By adamg on Mon., 9/16/2019 - 5:09 pm
The State House News Service reports the governor wants to sell the Hynes off for redevelopment and use the money to expand the South Boston convention center.
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Oh...the one in Seaport!
By EC
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 6:06pm
I had a hard time trying to determine where the convention and exhibition center was in South Boston until I recalled the Seaport location! It’s difficult keeping up with all the name changes. Yes, I know that “Seaport†is now referred to as the South Boston Waterfront (I learned to say “Seaport†when it became trendy, chic and expensive). I’m an old dog and finding it more and more difficult to learn new tricks!
Bigots call it the Seaport
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 6:50am
The media calls it South Boston when something negative happens here ie: woman gets run over by car, larcenies, flooding etc.
This section of Boston has always been South Boston.
What????
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 7:53am
The Seaport is a neighborhood in Southie. Aka the Seaport section of South Boston.
yeah
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 2:36pm
Just like Broadway Village is a section of South Boston. Washington Village, Seaport, Broadway Village, Fort Point are all monikers used by real estate agents and developers to rope consumers into buying into Southie. Only fools fall for it.
One venue to rule them all
By Saddlebrook7
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 6:28pm
I get that the powers that be want to grow the Convention Center to accommodate the biggest (and more prestigious) shows, the better to prove that we're a World Class City. But what about small shows that can't even fill a corner there? The only other venue will the WTC by the fish pier (now that Bayside is defunct). That's a pain to get to: at least the 7 bus goes right to the Convention Center. The Hynes gives us a small-medium venue in a central location.
Are there any easily available stats on the number of days used by the Hynes vs WTC?
The World Trade Center!
By EC
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 7:32pm
That must be what I was thinking of! Is there yet another exhibition center that I don’t know about? Someplace in South Boston? Where am I and where have I been?!
Isn't the WTC still planning
By anon_wd
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:03pm
Isn't the WTC still planning on closing its Commonwealth Hall for more retail/ office space?
World Trade Center exhibition hall is closing!
By Ron Newman
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:34pm
Fidelity is converting it to office space. With the Bayside already gone as well, we need to keep the Hynes. Not every show needs or belongs in the gigantic BCEC.
Commonwealth Armory
By Saddlebrook7
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:46pm
Well, if you've really been out of touch for a while, let's reminisce about the Commonwealth Armory, which used to host the Flowet Show, Boat Show, etc way back in the day. Remember the radio ads...
There's a boat for me, a beauty too,
There's a boat for you amd they're all brand new,
There's big boats, little boats, sail boats too
At the Great New England Boat Show.
As for the Flower Show, one of my two moments of TV fame came via a family friend who was a production assistant at WGBH. I helped Thalassa Cruso out of a truck when she filmed a promo for the show.
Hynes is problematic
By mg
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 7:29pm
The location of the Hynes is better but it's really a problematic venue and not particularly pleasant, especially for people with disabilities. The article says it's also in need of expensive renovations (60+ years old and showing it) plus losing money each year.
The biggest problem
By anon
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 8:39pm
with the Hynes is the lack of parking.
Yes
By perruptor
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 6:07am
I went to a couple of gymnastics meets there, and the nearest parking was a long walk. The journey from the parking garage to the Hynes was a bewildering trek through some shopping areas, with little in the way of helpful signage.
Long walk?
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 9:02am
Long walk? The giant Prudential Garage is underneath the Hynes and their is a parking garage across the street on Dalton Street.
They were full
By perruptor
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 3:40pm
*
I can think of at least 6
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 9:59am
I can think of at least 6 parking garages directly attached to the Pru concourse, or within 2 or 3 blocks. What the what!?
1. Sheraton garage on Dalton
2. Pru/Ring Road NE garage (by Lord & Taylor)
3. Pru at Copley/Shaws + the Pru further east on Huntington Ave by Boston Sports Club
4. the weird lot at Exeter/Newbury
5. Auditorium Garage ... directly across from the Hynes
6. Christian Science parking under the plaza
7. Danker + Donahue (Newbury)
8. Parcel 12 plot
9. Bread & Circus, er, Whole Foods garage
The weird lot..
