The Big Reveal at 360 Smith
The scaffolding has finally come down at 360 Smith and the blogger Pardon Me For Asking isn’t very happy about what she can see. She calls the building, which has been under construction since 2008, “uninspired,” “out of scale,” “out of context,” and for good measure: “Fugly.” Clearly the building dwarfs its neighbors but the…
The scaffolding has finally come down at 360 Smith and the blogger Pardon Me For Asking isn’t very happy about what she can see. She calls the building, which has been under construction since 2008, “uninspired,” “out of scale,” “out of context,” and for good measure: “Fugly.” Clearly the building dwarfs its neighbors but the overall look doesn’t seem to be worse than most other new buildings that have popped up around town in recent years.
360 Smith Getting Its Facade [Brownstoner]
360 Smith Tops Out [Brownstoner] GMAP
Pardon Me For Asking is the hands-down winner for knee-jerk Nimbyism. Its criticsm of this building is meaningless.
I agree with everything that FSRG wrote, and will add one more thing: this building is what smart growth is all about. As FSRG stated, it IS contextual, AND it sits right on top of a subway station.
Reminds me so much of Stalinst apartment blocs..
Are the ever going to open up the subway entrance??
Hey! My mechanics too! The best. And their building has been there forever, I am sure.
I might take aesthetic criticism from PMFA more seriously if her blog didn’t look like it was assembled out of MS Word clipart by a colorblind four year old.
i see how it goes:
if it’s contextual – then it lacks imagination and is uninspired.
if it takes some chances, then it’s not contextual and ruins the character of the block.
oooof
I don’t see the scale as a problem, but the lack of imagination and effort at making this either interesting or contextual is a shame. Now everyone is stuck with it for the next 25 years, when fake brick cladding and stucco starts falling off and the developer has long since retired to Florida.
Yeah but its tootaw.
Oh my god – some snarky NIMBY blog doesnt like a new building….shocking!!!
The building is attractive, it is totally IN CONTEXT – it is at most 30 ft taller than the neighboring buildings, which is completely contextual and appropriate since it is a corner lot. The building is made of mostly red brick (which matches the colors and schemes near by) and has an attractive windowed corner…
There is absolutely nothing controversial about this building/development, and frankly even if the area was land marked, zoned and protected in every way imaginable – a building like this would likely be approved – give or take 10′ or so.
It’s OK, certainly no worse than the average new construction.
If PMFA wants to gripe about something being truly “fugly” and “uninspired”, I’d say the building on the other end of Smith (across from the prison; w/ “Nu” Hotel…) is a much better candidate