Riverwalk Bridge @ Science Park | Boston - Cambridge

[Equilibria]

So, I might be able to provide some insight here because this is my commute, I go down CRD Rd to get from Cambridge to Bulfinch on my bicycle to get to work. In my opinion CRD road is not actually that unsafe anymore since they put in the bike lanes, yes there's no physical separation but these are actually quite wide bike lanes that i never see people park in except for a short stretch over the drawbridge.

The huge eater of space here, in my opinion, is actually the museum of science's driveway. They have this loading zone here that is raised eight feet or so up from the road, for some reason, and it is prodigiously wide. It's a very suburban hotel pull-off style thing, it does not need to be that wide, it should probably be exploded and then a proper bike path added. That said, yea you could probably take a traffic lane here if you didn't want to do that. My problem with this project is I cannot imagine any scenario where I would wait at that stupid light, turn right onto the sidewalk and fight traffic that way, and then go down through this path, and then find my way back across Storrow to get where I'm going...

The solution nobody wants to say is that the entire Museum should be redeveloped. Start with the garage, go all the way down with "air rights" projects over the museum until you get to the Alcott in the west end. Prioritize making the buildings porous with a path going beside them with plantings.

Lastly, at 300 million, you could just spend that money to extend the E branch. It's not worth 300 million to add a path for pleasure purposes with marginal transit benefits.

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Given that both are private property, I'd rather start with building on the Charles River Park lawns before I delete a museum to build on stilts.

But the observation about the driveway is valid.

Also, I get that it's not 1:1 and this project would never be funded by the current regime, but if we have $300M hanging around I'd want to spend it in Allston (or GLX-X or Orange-to-Rozzie) way before I get to this.

 

[BOS2BON]

I occasionally bike this way to get from North Station to points west in Allston, getting onto the Cambridge side of the river to the Paul Dudley bike path was always an annoying section of it. Even if this new path + bridge is a tad windier than I'd like, I think I'd much rather do this than try and bike along the sidewalk on CRD Rd. As long as the new path is wide enough, I think the bends can be manageable.

 

[Charlie_mta]

The solution nobody wants to say is that the entire Museum should be redeveloped. Start with the garage, go all the way down with "air rights" projects over the museum until you get to the Alcott in the west end.

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That will never happen, nor should it. This is historically park land, with a museum placed on it similar to what many cities do, such as the museums on the National Mall in DC. The development you show would place a large wall across the Charles River, completely changing the open character of the area, blocking views, and boxing in the Charles River basin.

 

[Longfellow]

That will never happen, nor should it. This is historically park land, with a museum placed on it similar to what many cities do, such as the museums on the National Mall in DC. The development you show would place a large wall across the Charles River, completely changing the open character of the area, blocking views, and boxing in the Charles River basin.

The museum is not really part of the park, it's more of a brick wall separating the park. More of a brutalist suburban import than it is the national mall. If it were similar to a museum in a park, then there should actually be a good amount of parkland around it.

 

[Charlie_mta]

The museum is not really part of the park, it's more of a brick wall separating the park. More of a brutalist suburban import than it is the national mall. If it were similar to a museum in a park, then there should actually be a good amount of parkland around it.

Good point, but it is still historically park land, going back to when the Charles River Dam was built, hence the name "Science Park". Trying to fill in this area with buildings would possibly get into a 4F issue.

 

[Equilibria]

The museum is not really part of the park, it's more of a brick wall separating the park. More of a brutalist suburban import than it is the national mall. If it were similar to a museum in a park, then there should actually be a good amount of parkland around it.

I think it goes to what the park does for the museum. If it's meant to complement the activities of the museum by providing open space, then MoS does kind of fail at that. If it's meant to visually set the museum back from streets and frame it in a setting that enhances its aesthetic appeal and the perception of its importance and civic value (as I'd argue is the case for nearly all parkland museums), then the Charles River Basin itself pretty much does the job, since the MoS is a very prominent building from the embankments and the Longfellow Bridge.

 

[Stlin]

I would say that this proposed design, the bridge and transportation asset isn't necessarily the core component - the new "stepping stone" islands its proposing are, in effect, new parkland on the upriver side of the dam. That fill likely accounts for the majority of the cost - a simple bridge, even a winding one, is a $50 million dollar project (see Proposed Mystic River Pedestrian Crossing) - not a $300M one. if this is parkland being funded by transportation which has the larger capital pool? I'm all for it.

Also, while I'm going to add a vote against redeveloping the MoS site into new buildings, it could definitely use a facelift - the ongoing renovations should reduce that brick wall effect. I would also say there's definitely a way we can probably achieve 70% of the transportation value on museum property with relatively uninvasive modifications to their garage and driveway. Given how garage access is set up, nobody except duckboats and ubers really uses the bulk of the thing. Remove these unused ramps, and you could easily stripe 10ft of the existing driveway as bike lane. Then all you'd really need is the short drawbridge segment, where the skewed design now totally makes sense as a Phase 1 while the muesum and other organizations fundraise for the islands. Sure the Land Blvd sidewalk connection to the PDW isn't great, and you'd be crossing MoS garage traffic, but it would be significantly better than today.

 

[Ruairi]

So, I might be able to provide some insight here because this is my commute, I go down CRD Rd to get from Cambridge to Bulfinch on my bicycle to get to work. In my opinion CRD road is not actually that unsafe anymore since they put in the bike lanes, yes there's no physical separation but these are actually quite wide bike lanes that i never see people park in except for a short stretch over the drawbridge.

The huge eater of space here, in my opinion, is actually the museum of science's driveway. They have this loading zone here that is raised eight feet or so up from the road, for some reason, and it is prodigiously wide. It's a very suburban hotel pull-off style thing, it does not need to be that wide, it should probably be exploded and then a proper bike path added. That said, yea you could probably take a traffic lane here if you didn't want to do that. My problem with this project is I cannot imagine any scenario where I would wait at that stupid light, turn right onto the sidewalk and fight traffic that way, and then go down through this path, and then find my way back across Storrow to get where I'm going...

The solution nobody wants to say is that the entire Museum should be redeveloped. Start with the garage, go all the way down with "air rights" projects over the museum until you get to the Alcott in the west end. Prioritize making the buildings porous with a path going beside them with plantings.

Lastly, at 300 million, you could just spend that money to extend the E branch. It's not worth 300 million to add a path for pleasure purposes with marginal transit benefits.

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interesting but I think a high/mid rise building along the dam just cuts off north point and surrounding areas even more.
I agree about the driveway and the garage could definitely be redeveloped higher and stepped back to allow for better bike infrastructure.

 

[BeeLine]

Not sure if this goes here, but there seems to be a lot of action going on.
As of 11/23.

 

[Arenacale]

Not sure if this goes here, but there seems to be a lot of action going on.
As of 11/23.

They're completely redoing the West Wing and creating a new event space: http://archboston.com/community/thr...ions-1-science-park-west-end.1907/post-478671