BronsonShore
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I was walking through some parts of Dorchester today and came across a few areas that I think have the potential to become truly great urban neighborhoods, places that a lot of us would describe as having "good bones."
I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread specifically dedicated to these good bones areas--neighborhoods that could and should be great urban spaces, but which are held back by a combination of (1) poor transit access, (2) underutilized retail corridors, (3) ill-placed holes in the urban fabric. (So, to flesh out this idea a little more, I'd probably put Uphams Corner in this conversation, but not the somewhat similar Fields Corner, which is served by the Red Line and is a much more complete urban area as a result).
What are some of Boston's best bones and how would you piece them together?
Here are the two areas that got me thinking about it:
Edward Everett Square
This area reminds me a lot of JP (minus the pondside mansions): a mix of low-strung but dense commercial developments on a main artery, varied and well-designed wooden housing stock, and some legitimately pastoral areas. Both neighborhoods can even lay claim to well-maintained pre-revolution houses (The Loring House for JP and the James Blake house for Everett).
We've got a spot in need of some serious infill, but which could be a wonderful neighborhood square:
Having been taught by Ablarc to appreciate triple-deckers, I can see the beauty in side streets like this one:
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And hell, there's even a little South End in this neighborhood. Who wouldn't want to live in one of these?:
Many of the streets here could use a diet (see my first picture above) and the Eversource Energy parkingscape is absolutely killer, but this area has a lot of potential, and the development of nearby South Bay could really kickstart things, particularly in light of the fact that it's already pretty close to transit.
Coppens Square/Meeting House Hill
Just down the road, we've got a little corner of Dorchester that could be mistaken for Vermont:
. . . If Vermont had any of these classically Boston brick beauties:
What kills this neighborhood is that it's something of a transit desert (15 minutes to the nearest T stop) and, more importantly, it's surrounded by urban-destroying city-services land to the North:
And West (this is a city, there should be a building here. . .
...Never mind, some buildings suck]:
I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread specifically dedicated to these good bones areas--neighborhoods that could and should be great urban spaces, but which are held back by a combination of (1) poor transit access, (2) underutilized retail corridors, (3) ill-placed holes in the urban fabric. (So, to flesh out this idea a little more, I'd probably put Uphams Corner in this conversation, but not the somewhat similar Fields Corner, which is served by the Red Line and is a much more complete urban area as a result).
What are some of Boston's best bones and how would you piece them together?
Here are the two areas that got me thinking about it:
Edward Everett Square
This area reminds me a lot of JP (minus the pondside mansions): a mix of low-strung but dense commercial developments on a main artery, varied and well-designed wooden housing stock, and some legitimately pastoral areas. Both neighborhoods can even lay claim to well-maintained pre-revolution houses (The Loring House for JP and the James Blake house for Everett).
We've got a spot in need of some serious infill, but which could be a wonderful neighborhood square:
Having been taught by Ablarc to appreciate triple-deckers, I can see the beauty in side streets like this one:
And hell, there's even a little South End in this neighborhood. Who wouldn't want to live in one of these?:
Many of the streets here could use a diet (see my first picture above) and the Eversource Energy parkingscape is absolutely killer, but this area has a lot of potential, and the development of nearby South Bay could really kickstart things, particularly in light of the fact that it's already pretty close to transit.
Coppens Square/Meeting House Hill
Just down the road, we've got a little corner of Dorchester that could be mistaken for Vermont:
. . . If Vermont had any of these classically Boston brick beauties:
What kills this neighborhood is that it's something of a transit desert (15 minutes to the nearest T stop) and, more importantly, it's surrounded by urban-destroying city-services land to the North:
And West (this is a city, there should be a building here. . .
...Never mind, some buildings suck]:
