Design Public

 Who doesn’t love a firehouse? It seems they are truly en fuego right now as a trend.  Perhaps it started with this house, where the Ghostbusters had their headquarters:

Then there was The Real World: Boston, where a charming firehouse was renovated to house seven self-important, immature  strangers.  This was one cool renovation:

(more…)

So I finally got around to watching Gone Baby Gone last night. Great flick - I was especially amazed to see sweet little Beedie from The Wire playing a drug mule neglectful mother - I almost did not recognize Amy Ryan in that part - she was amazing. Obviously, there is perhaps one other fan of The Wire out there besides me, as Omar Little was cast as a police drug detective. Oh wait, duh, that connection would be Dennis Lehane, author of the book and writer for The Wire. Anyway, I am currently mourning the end of The Wire, but the last episode was perhaps one of the most excellent ever, so that is going to tide me over for awhile. Anyway, directing this movie is the best thing Ben Affleck has done since the SNL skit where he wants to ask Anna Nicole Smith to be his mom. The best thing since was with Jimmy Kimmel.

Back to the point:  This cinematic view of Boston in Gone Baby Gone was so familiar. It’s been done to death lately - the parts around Boston where everything is gray, from the shingles on the houses to the sky to the skin color of the tired and jaded characters. Whether it be Southie, Chelsea, Charlestown or Dorchester, movies like Mystic River (to be fair, this is also a Dennis Lehane adaptation), The Departed, Good Will Hunting and now Gone Baby Gone all seem to spotlight the same exact view of the city. Were they all filmed on this street we see to the left?  I call it “Code of Silence Avenue.”  We never see nor hear about the yuppie takeover of Southie or the mega-expensive Shipyard of Charlestown. Even Dorchester has experienced gentrification in the past decade. Instead we see the same old Irish  dive bars full of depressing characters (some get the accent right, some completely butcher it into some pseudo-JFK accent mixed with a New York accent), asbestos-shingled three family houses and Code of Silence Avenue  in all of these films. The only other views we ever see of the near-Boston area are across the river in Cambridge, when painfully lame movies like Soul Man or With Honors pretend to film at Harvard. Last I heard, the Harvard campus does not allow filming, so the only authentic view we ever see is of it the usual aerial one before they zoom in on Elle Woods sitting under a tree next to a fake dorm that is not in Harvard Yard.

Here’s the requisite depressing as hell brown and yuck Boston movie apartment.  Have you really ever seen two such heroic, young and good-looking people living with cabinets and wallpaper like that?  I don’t think so:

I’m rambling. My question is, when was the last time we saw picturesque Boston Proper in cinema?  I can’t think of the last time I saw The South End, The North End, the Financial District, Back Bay, Rowe’s Wharf, Comm. Ave., et. al. in a movie. Can anyone remember a film that highlights the rest of Boston and not the surrounding depressing areas? Cambridge doesn’t count, that’s its own city. Please leave your answers in the comments and let me know!

Remember when I told you about Rebar’s PARK(ing) Day last year?  This year, it has continued to spread nationwide here in the states and even oversees (the above photo is from London in 2006). PARK(ing) day will take place on on September 21st.

This just in from The AIA New York Chapter - The prose is a bit archi-speaky (what else is new), but you’ll get the gist. It sounds pretty interesting and looks like it counts toward continuing education points.
A Lecture Tonight at 5:30:

Changing Places: Redefining the House as Machine for Living In, with Kent Larson (more…)

In Boston, the Big Dig taught us patience, and to always expect construction delays.  There was a great billboard, Lord, i think it was back in the late 80’s or 90’s that said "Rome was not built in a day.  If it were, we would have hired their contractor."  Perhaps Rome’s contractor would have rethought the whole epoxy thing, but I digress.

Anyway, we all shrugged it off like water off a duck’s back when we realized that the new Boston Harbor Institute of Contemporary Art had to put off it’s September 17th opening.  No big whoop, it looks like it’s going to be worth the wait.  Check out the slideshow at their website.  I’m especially drawn to the theater, and I want to know if I will feel like I am cantelievered over Boston Harbor when I am up on the top floor of the building.

(more…)

Holly over at decor8 informed us that Vessel (Candela, Squat, Candeloo etc.) have a NEW storefront now in downtown Boston. Being a Boston native myself I had to give some love to the local boys who done good. Congrats fellas!

Now, if you’re wondering who is this rogue blogger on "Hatch"? I’m the Design Public web/creative/everything else guy and this is my (gasp) third post! I’m sure my parents will call at any moment to discuss my new found fame…

Anyhoo, if you’re in or around the Hub, go check it out at 125 Kingston Street. If not, you can see some great pics of the interior via Holly’s design blog. Go Vessel . Go Sox!

Obviously we love online shopping; we don’t know what we ever used to do before it existed. But when there is a really amazing brick and mortar store, nothing beats it. There are so few people talented enough to find the perfect space, buy amazing merchandise without a bad piece in the bunch, and edit and arrange all of it in a way that makes you want to move into the store. Those people deserve a giant shout-out.

(more…)

I just returned from a jaunt to Boston/Cape Cod. I had a few design thoughts along the journey. First, the new convention center I passed along the way was truly hideous - it’s like a massive zit on the face of Southie. It reminds me of all of the horrendous “urban renewal” projects that ruined so many great neighborhoods years ago. I have a feeling the people who planned this never read The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Second, on a more positive note, the recently completed Ted Williams tunnel is fantastic - it’s probably the best part of the Big Dig.

Most importantly, the new Delta terminal at Logan Airport rocks. (more…)