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 1:24pm
... is actually at the corner of Newbury and Dartmouth and it is closed as it sold for $40 million this year and it looks like they are doing test boring in anticipation of building on it.
Why Park?
By MrsButch
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 11:37am
The T has a "Hynes Convention Center" stop.
which is two blocks away, and not accessible to the disabled
By Ron Newman
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 12:58pm
Of all the MBTA's shortcomings with regard to ADA, this busy station has to rank #1. A fix is long overdue.
(The fully accessible Prudential station is a better way to get to the Hynes Convention Center, entirely indoors, but it isn't much use for people coming from BU, Allston, Brighton, Brookline, and Newton.)
What, you don't like going inbound from the B, C or D
By GoSoxGo
Wed, 09/18/2019 - 10:29am
to Arlington in order to have a free transfer to the outbound platform and then wait for a packed E train to Pru?
;-)
It’s not 60+ years old.
By anon
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:00pm
It’s not 60+ years old. Linked article is wrong. The original Hynes Auditorium of 1963 was demolished and rebuilt in the 1988 as the Hynes Convention Center.
Convention centers as a rule
By anon
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:30pm
Convention centers as a rule lose money, and need to be supported with hotel taxes. That's not a bad thing, considering the tourism they bring into the area.
The Boston Marathon expo has always been held at the Hynes, and that crowd includes a ton of people in wheelchairs.
If only...
By Parkwayne
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:32pm
The Mass Convention folks could siphon $14m/yr off of car rentals even year to prop up their budget... oh wait.
What is the ADA issue with the Hynes?
By Ron Newman
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 11:12pm
I thought it was renovated recently enough that it was required to comply with current standards.
Only took me 20 years
By Rob K.
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 8:52pm
To stop calling that stop Auditorium. What next!
cough... ICA cough...
By Rob
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 2:20pm
cough... ICA cough...
Old Fogies
By johnmcboston
Wed, 09/18/2019 - 8:26am
Auditorium. Essex. Columbia. I slip into the old names all the time
This has potential. Hynes
By bibliotequetress
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 8:52pm
This has potential. Hynes has been underused for years and is an awkward space. Echoing saddlebrook7, though, there are events I regularly attend at Hynes because it's easy to get to, unlike the seaport. And it feels more intimate for smaller events' like the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair. I haven't seen the entire space used at one event, even for ComicCon, in years.
Until we get better transit through the seaport, attending events at the Convention Center or World Trade Center is inconvenient for anyone who isn't staying in a hotel next door. And the Silver Line is a pain in the rear for anyone with disabilities, as I discovered going with a co-worker to the flower show this past spring.
Back when the powers that be were fighting over where casinos were going to go, I crossed my fingers that casino developer would pick up Hynes; it could still be used as a small conference venue but would have a steady income stream.
Thinking back on that, I hope Baker is looking for a hotel or performance venue to pick up the space. It could be built up, with a lot of height to it-- the only shadow will be cast over the Mass Pike. Someone could cash in on the smaller cons still taking place there, while offering hotel rooms and restaurants above.
Silver Line and ADA
By Ron Newman
Mon, 09/16/2019 - 9:36pm
What is the issue here? Surely it is new enough that it is required to be fully compliant?
The stations may be
By smac
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 8:19am
The stations may be accessible, but those buses sure aren't. I can't imagine anyone with a wheelchair being able to use them, and crutches would be at best difficult.
compliance doesnt always
By anon
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 9:42am
compliance doesnt always necessary mean that its accessible or usable for people with disabilities. it just is the bare minimum bar to meet building code.
