Alewife T Station, Garage, Bus, & Trails

[CBCArch61]

I can't find them these days whenever I look, but this has been conceptually designed already. It's not an imagination-level thing. This is where the MBTA intends to put the station, full stop.

Cool. I hope they make it work and make it cost efficient. I am one though that will always critique projects like this. We should always be willing to look critically at things for improvement. I am a firm believer that with these long range plans, we should always be willing to critique things in order to improve upon projects and ideas.

If we have learned anything from the Green Line extension and the Allston/I-90 project, even concept level designs can change.

 

[themissinglink]

Cambridge City Council gets update on Alewife station

Cambridge City Council hears an update on plans for the aging Alewife Station garage and surrounding acres.

www.yourarlington.com

The MBTA announced last summer that it would seek a private partner to help redesign the Alewife station garage, the station itself, and the area around it.

The T is still in the process of identifying that partner, according to Cambridge Day, but the request for proposals should be issued soon, as the department had previously identified January as a release date.

Once that partner is identified, Cambridge officials said they plan to fold the development process of the Alewife garage into its rezoning efforts for that region, just as it did in the so-called “quadrangle” region, when the life-sciences developer Healthpeak Properties announced projects there.

 

[TheRatmeister]

Hopefully they can do a better job of figuring out how mixed use works than they've done with the adjacent area.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Hopefully they can do a better job of figuring out how mixed use works than they've done with the adjacent area.

Multi-use development is the key; i.e., mixed residential, commercial, and small retail. As you say, the greater Alewife area was developed wrong over the past 70 years. It followed the post-WW II suburban template of large areas of single use; all commercial/business in one large area, isolated shopping/retail centers not close by, and residential developments far off in their own enclaves, all creating a non-walkable, auto-centric edge city of single-use islands. Hopefully the new Alewife development can buck that tide followed for many decades in this area.