Re: New Brighton Landing | New Balance Complex
JFK/UMass - Let's you know where you are based on the landmarks
Hynes Convention Center - Yup right there
Northeastern - At Northeastern of all places and right next to
Museum of Fine Arts
Aquarium
Prudential
Wonderland....not so good of a comparison anymore
Harvard.... MIT....
No reason not to put a business, corporate, institutional name on these things.
Not sure why landing would only have to do with boats. You arrive on a boat or plane at a landing or by landing, why not arrive on a train at a landing. You walk down stairs to a landing.
While we're at it, you park on a driveway yet drive on a parkway. I mean... what's up with that? (Could use either Cliff or Seinfeld's nasally delivery if you like.)
Sure. All of those are good names. They tell you where you are. Likewise, calling this station "New Balance/WGBH" would have been fine by me, since most people taking the Worcester Line would know exactly where the station is located. Hell, even calling it "Stop-and-Shop" would have been better.
Now, if the "Boston Landing" development was built already, and we knew that it had become a landmark for those traveling along the Pike, and traffic reports were reporting on backups thanks to an accident "about a half-mile west of Boston Landing" (as they do with the New Balance HQ), then this would be fine. No one, however, will call this development by the name of its LLC. At least Prudential had the good sense to call their complex by the name on the building. Would it have been OK to name Prudential "Boston Landing" because that's what the company wanted? Hey! The name makes just as much sense there!
As to the "Landing" thing, the dictionary definition is here
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/landing. I grant that it does not specify boats, but that's the only context in which I've heard the term used. Weymouth Landing station, for instance, serves the Fore River area and marinas in Weymouth.
My point is simple. "Boston Landing" does nothing for wayfinding and gives not one inkling of place. I believe that the Commonwealth (or Feds, I forget which) has standards for highway signs which would prevent exits from being labeled in a way which would confuse drivers - the same should apply here. The company funding the station should be able to pick a name, sure. It just has to be one that will tell even lifelong Boston residents where they heck they're getting off the train.