The Silver Line is ADA compliant,
By GoSoxGo
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 10:46am
as well as World Trade Center station. But you still have to traverse to the Convention Center and cross Summer Street, which with the construction of the Omni Hotel and other projects is not easy or enjoyable.
Biggest Problem is T Wayfinding
By Nowy Liberté
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 10:24am
Here's the list of current T Stops which will soon be unrelated to their names [note that there have already been many changes in names such as Scollay Sq [of Charlie on the MTA fame] to Government Center
The ones currently on the list for disconnection between name and function:
Would truly achieve its name of DTX -- if a short pedestrian tunnel was built from DTX [Orange - Red with pedestrian tunnel to Green] to State [Orange to Blue] allowing a single entrance to provide access to all of the Rapid Transit lines
*1 Lechmere Station
from wiki
*2 Lechemere Point and Square
from the wiki
Craigie also built a bridge over the Charles River from Cambridge to Boston which today is in much diminished length but is also much wider identified with the Craigie Drawbridge over the remnant of the old Lechemere Canal connecting the Charles River above the old Charles River Dam with the Charles River stretch between the Old Charles River Dam and the New Charles River Dam -- aka the "Lost Half Mile"
*3 Downtown Crossing
from the wikipedia
T Stations renamed because landmarks moved or changed
By Ron Newman
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 1:01pm
"Hynes Convention Center/ICA" became just "Hynes Convention Center" when the Institute for Contemporary Art moved to the Seaport. (Before it was Hynes, before it was Auditorium, it was Mass. Ave. station)
"Mechanics" became "Prudential" after Mechanics Hall was torn down and the Prudential Center was built
"New England Medical Center" became "Tufts Medical Center" because the hospital changed its name
"Aquarium" had an older name, too, which I can't remember anymore.
So was Green Line E -- Northeastern - ever Opera House Station
By Nowy Liberté
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 3:02pm
There seems to be some lack of consistency in the renaming process -- a totally Boston approach
Mechanics Hall was located at what is just outside of 111 Huntington Ave [on the corner with Belvidere opposite to what is left of West Newton St.] -- the station was left intact while the Hall was leveled and the Prudential Center rose including eventually 111 Huntington and the Huntington Arcade -- it became the Prudential T stop and remains so -- despite the now total lack of Prudential presence except for the illuminated sign on the tower
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thu...
Further along Huntington Ave on the same T line there was another massive brick edifice known as the Boston Opera House -- located at the corner of Opera Place and Huntington -- today the site of a Northeastern Hall -- the stop is now known as Northeastern
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1...
The building was leveled in 1958 so that Northeastern could expand
from the wiki Northeastern University Station
Answer -- Well -- not quite -- It was known as Opera Place [a surface stop but in a protected median] -- from sometime in 1941 until 1947 there was an Opera Place Station in the middle of Huntington Ave in front of the Boston Opera House
It is still officially called the Prudential Center
By Ron Newman
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 10:17pm
regardless of whether the insurance company still has any offices there, or owns any part of it. Here is the official Prudential Center website, which is mostly about the shopping mall.
Two things
By alkali
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 11:40am
1) If we sell the Hynes we will never get that back as public space, which may not be dispositive but given that the Back Bay and South End are lacking schools we all ought to think hard about it
2) The development of the Seaport area with no meaningful public transit is a continuing shame and disgrace
When it opened as the War Memorial Auditorium...
By Ward8Mahatma
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 11:56am
...the Hynes also hosted theatrical performances and other events The Metropolitan Opera opened its yearly tour there, for example, and BC High used it for its graduations. I assume the current configuration precludes such uses....
Charlie...
By Fenway Crank
Tue, 09/17/2019 - 12:59pm
must have friends who want to make a few bucks off the Hynes. This is a terrible idea. Medium-size conventions can’t afford to use the large convention center in the Seaport. And there is no adequate T access to the convention center. Everybody points to the silver line but we can’t really be serious about considering it to be had a good public transit access to the Seaport/SouthBoston convention center
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