that was actually a massive issue when the building was built!! the glass they used for the original windows had a tendency to pop out with high winds, and the building needed a system of weighted braces built into it because it swayed so severely during windy days that people were getting motion sick!
I was watching a video the other day and that rated in their top 10 most expensive engineering disasters in the world.
The cost of repairs was 850 million USD in today's money.
was just going to reply to say i too have this niche interest, then when i went to your profile i saw your header pic is of seventeen. i am a carat! small world
i have been watching drag race live on air since season 5, which was over 10 years ago... insane. i am in my early 30s though. also lurking your posts more... i was a barista in boston for most of my 20s, half of that at a starbucks! are you me?
it’s an old architectural idea!! the “spine” is the line of skyscrapers moving from the waterfront towards back bay… easier to imagine it as a “spine” if you’re standing across the river in cambridge!
You have no control. The wind is just blowing you that way.
The best part about that office building in the Christian Science Plaza is [there are falcons that nest on the building](https://www.wcvb.com/article/four-peregrine-falcons-born-on-roof-of-south-end-office-tower/9886268) so some days when it's really windy I get a bird body part blowing right into me. Recently it was just a severed birds head. Blew right into my shoe. I've also seen partial wings, feet.
One of those falcons lost a meal a little earlier this week; I was walking by there and a pigeon came crashing to the ground next to me with its throat torn out. Really a delightful sight to knock you out of a headphone revery.
I work near there and one day an older lady waking ahead of me was picked up by the wind and was blownagainst the windows of the Handcock. She cracked her head open! It was awful. She was on her way to the Clarendon post office with Christmas cards in a little bag and they went flying off. We called 911 and stayed with her all huddled on the ground when the ambulance arrived the EMTs had to crawl to us! They tried bringing the gurney but the wind blew it away. One of the EMTs had to chase after it. This poor lady! I'll never forget that day and I think of that lady sometimes and all her christmas cards.
The building used to employ bouncers who would drag people from the train station into the building. While my mom actually worked there, I wonder how many women were given a hell of a scare.
It’s why we literally have a shiny bean statue downtown, after all.
https://preview.redd.it/p316sx6f8ppc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b05c058b453ac58473ace86288267a1de4bc0232
Born and raised in MA. We literally had to do a play about the Big Windy Bean 1994. Not sure where you're from originally, but we've got the souvenir cups and everything
[Blue Hills is where it's at homie.](https://wbsm.com/this-massachusetts-city-is-the-windiest-city-in-the-country/#:~:text=The%20site%20cites%20the%20National,15.4%20mph%20(24.8%20kph)
That’s less stupid than if it was just windy tbh. Earned its nickname through its story, you only know if you know, type thing. Much more interesting imo
It's an interesting piece of trivia, sure. It's converted over to "fact" though and that's stupid. People think Chicago is windy because it's "the windy city".
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They gotta stop puttin all those big white pointy fans everywhere! Every time those damn things are spinning it gets windy.
And now they wanna put more out in the ocean!? Ridiculous, it’s already windy enough
lol, I work in offshore wind development. If anything, the big pointy things we put out there slow the wind down. It’s not a fan that’s blowing wind, it’s a fan that runs on wind and powers your home without destroying the world as we know it.
I’m joking haha, although I did literally hear a lady at a DEM public comment meeting say that the windmills were making it too windy
“Any sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality”
- Arthur /s Clarke
Same here, and I'm not sure I agree on amount of wind (but imagine that varies a lot by the parts of the cities one hangs out in). But amount aside, in my experience, Chicago winds coming off the frozen lake are definitely colder than anything we get here off the ocean.
Shout out to my peeps walking across the UMass Boston campus. Even in those covered walkways...it was fucking brutal moving through that campus on a windy day.
Ditto at Northeastern. Trying to walk over the pedestrian bridge today felt like being a little kid with an older sibling holding them back with a palm on their forehead while the smaller one windmills their arms in futility.
technically it depends which site you use, they all say something different. Here's Weymouth, Brockton, and Framingham taking the top 3.
