Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Boston: What's up with the Skywalk @ Pru. !?

This is topic Boston: What's up with the Skywalk @ Pru. !? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-15-2004, 08:57 PM:

I date myself here, but 12 yrs. ago you could go to the top of the Prudential tower for free to visit the gift shop. Then, if you wanted, you could pay a few bucks to get into the Skywalk and look out over all of Boston.

It USED to be a good way to introduce new people to the city. You could take a friend up there and point out all the landmarks. By the time you finished you had a list of all the places you wanted to visit. It worked great. It sure beat the hell out of saying, "What do you want to do?", only to get the reply, "I dunno. What do YOU want to do?"

Okay... So I'm on vacation in Boston and I'm stomping around the old neighborhoods with my wife. I go there today to do the above mentioned pre-tourist scouting. Not only is it impossible to get into the Pru, you have to go to a ticket counter and PAY to even get into the building. So... I go to the dumb counter and ask for a couple tickets.

She wanted $9.50 APIECE!! I'm not paying that stinkin' much to get into a stupid OBSERVATION DECK!!

What's up with that?! Do they have some kind of new show up there or something? I can't imagine what they would have done to make it worth $9.50!

Any locals got the scoop?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-15-2004, 09:02 PM:

After 9/11, the Hancock building closed their observation deck, conveniently using "security reasons" as the excuse, despite the fact that having an observation deck open to the public was one of the (apparently undocumented) provisions of the initial building permit in the 1970s. They now rent that space out for offices, presumably at a much higher profit.

As a result, I'm guessing that the Prudential people realized that they could raise their admission charge now that there was no competition.

I have not been up to the Skywalk in several years. Last time I was there, it was just an observation deck. The Hancock building had little pay telescopes and a couple of historical exhibits, but nothing terribly exciting. I have no idea if any of this has changed lately.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-15-2004, 09:16 PM:

Yeah. Last time I was up there it was just an observation deck, too. That was before they rebuilt the Prudential Center shopping mall.

Y'Know, if they had some kind of multimedia exhibit or tour guides or something I MIGHT be convinced to lay out that kind of smack but if it's still just a big circular room with windows, that's CRAZY money!

Back in the day when I first came to Boston, they had this little dinky tourist trap up there called "Johnny Tremain's Gift Shop". (I shit you NOT!!) You could buy those little ceramic "Boston Bean Pots" and rubber lobsters and junk like that. (For inflated prices, of course.) Then, if you wanted, you could go up to the cashier and pay something like $2.00 to get out onto the observation area. If you could whip out a student ID, it was only $1.00.

Not only that, you can't drink on the Beantown Trolley anymore, either! We used to use those trolleys as all-day taxi rides to go between bars. I guess some drunk bastard fell off the back of one of them and got run over by a truck. What the hell?!

All it takes is one idiot to ruin everybody else's fun! [Mad]

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-16-2004, 10:18 PM:

Oh! And another thing...

What happened to Buzzy's Roast Beef stand that used to be underneath the bridge/walkway near the Charles-MGH "T" stop?

So, they tore down half of the old city jail and the area (like most of the rest of the city) is under construction but... Did they close down completely or did they move somewhere else?

Too many of the "good-ol' places" are gone! [Frown]

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 07-16-2004, 10:23 PM:

Buzzy's is totally gone. I don't remember why they went out of business. A few years ago.

If you want to pay through the nose, you could go grab a $50/plate dinner at Top of the Hub atop the Pru...

--jhawk

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-19-2004, 09:24 PM:

I was talking to an old buddy who lives in Cambridge. He told me that he heard that Buzzy's was forced to shut down for failure to pay taxes or something like that.

I can think of swankier places to smack down $50 a plate in Boston than Top of the Hub. Can you say Locke Ober?

Shoot! Even Durgin Park has items that approach $50!
I took my wife to D.P. (You can eat in the upstairs dining room and get a more private table.) Surf and Turf is listed as "Market Price" on the menu. When we were there it was $44.95! (I opted for the pot roast dinner for and she got a fish dinner and our total tab was way under $40!)

Yeah, there's a lot of new stuff in Boston. That's cool. But, there's a lot of "Old Standbys" that aren't there anymore or are totally changed. That sucks!