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Conditions BOSTON
MAJOR HIGHWAYS
CAPE COD
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Vent buildings spark controversy By Boston.com Staff
The two structures, prosaically dubbed Ventilation Building 1 and Ventilation Building 5, will suck fresh air into the new highway tunnels while at the same time pulling polluted, exhaust-filled air out and expelling it through smokestacks high into the atmosphere. The Big Dig has a total of eight such vent structures, costing tens of millions of dollars each. Together, they comprise the largest highway ventilation system in the world. Necessary as they are, the two Fort Point Channel structures have nonetheless sparked an angry reaction from some area residents. Vent Building 1 is located on the north side of the channel, adjacent to the US Postal Office annex. Vent Building 5 -- the more highly visible of the two structures -- is located in South Boston between Congress and Summer streets, right in front of the new convention center. Looking south down Congress Street from downtown, the 18-story Building 5 looms menacingly above the low-slung brick warehouses of the Fort Point area. Becky Dwyer, a resident of the 249 A Street artists co-op and former vice president of the Fort Point Arts Community, complained to the Globe in May 2002 that Vent Building 5 reminds her of a nuclear power plant. "It's huge, way out of scale, but it's just grey cement, and it seems to me that they could have done something more interesting," she said. Several downtown ventilation structures are being disguised. One is surrounded by a parking garage and another will be completely covered over by a mixed-use hotel and housing complex. But the two Fort Point Channel vent buildings benefit from no such cladding. And to make matters worse, $2.5 million worth of decorative touches like stainless-steel caps for the smokestacks were eliminated from their design as a cost-cutting measure. What's left is acres of gray concrete, broken up by some colored bricks. Even the buildings' designer complained that the changes have robbed the vent structures of their visual appeal. Hubert Murray, former chief architect with Wallace Floyd Design Group, told the Globe that Big Dig project managers Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff "stripped the assets" from VB5 and VB1 because "they're in the business of building nuclear power plants and airports, and not architecture in the midst of humanity." One of the Ted Williams Tunnel vent buildings, designed by Wallace Floyd in the same visual style as the Fort Point Channel structures, won architectural awards from the City of Boston and the American Institute of Architects, among others, when it opened in the late 1990s. But that building included the steel finishings and other touches stripped from the Fort Point Channel vents. In response to neighborhood complaints, the Big Dig has appointed a task force to examine ways to dress up the unpopular vent buildings, possibly by adding murals, decorative lighting, or giant scrims similar to those that covered the State House during recent renovations. In addition, officials point out that Vent Building 5 will be surrounded by more buildings as the waterfront area is developed. Eventually, they say, the vent will blend in more naturally with its surroundings. Story based on information from the Globe and the Central Artery/Tunnel project |
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