BU Institutional Master Plan 2023

I don't see how you deck over Storrow without taking some of the Esplinade, which is a deal breaker.
 
Money said:
But don't we already have an esplanade for that?
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yeah, but it used to be 2x as big before storrow drive stole half the real estate, messing up the overall aesthetic, reducing the scope of the amenity, and disconnecting the esplanade from the rest of the back bay neighborhood.
 
chrisbrat said:
yeah, but it used to be 2x as big before storrow drive stole half the real estate, messing up the overall aesthetic, reducing the scope of the amenity, and disconnecting the esplanade from the rest of the back bay neighborhood.
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BU initially owned the property down to the river's edge. The state took half of it by eminent domain to build the esplanade. Then the state decided to use most of it for Storrow Drive.
 
TomOfBoston said:
BU initially owned the property down to the river's edge. The state took half of it by eminent domain to build the esplanade. Then the state decided to use most of it for Storrow Drive.
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precisely.
 
king_vibe said:
ppp

The Pike + rail is wider than the FDR, plus you have to deal with ventilation. The FDR is just open on one side.
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Many of the buildings along the FDR are cantilevered over the highways and mostly on terra firma. The *only* pure highway building is the 2-story new river building at Rockefeller U, which was ridiculously expensive to build, required barges for all the construction, and is remarkably small. Donor money bait.
 
king_vibe said:
I know this isn’t the place for it, but Storrow Drive shouldn’t be decked over, it should just become a pedestrian path and bikeway.
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I totally agree, but if there is to be a Storrow Drive remaining for the foreseeable future, then BU should deck over it as part of their development.
 
I would much prefer that BU deck over the pike parcels than to build over Storrow. Improved connections could be made though.
 
In a parallel universe, if Storrow wasn't there, I wonder if the Esplanade would be a lot less creepy at night. Right now it's the only major park in or around downtown where I don't feel comfortable when the sun goes down. I'll wander through the Common and Gardens at 10 or later some nights. However, it could be only 5:00-6:00 but if it's dark already, the Esplanade feels dangerous. On the Cambridge side of the river, Memorial Drive feels pretty safe as do the bridges (Longfellow, Harvard, BU). I think because the Esplanade is cut off it is only viable during the day (or the night of July 4, or otherwise during a specific event).

Obviously the main issue is that Storrow is a critical piece of infrastructure in 2022. The Pike absolutely cannot handle any excess, as it can barely handle existing traffic. Memorial Drive has too many lights to go from a secondary outlet route to the main river route. I know people here push for public transit and bikes, but in an area where most of the housing is forced to be built outside the city people still need their cars, depending on the purpose. The MBTA also isn't reliable enough, or always feel safe enough, so the traffic is still going to be there whether we are equipped to handle it or not.
 
Its intuitive to think that if they took away storrow drive that memorial drive and other roads would instantly become parking lots, but from what Ive seen the data shows otherwise.

heres a link to an example but theres many on google search
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/03/19/reduced-demand-just-important-induced-demand

The same way that its intuitive to think that adding a lane on a highway will reduce traffic, but in reality traffic gets worse, there is also reduced demand when removing lanes/roads. If storrow was removed it wouldnt just be a 1 for 1 swap where all those extra cars are plopped onto nearby streets, people adjust to the new reality and traffic levels get back to normal after a short time.

Some more reading on the subject
https://cal.streetsblog.org/2022/05...tion-decreases-when-cities-delete-road-lanes/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/27/climate/us-cities-highway-removal.html

So if we wanted to literally just tear up storrow drive and put a park where it used to be (like Rochester did), there wouldnt be a carpocalypse and the city would be completely fine. We just wont do it.
 
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In the (far) future Storrow Drive should be given a major road diet and the eastbound carriageway should be removed to make room for a Blue Line extension to Kenmore. (this has been discussed at length elsewhere on aB)

Certainly not going to get my hopes up, however.
 
themissinglink said:
In the (far) future Storrow Drive should be given a major road diet and the eastbound carriageway should be removed to make room for a Blue Line extension to Kenmore. (this has been discussed at length elsewhere on aB)

Certainly not going to get my hopes up, however.
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That's not the portion by BU, however. BLX would only be between the Kenmore/Fenway exit and Charles Circle. Soldiers Field Rd. by BU needs to stay because there isn't any way to do direct Pike exits to Kenmore/BU without impaling oneself on side streets that can't take the loads or bad-angled intersections. Between Cambridge St. and Kenmore/Charlesgate the parkway is still going to be load-bearing for traffic that doesn't have any other plausible alternative.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
That's not the portion by BU, however. BLX would only be between the Kenmore/Fenway exit and Charles Circle. Soldiers Field Rd. by BU needs to stay because there isn't any way to do direct Pike exits to Kenmore/BU without impaling oneself on side streets that can't take the loads or bad-angled intersections. Between Cambridge St. and Kenmore/Charlesgate the parkway is still going to be load-bearing for traffic that doesn't have any other plausible alternative.
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Thank you for the correction! I forgot that we were only discussing the section of Storrow by BU.
 
themissinglink said:
In the (far) future Storrow Drive should be given a major road diet and the eastbound carriageway should be removed to make room for a Blue Line extension to Kenmore. (this has been discussed at length elsewhere on aB)

Certainly not going to get my hopes up, however.
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Oh come on! They have been "planning" a Blue Line extension to Charles-MGH since 1960 and there is still no start date for construction.
 
I'd love to see Pike air rights buildings be used by BU as a big stick to get MassDOT to finally reconfigure the sprawling BU Bridge/Mountfort/Carlton clusterfuck into a compacted single-point intersection. Maybe make Carlton a ped plaza between air rights towers in the process.
 
BronsonShore said:
There's no such thing as having too many pedestrian and bike paths. There is such a thing as having too many highways.
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And based on that response I assume you feel that Storrow is superfluous looking at the totality of our vehicular infrastructure?
 
Money said:
And based on that response I assume you feel that Storrow is superfluous looking at the totality of our vehicular infrastructure?
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It directly parallels a six-lane highway in the pike (that's just a few blocks away) and a four lane highway in Memorial Drive. Of course it's superfluous.
 
Was there a deadline for submitting this IMP? It seems to be a rush job and incomplete. For example, they propose demolishing the COM building for a new STEM building yet there is no mention of where COM will be relocated. A new COM building or a major rehab of an existing building for COM should certainly be part of the IMP.
 
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