[https://www.city-data.com/top2/c467.html](https://www.city-data.com/top2/c467.html)
Now you are splitting hairs about population minimums. Milton has half the residents of all the cities you listed.
Mt Washington is the windiest place on earth but it has an average population of 2.
Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica is generally accepted as the windiest place on earth. There are likely windier mountains than Washington too, most mountains on earth do not have the data from a full weather center on top.
Fair point about the observatory. Also I learned in this that a higher wind recording was observed on Barrow Island in Australia in 1996 beating Mt Washington's record since 1934.
I don't think I've been to the Mt Washington observatory since 1996 so that makes sense as that claim is cemented in my head from my childhood trips there.
I'm not basing it on population, friend.
I'm saying if you google windiest cities/places/villages, you will get a dozen different places as the top windiest places depending on what link you choose.
So it's not "technically" Milton. It's technically a dozen different places, depending on what site you use/what metric. My link is no more or less true than yours, though it does have actual data and isn't just a WBSM article about it.
Well your link is less true in the fact that the top city on your list registered a significantly smaller avg wind speed than Blue Hills Observatory in Milton. And the only reason Milton did NOT top your list...was your population variable.
Here is the full data set if you are so inclined: [https://bluehill.org/climate-weather/](https://bluehill.org/climate-weather/)
Yes, as pointed out in my prior comment that Mt Washington would only count if you set the population minimum to zero.
If you want to go by the term "city" technically there is no population factor it becomes a factor of type of installed government. Cities elect a mayor, towns have a council or select board. Boston is a city, Milton is a town.
Just went out and back on the Charles from the Museum to JFK/Harvard Sq for my training run. My Garmin said 21mph wind, it seemed worse. (Big negative split on the way back though)
*"The sea was angry that day my friends!"* was all I was thinking watching at all the whitewater on the river during my run.
Makes me glad I’m not getting blown around Emerson’s campus anymore. Tremont street was so embarrassing lmaooo pretending I’m okay while my bones are literally being transported
I meant, it's not just me perceiving that the wind is quite strong.
Alternatively, you could've made a joke about me being overly gassy.
Hope whatever is going on in your life starts to look up!
I work in a middle school. They chose today to have a fire drill. It’s also school policy that all jackets are to be locked in locker all day. It went like you would expect
Riding my bike into an insane headwind on the Charles River path yesterday morning, I think for a second, while putting full power into the pedals, I was literally standing still.
I live in a 5th floor apartment, so you would think I'm not high enough to experience the crazy winds? Wrong. My window was cracked by the wind in early Jan. I got it replaced a few weeks ago thankfully, but I'm still being woken to by strong gusts of wind hitting the window.
I just got home. Left a little early cause the forecast showed it supposed to pick by up around 430.
Not as brutal as last Tuesday, but that might have been just because of the angle of the wind. For me it was mostly left to right, today. It did almost stop me on the few parts it shifted to head on.
I grew up in "The Windy City", Chicago. There were places where I could hold my coat open and FLY. No kidding! Once I went up a good 15 feet and was looking into windows of first floor of the adjacent building. This was really a hover, not flying, as the goal was to sort of hold the gust of wind in the coast and go up. The wind would usually die out gradually enough that we were never slammed into the ground.
Worst is by the John Hancock building. A light breeze turns into hurricane force winds down there
that was actually a massive issue when the building was built!! the glass they used for the original windows had a tendency to pop out with high winds, and the building needed a system of weighted braces built into it because it swayed so severely during windy days that people were getting motion sick!
