1033-1055 Washington Street | South End

[HenryAlan]

I'm getting pretty tired of these plazas between buildings whenever there is a multi-building proposal.

If it serves as a de facto pedestrian street, as it does in this example, then I think it's fine. It breaks up the super block and gives pedestrians a convenient and attractive passage between Washington and Shawmut. I do agree, though, if the plaza only provides access to the building(s) and provides no useful purpose to anybody who doesn't have business there.

 

[bagel4boston]

What else would you want to see in their place?

I guess I am just partial to having a complete street wall. For this proposal, it may be a little too monolithic on the Washington Street side, but I do wish the Shawmut Ave side created more of a street wall.

 

[Kinopio]

I'll take a plaza and a pedestrian access between two streets any day. This city needs more room for people because cars take up so much damn space. It also allows for more windows for building occupants.

 

[curcuas]

The problem is the destruction of the NY streets led to very few cut throughs between Tremont and Albany. These plazas are very useful for walkers --- this building is replacing a rather gross one between Shawmut and Washington. The one between Washington and Harrison is heavily trafficked.

 

[CBCArch61]

Breaking up the building also creates more opportunity for leasable square footage. The buildings design would make for very deep ground floor slots which otherwise would create a lot of dead space. When we factor in the access to parking and loading docks, we would end up with a very dead ground floor.
We can see in the site plan that there is already a lot of BOH space on the ground floor of the project. Having a solid building mass along Washington could very easily make the leasing to multiple restaurants, including the affordable civic community space or the plaza oriented fitness harder to incorporate.

The overall building massing will do a good job framing the street, and the pedestrian street/plaza (whatever you want to call it lol) provides a nice relief to the overall project while also creating the feeling of an intersection by aligning with Traveler Street. My biggest complaint is they are only showing a crosswalk at the southern side of the Washington/Traveler intersection. I would want to see crosswalks at both north and south portions. Especially because it is a signalized intersection.

 

[andrew.816]

Approved.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1768413999782035488