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Boston, Massachusetts
Fog lifts from the harbor, dawn goes down to day, an agent crests the shadows of the nearby alleyway
I was in Boston for an actual reason: the city hosted the 2008 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention. The convention revolves around a pointless and endless trade show, various dry seminars of varying interest and importance and a series of add on tours. This is the second convention I've attended (after Los Angeles in 2006) and as you could easily guess, the reason I even go has something to do with those offered add on tours. All of them are geared toward architects and most offer some type of special access to a building or place that you can not experience on your own. In Boston I was lucky enough to see inside such landmarks as Louis Kahn's Exeter Library (see page 2), Boston's especially unfriendly City Hall (see page 4) and even Fenway Park (see page 3), all the while earning a fairly impressive 15 HSW continuing education credits (a big deal to architects).
And while all those add on tours will be generously featured throughout this (relatively) short slideshow, today's pictures start in a totally different direction. In between all of the tours and catching up with various colleagues, I did have some time on my own to explore Boston. This first picture reflects that time and features a site as good as any to start- Massachusetts' own State House, atop (or almost atop) Beacon Hill, across from Boston Common, the start (or almost the start) of the Freedom Trail and as good a place as any to hang an otherwise oversized and somewhat inappropriate Boston Celtics playoff banner.
After the AIA Convention finished and right before the generally pleasant train ride back to New York's own indescribably miserable Penn Station, I had time to take a quick tourist boat ride along with all those other, well, tourists. For future reference (specifically the next few pictures), the older tower on the right in the first picture (the one with the pointy top) is the Customs House Tower. Currently a Marriott Hotel, the tower features a guest only observation deck with stellar views over the ludicrously self named "hub of the universe" (or downtown Boston to right thinking people everywhere). As a non Marriott guest (I stayed at the thoroughly recommendable Jurys Hotel near Copley Square), I was still able to visit the top floors as part of an AIA tour, one that also brought me to the top floors of both the slightly less impressive Two International Place (just left of center in the first picture, the cylindrical tower with the pointy top) and the super secure Federal Reserve Bank Tower (last tower on the far left in the first picture).
Just a few pictures of all those stellar views from atop all those towers. The white steeple in the first picture is (of course) Old North Church, of Paul Revere "one if by land, two if by sea" fame.
Still looking from the Customs House Tower's observation deck, this time toward whatever the Boston Garden is called now (big building on left), the iconic (although too wide to be graceful) ten lane wide Zakim Bridge and right over the Rose Kennedy Greenway (the picture on the right), the former site of the Central Artery elevated highway and current site of the big dig's own Central Artery Tunnel. The greenway feels like one big park but is actually three distinct parks that will be separated by various cultural and community buildings. The three parks opened up just this spring and all need a little time to find themselves, the landscaping is still too new to really judge whether or not any of them work. Meanwhile the greenway as a whole still feels like a gash (albeit a pleasant gash) right through the heart of the city that will still take a decade or two to start to properly heal- blank faces of buildings and parking decks that were designed against a messy highway need time to adjust to all those trees and all that sunshine.
While it may not be the most graceful (or even the most necessary) bridge out there, the Zakim Bridge can still have its moments.
To minimize the fatigue of yet another all-Maine slideshow, I'm including some Maine photos at the end of each page, from a separate short trip that took place after Boston and after a trip back home, despite the fact that Boston is halfway there.
This first Maine pictures are fun ones, my first visit to the (normally) out of the way and still new Penobscot Narrows Bridge, a wonderfully sited, dramatic, two lane cable stayed suspension bridge just outside the small town of Bucksport, Maine. What is especially fun about the bridge is that its eastern tower also doubles as a 400 foot high observation deck. From that perch (and even on a generally miserable rainy day) you can see Bucksport (not all that impressive), the surrounding river (a little better), distant mountains (even better) and right down to the bridge itself (pretty damn impressive actually).
The bridge on the left in the first picture is the 70 year old Waldo-Hancock Bridge, and while the two bridges together certainly make a fine composition, if you want to see both bridges you better hurry. The woman at the observation deck told me the old bridge is slated for demolition as early as this fall, supposedly it is threatening to collapse on its own if left unchecked.
