Copley Square Revamp | Back Bay

The above posts have me wondering - how much of the new design was driven by the Marathon itself? I hate to be cynical about it, but it sure seems like more hardscape closer to Dartmouth only benefits organizers who have to build support structures for the race.
 
Arenacale said:
The above posts have me wondering - how much of the new design was driven by the Marathon itself? I hate to be cynical about it, but it sure seems like more hardscape closer to Dartmouth only benefits organizers who have to build support structures for the race.
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There are lots of events in Copley that use that hardscape. Most frequent is the twice-per-week farmers market. They used to set up on the grass, which killed the grass. There are other events popping up in Copley that use the hardscape. It seems to be very well used. It's not just for the Marathon.
 
ritchiew said:
There are lots of events in Copley that use that hardscape. Most frequent is the twice-per-week farmers market. They used to set up on the grass, which killed the grass. There are other events popping up in Copley that use the hardscape. It seems to be very well used. It's not just for the Marathon.
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Yes, and hopefully this is a first step towards pedestrianizing Dartmouth Street. Copley Square should be Boston's Bryant Park, i.e., the CBD's back patio. Pedestrianizing Dartmouth would make it bigger by almost a full third.
 
Having this architectural masterpiece as a bookend seems like a no-brainer. Southend and Pike traffic can use Berkley to get to the Comm Ave / Dartmouth area if that's the concern.
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BronsonShore said:
Yes, and hopefully this is a first step towards pedestrianizing Dartmouth Street. Copley Square should be Boston's Bryant Park, i.e., the CBD's back patio. Pedestrianizing Dartmouth would make it bigger by almost a full third.
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I've been saying this for years! I'm willing to bet that most northbound traffic from Columbus north is accessing the Pike, Boylston, or Newbury. Comm Ave/ Beacon St/ Storrow access shifts to Berkeley anyways given access routes to the river roads. Additionally, if you removed all parking on Berkeley from St James to Beacon, you'd mitigate northbound "lane losses"
 
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cburns said:
I've been saying this for years! I'm willing to bet that most northbound traffic from Columbus north is accessing the Pike, Boylston, or Newbury. Comm Ave/ Beacon St/ Storrow access shifts to Berkeley anyways given access routes to the river roads. Additionally, if you removed all parking on Berkeley from St James to Beacon, you'd mitigate northbound "lane losses"
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The biggest flow change you need to create is to address the vehicle trips to/from Back Bay Station -- which all tend to use the Dartmouth Street side. That creates a lot of the flow on Dartmouth to Back Bay.
 
I saw this post:
BACsop said:
Checked out Ama at the Atlas last night (quite good!) and took the opportunity to explore the development a bit. There's a new Phin Coffeehouse that will be opening soon there as well. (Their current location is downtown near South Station.)

A fair amount still fenced off, including what looks like a small park / landscaping.

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over in the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus | 100 Western Avenue | Allston thread and it made me think of the Copley Square revamp. How sad is that...
 
Just curious how many folks who are trashing the new design/revamp have actually been there in-person vs. just seeing things via pix on aB.

Everything like this is subjective and I don't think it's perfect, by any means (and 100% agree that the stretch of Dartmouth that blocks the plaza off from the BPL should be eliminated), but I'm there pretty often and -- particularly when there's activity and/or it's nice out -- it's a pretty nice space.

A-plus? Maybe not, but it's not this bleak hellscape that some on this forum seem to want to paint it as. Solid B/B-plus imho.
 
chrisbrat said:
Another writeup about the new plaza in today's Globe.
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And as expected, it's getting ripped in the comments. Having visited it, count me generally as a fan. I give it an A-. Once the trees fill in and mature, I think it might become pretty great. I don't know what people are expecting. Copley Square never was/is/will be a "park" with a large, lush green lawn. All the commenters are expecting it to be a park. When was it ever a park in that sense? Great cities have bricked plazas all the time; who is to say that every public space should be a lawn? The point is that it should be a piazza, and can be some day if they close the street, but in the meantime, this new configuration will serve the city better than the mud patch that was there for years.
 
bigpicture7 said:
And as expected, it's getting ripped in the comments. Having visited it, count me generally as a fan. I give it an A-. Once the trees fill in and mature, I think it might become pretty great. I don't know what people are expecting. Copley Square never was/is/will be a "park" with a large, lush green lawn. All the commenters are expecting it to be a park. When was it ever a park in that sense? Great cities have bricked plazas all the time; who is to say that every public space should be a lawn? The point is that it should be a piazza, and can be some day if they close the street, but in the meantime, this new configuration will serve the city better than the mud patch that was there for years.
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Look, I admire the INTENT. And I feel badly for the good people at Sasaki who tried here.

The problem, imho, is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. The old saying "A giraffe is an animal created by a committee" works here. It does several things halfway - -plaza? lawn? tree lined bench area? fountain area? None of these components are large enough to have meaningful effect.

This is the "Jack of all trades/master of none" Chinese buffet that has burgers, pizza and ice cream. It should be called "Hesitation Square".

And, yes, closing off Dartmouth street and making it a grand pedestrian entrance to the square would go a long way in making this a truly better situation.
 
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"The good news is that the blank slate of the plaza allows for future adjustment. Kayden suggested a substantial fountain as a potential remedy ('Places like this really need a focal point,' he said.)"

I think that (the fountain idea) would take the newest iteration of Copley plaza from a moderate success to a slam-dunk. Fountain or statue/sculpture. You could still have all of the farmer's markets, concerts, marathon-related stuff that necessitated the hardscape, but it wouldn't feel so vacant on non-event days.
 
The big lawn the plaza replaced, beloved by generations of now-bereft picnickers, couldn’t handle the pressure of mass public gatherings.
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It would be kind of nice if the Globe could get some writers who actually know Boston and its history. The quote I copied above is completely wrong about the plaza. "Generations" ago, it wasn't a lawn at all, but the continuation of Huntington Ave. and a parking lot. People are free to say that they liked the lawn in front of Dartmouth Street better than the one in front of the church, but it's blatant disinformation to claim either that it was always there or that there no longer is a lawn at all. I agree with @bigpicture7 in that we are better served by a plaza in Copley Square than a park. If the still substantial grass section isn't enough for people, the Public Garden, Common, and Esplanade are all just a few blocks away.
 
That's right, Copley Square then became a concrete depression like the pit in Harvard Square where the local kids and other riff raff would hang out. It was that way until about the 1990s. It wasn't a functioning place that people visited like today
 
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Scott said:
That's right, Copley Square then became a concrete depression like the pit in Harvard Square where the local kids and other riff raff would hang out. It was that way until about the 1990s. It wasn't a functioning place that people visited like today
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I begrudigingly accept the fact that Gen X and Gen Y learned more about what make parts of cities more comfortable places to be because of all the encouragement to go study abroad - even if that just meant Canada or the UK - we've clearly been learning what is better public space than our antecedents.
 
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