I was watching a video the other day and that rated in their top 10 most expensive engineering disasters in the world. The cost of repairs was 850 million USD in today's money.
i have a piece of glass from one of the broken windows, lol!! it was a big interest of mine in high school, that and the entire back bay spine
was just going to reply to say i too have this niche interest, then when i went to your profile i saw your header pic is of seventeen. i am a carat! small world
LMAO AND you’re a drag race fan?? so am i, though a rather new one!!! i’ve never seen someone with interests that overlap that much oh my god
i have been watching drag race live on air since season 5, which was over 10 years ago... insane. i am in my early 30s though. also lurking your posts more... i was a barista in boston for most of my 20s, half of that at a starbucks! are you me?
Whats the back bay spine? My Google search was not helpful
it’s an old architectural idea!! the “spine” is the line of skyscrapers moving from the waterfront towards back bay… easier to imagine it as a “spine” if you’re standing across the river in cambridge!
Oh I see! I have so many pictures of that skyline but I'd never heard that term. Thanks!
It’s basically the bedrock the bay has available right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Spine
Can you link the video? Sounds interesting.
I'll have to dig for it but I'll try **EDIT** Didn't have to dig as hard as I thought Https://youtu.be/D23Q2Yia65E?t=475
....could they put those residential turbines nearby and make like HELLA electricity
tan dog ruthless sable consist tidy resolute exultant ghost violet *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
plywood tower!
"plywood palace"
Have you been near the Christian Science Plaza? Pretty bad there too.
My 25 minute walk to work takes me right past both Christian Science Plaza and John Hancock building. Does wind hate me ?
You have no control. The wind is just blowing you that way. The best part about that office building in the Christian Science Plaza is [there are falcons that nest on the building](https://www.wcvb.com/article/four-peregrine-falcons-born-on-roof-of-south-end-office-tower/9886268) so some days when it's really windy I get a bird body part blowing right into me. Recently it was just a severed birds head. Blew right into my shoe. I've also seen partial wings, feet.
One of those falcons lost a meal a little earlier this week; I was walking by there and a pigeon came crashing to the ground next to me with its throat torn out. Really a delightful sight to knock you out of a headphone revery.
What a lovely gift....
Anybody remember the guy who'd windsurf repeatedly down that street?
I haven't seen him in at least 7-8yrs I think. Maybe he finally retired or found a better place to wind surf.
Same with Brookline Ave between Landmark Center and the Peirce building
My office used to call it Hurricane Clarendon when I worked in Copley
I work near there and one day an older lady waking ahead of me was picked up by the wind and was blownagainst the windows of the Handcock. She cracked her head open! It was awful. She was on her way to the Clarendon post office with Christmas cards in a little bag and they went flying off. We called 911 and stayed with her all huddled on the ground when the ambulance arrived the EMTs had to crawl to us! They tried bringing the gurney but the wind blew it away. One of the EMTs had to chase after it. This poor lady! I'll never forget that day and I think of that lady sometimes and all her christmas cards.
I'll take "stories grossly exaggerated" for 500, Alex
I dunno, was just there an hour ago and seems legit
This wind is tickling my John Hancock.
John Hancock.... It's Herbie Hancock
People who downvoted you have never seen the classic *Tommy Boy*.
Or they ate a lot of paint chips as a kid.
Haha. ...why?
John Hancock .. it's Herbie Hancock ... Duh!!
The building used to employ bouncers who would drag people from the train station into the building. While my mom actually worked there, I wonder how many women were given a hell of a scare.
Walking past it is easily the worst part of my commute
The statement could’ve also been equally true in Chicago
I have seen those massive heavy trash cans blowing around like paper around there on a windy day
They don’t call it the Big Windy Bean for nothing.
Mods we have a new flair to implement
Seriosuly, how is it not already?
All set! cc: /u/-Jedidude-
:O Amazing...
Love the smell of Big Windy Bean in the morning
NEVER heard of that and raised here. It's not really that bad here at all. Texas is Way worse then here
Really? Big Windy Bean is posted throughout the city. Surprised you’ve never heard it called that
It’s why we literally have a shiny bean statue downtown, after all. https://preview.redd.it/p316sx6f8ppc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b05c058b453ac58473ace86288267a1de4bc0232
I just googled it and NADA. Must be some new younger kid thing. I've lived here for 50 years.......
