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  1. R

    Landmarking Brutalism

    Oh I wasn't trying to make point with that little anecdote. I just thought it was a funny story, given the rest of this conversation. I don't think the landmark status of a building should hinge on the opinion of a random security guard. But, exactly what point are you trying to make here...
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    New Red and Orange Line Cars

    At least according to what I've heard from Eng in interviews, the MBTA is being tougher on them in other ways. MBTA has used some authority to have tougher oversight over the factory. They've fixed some QC protocols. Stuff like that. Being tougher in those ways hopefully gets us the new trains...
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    Cape Cod Rail, Bridges and Highways

    Sorry I don't have a cite handy, but yeah, I've seen some report where tunneling was considered briefly. In any case, the tunnel would be more expensive. Also, the Army Corps of Engineers was against it, in case they ever want to dredge the canal to be deeper. Putting a tunnel deep enough for...
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    Landmarking Brutalism

    For sure, that's a part of it. Some other (relatively) superficial issues, too. The courtyard is getting cracked and uneven; the railing around that is broken in places; a lot of windows are yellowing and need to be replaced. I hope the owners make all those fixes to spiffy the place up. But I...
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    Landmarking Brutalism

    Thanks! Yeah, that's the address. It's almost harder to avoid getting intergenerational buildings when taking pictures downtown
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    Landmarking Brutalism

    I made a point to go by the Blue Cross Blue Shield building the other day and took some pictures. A security guard came out to ask me what I was doing, and I told him I was checking out the building because it is now officially an architecturally significant Boston landmark. He asked "...This?"...
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    General Boston Discussion

    One small spot I've noticed lately: this stretch of Bow St around Harvard Square doesn't seem to serve any traffic function whatsoever. You can't drive down Bow St because it's split into one-ways going opposite directions. Any trip you might take there could be done on the immediately adjacent...
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    Hurley Building Redevelopment | 19 Staniford St | West End

    Yeah, and I think that stop spacing is too far for a downtown segment of a subway. The Orange Line, for example, works well with ~1/4 miles stop spacing between North Station and Tufts. If Bowdoin is removed on the Blue Line, the gap between Government Center and MGH will be more than double...
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    Hurley Building Redevelopment | 19 Staniford St | West End

    Important for any redevelopment here: Bowdoin station is planned to be demolished if/when the Red-Blue connector ever gets built. That's right across the street, so this proposed tower would be losing its immediately adjacent T station. At least one plan looked like they'd make it easy to put...
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    Roxbury Infill and Small Developments

    The other option is put in ground floor retail. This is right in Nubian square.
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    Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

    Yeah, I agree. I should have been a little clearer. I wasn't saying we should totally ditch outsourcing commuter rail ops. (I mean, we should. Like you say, this is sub-optimal, but not best to change now). I was specifically concerned about the construction parts of the RFI. MBTA is looking...
  12. R

    Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

    This RFI looks like the start of finding who will take over operating commuter rail when Keolis's contract ends in 2026. Is that what this is, or something slightly different? Also, I might be reading this wrong, but some of this looks kind of bad. This looks like the continued outsourcing of...
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    Landmarking Brutalism

    I agree that this Blue Cross-Blue Shield building isn't as bad as the Hurley Building or City Hall. But also, what about those buildings? They're landmarks. They're architecturally significant, at least as much as this other building. There are groups of expert architects organizing to get them...
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    General Infrastructure

    I don't see any plans in here to run bike lanes along Route 2. The proposed bike lanes are only for cross streets, and only touch these projects because they would run through existing signalized intersections. That would allow people in Concord to bike along, say, Sudbury Road, and have some...
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    Landmarking Brutalism

    I saw this and thought, "That ugly building?" But I see you all supporting the landmark status in this thread, and I'm willing to change my mind. So you all encouraged me to (happily!) run down a rabbit hole reading about this building; Paul Rudolph; his other buildings in Boston; the Yale Art...
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    North Washington St Bridge

    Is there some reason to think that what's in the renders isn't just cladding over the trusses? That's what I assumed was happening. And it would make sense that the cladding isn't up yet, because that's the kind of non-functional, aesthetic work they seem to be holding off on until the end.
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    North Washington St Bridge

    Oh. So in your post, you were comparing an old render to a picture of the unfinished bridge? That's confusing. Anyways, when I walked through maybe a couple of weeks ago, there was still clearly finishing work to be done. I assumed they'd do it all when the west side is also ready to go. I...
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    North Washington St Bridge

    The east side is open, but it's not done. There's still a lot of finishing work to be completed. They prioritized opening the east side so they could start work on the west, and the final aesthetic pieces are being put in later. In the recent pictures on this thread you can clearly see spots on...
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    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    Isn't this the Downs-Thomson paradox in action, and so rail travel times will generally be "competitive" with driving? The time to drive a commute tends to match the trip times of equivalent trips taken on public transit. If we speed up the trains, people will switch from driving, and car...
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    General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

    Yeah, I agree, but just to nitpick: Really ideally, I want a system where the T regularly find defects, but fixes them before they require a slow zone. Having to set a slow zone at all should be a sign that we might need better schedules for repair/replacement/inspection, because things should...

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