are not ^^%$#$# holes like Philly people.

49. My old subway stop:

And my current subway stop! (That entrance in particular.)

 

Great shots in great weather and lighting!

 

I'm tired of putting my perspective (that of a new 1-year Cambridge resident) into the race relations/Boston sucks/blah blah blah discussion every time a Boston thread comes up, so I'm gonna leave it there.

Another thread about how Boston is such a beautiful city architecturallly but d@mn, too bad the people suck and are arrogant and racist.

 

All the comments about Boston people finally make sense to me. My last room mate was from Dorchester. He constantly bummed cigarettes off of my friends and family even though he had money. He also picked his teeth with a f$%@king knife. Who the hell does that? His Boston accent really annoyed everyone. He'd try to make his accent thicker when he wanted to act like mr. toughguy - like people are going to be intimidated by him dropping his Rs. That living situation only lasted a few months. It ended because he feared for his life. He p!ssed off this crazy guy in our neighborhood, ratted him out to the police for a couple things and the guy ended up breaking in our house, went in his room and beat the hell out of him while he was SLEEPING. After that, he skipped town and moved to Tennessee, leaving me with all of the bills. I could write a whole book about those couple of months living in that neighborhood but I'll save that for another time. Moral of the story is Boston people suck. Don't ever have a roommate from Boston.

Great shots of a great city.

 

The second one looks like it could be a Boston Boston casino in Vegas.

 

49. My old subway stop:

And my current subway stop! (That entrance in particular.)

 

Great shots in great weather and lighting!

 

I'm tired of putting my perspective (that of a new 1-year Cambridge resident) into the race relations/Boston sucks/blah blah blah discussion every time a Boston thread comes up, so I'm gonna leave it there.

 

Move back to Beavercreek so you don't have to hear it anylonger.

49. My old subway stop:

And my current subway stop! (That entrance in particular.)

 

Great shots in great weather and lighting!

 

I'm tired of putting my perspective (that of a new 1-year Cambridge resident) into the race relations/Boston sucks/blah blah blah discussion every time a Boston thread comes up, so I'm gonna leave it there.

 

Move back to Beavercreek so you don't have to hear it anylonger.

 

Be nice!  You and I have a very different opionion and have had (seperate)yet similar experiences in Boston. 

 

My experience, similar to yours, mirrors what most men of color that I know have experienced in Boston.

49. My old subway stop:

And my current subway stop! (That entrance in particular.)

 

Great shots in great weather and lighting!

 

I'm tired of putting my perspective (that of a new 1-year Cambridge resident) into the race relations/Boston sucks/blah blah blah discussion every time a Boston thread comes up, so I'm gonna leave it there.

 

Move back to Beavercreek so you don't have to hear it anylonger.

This sounds like a trap...

49. My old subway stop:

And my current subway stop! (That entrance in particular.)

 

Great shots in great weather and lighting!

 

I'm tired of putting my perspective (that of a new 1-year Cambridge resident) into the race relations/Boston sucks/blah blah blah discussion every time a Boston thread comes up, so I'm gonna leave it there.

 

Move back to Beavercreek so you don't have to hear it anylonger.

This sounds like a trap...

 

...it sound dreadful. 

 

Why would anyone want to live in a place called Beavercreek?  :|

 

Think about it

^Does Trotwood sound better?

^Does Trotwood sound better?

No!

Says the man in SHAKER Square.

Says the man in SHAKER Square.

 

Damn skippy!

Well, last time I went there I was taken to a place with 112 beers on tap (think it was called the Sunset Grill), so it's officially my favourite city.

 

If you think the Green Line is bad at rush hour you should see the tube these days. WAY too many people in London.

Hey I like living in Trotwood.  And I liked living in Boston back in the late 70's.