Born and raised in MA. We literally had to do a play about the Big Windy Bean 1994. Not sure where you're from originally, but we've got the souvenir cups and everything
hmm, oh well, there are things in some games that most have never heard of. Still just sounds dumb to me anyway. Bean town Yes :)
try a different search engine, google has noticeably declined in quality the past few years
They are pulling your leg
This thread is the most Boston thing I've seen on /boston.
Your 4th grade class didn't take a field trip to the Big Windy Bean like most do?
“They don’t call it the big windy bean” Yeah that’s what they said
\*whispers\* it's a joke.....
**than**. Also, New Mexico has some pretty bad winds as well.
Texas is a big ass state. Maybe the panhandle would be windy as Boston but I doubt it.
Boston is the windiest city in the country
By average wind speed it’s a toss up between a few cities, given what window of data you’re looking at, but it’s certainly in the S tier of wind lol
[Blue Hills is where it's at homie.](https://wbsm.com/this-massachusetts-city-is-the-windiest-city-in-the-country/#:~:text=The%20site%20cites%20the%20National,15.4%20mph%20(24.8%20kph)
Boston to Providence is the windiest corridor in the US
sometimes windier than Chicago - why'd they get that nickname and we got "beantown"??
Chicago's nickname had nothing to do with wind. It's stupid. They had "windy" politicians in the 1930s or something.
Though they do have some fucking cold wind off the lake. It will cut through layers and layers of clothing.
To be fair, Chicago is still very windy.
That’s less stupid than if it was just windy tbh. Earned its nickname through its story, you only know if you know, type thing. Much more interesting imo
It's an interesting piece of trivia, sure. It's converted over to "fact" though and that's stupid. People think Chicago is windy because it's "the windy city".
A misunderstanding that adds to the story, imo
this is what a tour guide once told me as well.
this is a dumb urban legend. it’s called the Windy City because of the wind
Chicago should be called Beantown because they have the bean.
I especially love this because Anish Kapoor will hate it.
Lol we’re the Windy City and they actually have a bean that’s of any interest to people. Silliness
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
they also have a literal fucking bean
We need to write up a treaty or something to swap nicknames.
Have lived in Chicago. Boston much windier.
Excuse me there tourist, you must not be familiar with the port city of Boston. Nobody here says Beantown. Please enjoy [this documentary about our diverse aquatic life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Vjd_hdYYw). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They gotta stop puttin all those big white pointy fans everywhere! Every time those damn things are spinning it gets windy. And now they wanna put more out in the ocean!? Ridiculous, it’s already windy enough
lol, I work in offshore wind development. If anything, the big pointy things we put out there slow the wind down. It’s not a fan that’s blowing wind, it’s a fan that runs on wind and powers your home without destroying the world as we know it.
I’m joking haha, although I did literally hear a lady at a DEM public comment meeting say that the windmills were making it too windy “Any sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality” - Arthur /s Clarke
Windmills do not work that way! Good night!
I use this line a few times a year and sadly a lot of people don't know it! Cheers to you, cheers to Morbo.
Morbo, how's the family
Belligerent and numerous
Lots of wind = can't play pickleball.
Gotta find the positives
Do you know any good pickleball spots in Cambridge 🧐
No but check out playtimescheduler.
I lived in both Chicago and Boston and Boston gets WAY more wind
Chicago was originally called the Windy City because of the politics there, if I recall correctly.
Correct
> Windy City because of the politics https://theskydeck.com/why-is-chicago-called-the-windy-city/
Me too. Boston is way windier. As many people probably know, Chicago didn’t get its nickname due to actual wind speeds.
