Faltering Fane Tower – Architecture Critic Morgan

Faltering Fane Tower – Architecture Critic Morgan

With every new iteration of the Hope Point Tower, the design of the once city-boosting skyscraper is further diminished. There’s a pathos about the latest reveal of a more streamlined, less sexy Fane Tower: it features fewer parking spaces, no decorative elements, and absolutely nothing to set it apart from look-alike blocks from Miami to Dubai. The faltering of the Innovation District’s blockbuster is like the final act of a bullfight, where the once noble but wounded bull drunkenly stumbles toward the coup de grace.

The evolution of the tower designs may seem superficial. But it helps illuminate the larger story of incompetence, while it also offers a convenient focal point for marshaling opposition. While there are many reasons for the slow progress on getting this building built, one is the NIMBY-ism of certain preservation groups and real estate developers. Focusing on minor issues of design–the size of windows, a roofline, or middling details–can obscure the larger battle, something that has bedeviled opposition groups and lessened their effectiveness.

 

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Such delays mean that 2% interest rates are long in the past, and a $300 million project will now cost more like half a billion dollars, plus it will be an even worse design. If it is ever realized, the Fane Tower will be a substandard addition to the Providence skyline. The lack of decisiveness is bad enough, but in the last few years the so-called Creative Capital has coupled this with visually blinkered leadership reliant on outmoded development practices.

 

As a point of comparison, Boston University has just completed its Center for Computing & Data Sciences. The 19-story, 345,000-square-foot structure will bring together students from areas such as computer science, engineering, sociology, biology, theology, and medicine–the sort of interdisciplinary approach that our Innovation District was meant to foster. As B.U. President Robert A. Brown declared, “This is the science that’s going to change the way we behave, driving our behavior for the next 50 or 100 years.” In addition, the Charles River campus’ tallest structure is one of the most sustainable buildings in the entire state; its geothermal system means that the building is 100% fossil fuel free. Have we heard any similar claims for the Fane Tower?

 

 

 

The architects of the new Boston building are KPMB of Toronto, one the leading design firms in Canada. The B.U. President wanted “to find an architect that would make a statement,” and the university considered some great designers, including Moshe Safdie and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, before selecting the Torontonians. As founding partner Marianne McKenna noted, B.U. asked KPMB for something “iconic.” Can you imagine the brief that the 195 Commission gave to Fane’s corporate architects? “We want an over-scaled, thoroughly average design, to stick out like a sore thumb in a handsome historic city–something that will disregard common sense, and show no respect for materials or craft.”

 

 

The CDS building, which took only three years to build, is controversial. The stacking of floors as if they were a pile of books or shifting planes has become something of a contemporary cliché, and it is not to everyone’s liking. It does, however, make for an intriguing composition, and it certainly stands out against Boston’s skyline of more conventional buildings. Like it or not, Boston University did get a landmark. The varied planes and glazed walls make the intriguing, prismatic Center for Computing & Data Sciences just downright fun. Despite its quirky nature, the building is not an ephemeral statement, but a solid academic addition to a city known for its educational and tech leadership. It will become, I predict, the beloved symbol of B.U.

 

 

There are better ways of enhancing Providence than by erecting tall buildings–we hardly have the overcrowding of Lower Manhattan or the Chicago Loop. But given our myopic development mindset, the need to build multi-story expressions of ego is probably inevitable. But when next we venture skyward, let’s at least hire a really good architect.