Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

EVERYONE knows what would do well here, the space is quite large and the location is tops.

A 24-Hour Diner. EVERYBODY would come to this from ALL OVER the city.
 
Indeed. Of course the police would complain about that. Because, for whatever reason, they seem to think that making an area dead at night makes it safer... straight out of the suburban playbook.
 
You would need bouncers. Just like IHOP used to have in Kenmore Square when it was cool..
 
mass88 said:
I can't help but think an outdoor beer garden would be a nice addition to Alston.
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I'm pretty sure archBoston in general believes a beer garden belongs anywhere and everywhere in Boston.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
I'm pretty sure archBoston in general believes a beer garden belongs anywhere and everywhere in Boston.
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Are there any respectable beer gardens in Boston? And no, a few tables thrown together on a patio is not a beer garden except perhaps in name only.
 
The only one I'm aware of in Massachusetts is the Cisco Brewery in Nantucket. It isn't Munich, but it's a pretty cool scene with some eclectic folks.
 
How could I forget about Charlie's? Of course. I guess it's a bit on the small side outside.

Daedalus in Harvard Sq has a nice roof deck too.
 
BosDevelop said:
And no, a few tables thrown together on a patio is not a beer garden except perhaps in name only.
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We've got some decent out door drinking spots (2nd on Charlie's), but not any beer gardens by the strict definition that I can think of.
 
What exactly is the strict definition of a beer garden? I've traveled around Germany, and a Biergarten seems to be any al fresco restaurant where beer is often served. We don't seem to have any tree-covered, picnic tabled, gravel grounded beer gardens here true, but I don't see the need to be picky.

Needless to say though, I'd love more of them around. The trick is to get a restauranteur to pay for land that they're going to make money off of for less than half the year.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
What exactly is the strict definition of a beer garden? I've traveled around Germany, and a Biergarten seems to be any al fresco restaurant where beer is often served. We don't seem to have any tree-covered, picnic tabled, gravel grounded beer gardens here true, but I don't see the need to be picky.

Needless to say though, I'd love more of them around. The trick is to get a restauranteur to pay for land that they're going to make money off of for less than half the year.
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They could always put up some kind of covering and put heat lamps out there. That would extend its life to 8 months out of the year.


In general I feel as though there aren't a ton of outdoor bars in Boston that don't get overly crowded, cramped and are high priced.

The Adams Pub Deck in Quincy is a pretty nice gem in that regard and you can smoke out there too.
 
I'm on my phone for the week, so this response isn't all that I wish it could be. I also don't have spell check...

Quick though, some immediate impressions:

1) Get your neighborhood names right if you are going to offer up suggstions on how to change them. "Allston Village" is a tiny subet of Allston, not the whole thing, and by no ones definition continues to the other side of the pike.

2) Half the presentation is about parking, concentrating on suface lots. Using cars should be discouraged as much as possible, and those asphalt strips should be developed.

3) They want to encouage gas stations to open in the area?

4) There is apparently an exceesss supply of liquor stores, and yet Martys was able to compete just fine with Blanchards for a long time. Blanchards wine selection also sucks compared to Martys, and they had the cheese and meats at the deli too.

5) The two examples of bad storefronts are cited for cosmetics alone, they both house a diverse mix of storess and add to a vibrant streetscape. They also just redid the building with the dentist and former NE comics, granted it is still a hot mess.

6) It seems to really only concentrate on Harvard ave, other then some graphics union square seems to be ignored.

7) I feel like they didn't really do much research. They vaugly suggest improving the storefront at Cambridge and Harvard, failing to mention the reason it looks that way is because its a Jack Young Co warehouse. Getting them to move would be the real way to impove the area, not raised sidewalks and food trucks. Speaking of sidewalks, again, reseach would show comm ave is up for a complete redesign, brighton ave is being phased to be calmer and friendly to modes other then autos, and cambridge st is having its sidewalks widened. Expediting and funding these projects is what's needed. Getting back to an earlier point, expanding parking in surface lots and building gas stations is not the way to help pedestrians.

8) Lipstick on a pig. Food truck festivals (isn't there already a taste of allston thing and the allston street fair that actually support the local places vs bringing in trucks that will take away money from the local stores?), movies in the "park", storefront improvements, and pretty raised sidewalks are great improvements for... brookline. Allston needs a power grid that doesn't fail every single summer, sidewalk replacement, redevelopment of painfully underused lots, double the amount of residental units, a way to get the buses out of traffic, a trolley line that isn't a running joke, and city code enforcement to lean on slumlords HARD (I'm looking at you, Alpha). Then we can worry about asthetics.


There are some decent suggestions sprinkled throughout (beer gardens! working street lights), and I may be unduely harsh. But this really feels like an academic excersize and nothing else. Which it is, but I guess I expected better from MIT. Then again I've had a similar experiance meeting students from their architeture program. They are probably well employed however, so perhaps I should just STFU...
 
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