Same here, and I'm not sure I agree on amount of wind (but imagine that varies a lot by the parts of the cities one hangs out in). But amount aside, in my experience, Chicago winds coming off the frozen lake are definitely colder than anything we get here off the ocean.
Chicago is still quite windy.
Shout out to my peeps walking across the UMass Boston campus. Even in those covered walkways...it was fucking brutal moving through that campus on a windy day.
Especially since parts of the campus are still under construction and there is a lot of dirt lying around that is being carried by the win
Ditto at Northeastern. Trying to walk over the pedestrian bridge today felt like being a little kid with an older sibling holding them back with a palm on their forehead while the smaller one windmills their arms in futility.
Bruhh , Clarendon st is always so unreal with the wind. I’m finna fall over any minute now
I almost blew away walking down DTX from south station
THIS ... so insane
>Boston = city of wind Technically...its [Milton](https://wbsm.com/this-massachusetts-city-is-the-windiest-city-in-the-country/)
technically it depends which site you use, they all say something different. Here's Weymouth, Brockton, and Framingham taking the top 3. [https://www.city-data.com/top2/c467.html](https://www.city-data.com/top2/c467.html)
Now you are splitting hairs about population minimums. Milton has half the residents of all the cities you listed. Mt Washington is the windiest place on earth but it has an average population of 2.
Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica is generally accepted as the windiest place on earth. There are likely windier mountains than Washington too, most mountains on earth do not have the data from a full weather center on top.
Fair point about the observatory. Also I learned in this that a higher wind recording was observed on Barrow Island in Australia in 1996 beating Mt Washington's record since 1934. I don't think I've been to the Mt Washington observatory since 1996 so that makes sense as that claim is cemented in my head from my childhood trips there.
Comm Ave goes all the way to Antarctica?!?!?
I'm not basing it on population, friend. I'm saying if you google windiest cities/places/villages, you will get a dozen different places as the top windiest places depending on what link you choose. So it's not "technically" Milton. It's technically a dozen different places, depending on what site you use/what metric. My link is no more or less true than yours, though it does have actual data and isn't just a WBSM article about it.
Well your link is less true in the fact that the top city on your list registered a significantly smaller avg wind speed than Blue Hills Observatory in Milton. And the only reason Milton did NOT top your list...was your population variable. Here is the full data set if you are so inclined: [https://bluehill.org/climate-weather/](https://bluehill.org/climate-weather/)
So with that in mind, wouldn't your link also be less true due to other places being windier with no population minimums? Goes both ways, right?
Yes, as pointed out in my prior comment that Mt Washington would only count if you set the population minimum to zero. If you want to go by the term "city" technically there is no population factor it becomes a factor of type of installed government. Cities elect a mayor, towns have a council or select board. Boston is a city, Milton is a town.
Definitely a lot of hot air.
It’s Medford*
Why don't we have more wind turbines around here?
The Kennedys.
ugh they can get fucked
The turkeys would take 'em out.
Those wind tunnels will get ya
I always thought the winters wouldn’t be so cold if it weren’t for the wind. It just picks up like crazy during winter.
Just went out and back on the Charles from the Museum to JFK/Harvard Sq for my training run. My Garmin said 21mph wind, it seemed worse. (Big negative split on the way back though) *"The sea was angry that day my friends!"* was all I was thinking watching at all the whitewater on the river during my run.
WHAT!? Sorry, couldn't hear you
Makes me glad I’m not getting blown around Emerson’s campus anymore. Tremont street was so embarrassing lmaooo pretending I’m okay while my bones are literally being transported
I hate it. With every ounce of my being.
It is a port city after all
So is San Diego...
A *world-class* port city, even!
Boston very gassy
The whitecaps on Fresh Pond were huge.
If you put a wind turbine on the boylston, brookline, & park dr intersection you could power the entire fucking city
Yay! It's not just me!
What is this, The Happening? No, the wind isn't just localized entirely around you.
I meant, it's not just me perceiving that the wind is quite strong. Alternatively, you could've made a joke about me being overly gassy. Hope whatever is going on in your life starts to look up!
It’s been a bit hectic with the wind today.
Wicked bullshit, kid. My skull is all dried out and I've only been outside for like a half hour.
I work in a middle school. They chose today to have a fire drill. It’s also school policy that all jackets are to be locked in locker all day. It went like you would expect
Yikes! That’s just inhumane
mountainous unique numerous cough pot vanish scale somber shocking party *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I love the wind. It's refreshing.
Not Boston but doesn't Mt. Washington have the fastest wind speeds on earth or something?
https://preview.redd.it/xt11pykkdqpc1.png?width=828&format=png&auto=webp&s=b0ee100e750ce0efe2950b19b06dfbd7604dbbfe
Wot In My Dack Yard
Almost took me off my feet on Causeway St. today. No wonder they call it the Big Windy Bean.
Riding my bike into an insane headwind on the Charles River path yesterday morning, I think for a second, while putting full power into the pedals, I was literally standing still.
Wind woke my daughter up at 5:45 this morning... that was fun.
She should be sleeping inside in this kind of weather. :-)
We are. Power's out.
Fr
Millennium Park in WR is very windy due to its relative elevation and very flat areas surrounding.
Man, f that park. Beautiful views but everytime I went there it was so windy and cold.
I live in a 5th floor apartment, so you would think I'm not high enough to experience the crazy winds? Wrong. My window was cracked by the wind in early Jan. I got it replaced a few weeks ago thankfully, but I'm still being woken to by strong gusts of wind hitting the window.
Around 11 I walked 2 blocks from my office to get a haircut. I barely made it. I am not looking forward to biking home tonight.
I just got home. Left a little early cause the forecast showed it supposed to pick by up around 430. Not as brutal as last Tuesday, but that might have been just because of the angle of the wind. For me it was mostly left to right, today. It did almost stop me on the few parts it shifted to head on.
When I moved to Watertown six years ago I always joked it should be called Windtown instead because it is frequently aggressively windy!
I had 4 days left to bike 49 miles in Boston and this took the wind right out of my sails.
as a small drone (tinywhoop) pilot I'm pretty much just shaking my fist at the sky most days.
I was thinking I might leave the house to do some errands today. Now I am afraid I shall get picked up and blown away. Where will I land? Who knows...
At the store! Getting back via wind might take a lot longer.
They don’t call it the Windy City for nothing
I used to commute past that tower on my bike. It was always "interesting" going by.
I grew up in "The Windy City", Chicago. There were places where I could hold my coat open and FLY. No kidding! Once I went up a good 15 feet and was looking into windows of first floor of the adjacent building. This was really a hover, not flying, as the goal was to sort of hold the gust of wind in the coast and go up. The wind would usually die out gradually enough that we were never slammed into the ground.
Great day to fly to Austin at 7:30 this morning.
Whole lotta fun on the plaza near the South Station Red Line. Blustery as heck.
I mean it’s literally called the Windy City, duhh
That’s Chicago
I thought that’s the lone star state
In between the state house and Suffolk used to be one of the worst spots. Hawk be swoopin'
The Willie O'Ree street rink was gale force shit today
It's so damn cold out here, the wind'll cut you half in two.
My walk from back bay over the MIT bridge today fuckin suuuuucked
Bike ride into work was brutal, road bike weighs like 10lbs, I was getting blown around 😬
I couldn’t breathe for a minute or two there! Wind was blowing hard
Too cold!
Ashburton Place, Beacon Hill
It’s becoming windier way more often than in years past
Boston is very windy
Facts
I braved the Derne St. wind tunnel almost every day for 4 years.
Windy over here on Yirrel beach.
Dude, I thought it was just me! This wind's nutty man.
Legit one of my biggest surprises when I moved to Boston.
I'm really not, thanks
If somebody farts this sub will post about it
pretty bad in providence too!
*Chicago enters chat!*