Boston: the next 35 years

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PaulC

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BRA Director Peter Meade will participate as a panelist in “Visions of Boston: The Next 35 Years,” a discussion sponsored by Boston By Foot on Thursday, September 8 at the Boston Public Library at 6:00 p.m.
Boston By Foot is celebrating thirty-five seasons of architectural walking tours. *The panelists will explore their visions for the future of our beloved city, including the changing role of architecture and neighborhood development. Robert Campbell, architecture critic for The Boston Globe, will serve as the moderator.
Panelists will also include:
Theodore Landsmark, President, Boston Architectural College
William Martin, The New York Times best-selling author
William Poorvu, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School
Jane Weinzapfel, Founding Principal, Weinzapfel Architects
September 8, 6:00 p.m.* Free and open to the public.
Boston Public Library, Boston Room
700 Boylston St.
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http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthoritynews.org/2011/09/01/boston-the-next-35-years/
 
Hmm, may go to just check it out. Don't know if I should expect very much, though.
 
Anyone else going? And what's a good place to grab a bite in the area? Just something really quick but filling.
 
Wouldn't he be more of an expert on the "last 35 years"?

Don't mean to be snarky.
 
Bunch of height-fearing losers. "I don't want us to end up like New York!" "Don't worry, we won't ever let that happen." "Yeah, we don't want that, what I love about my hometown is the height cap." Ugh.

And yet they want density and such. Sure, perhaps a large swath of 10-20 footers work very well, but there's no reason to fear an occasional 1000+ footer. Uggghhh. I wish it was an open forum so I could jump up whenever I wanted. They only had time for 2 questions because they babbled on in typical old-people fashion. (to entertain the group of 97% old people)

At least I was able to pick up a card from Peter Meade afterwards.
 
I really wish I could have made it to this. What else did they talk about, BostonurbEx? Did anyone give any indication that there's a real vision or plan for the next 35 years, or was it just 120 minutes of rhapsodizing about how perfect the city of Boston is, sprinkled with the occasional vague but shamelessly conciliatory idea for the future?
 
briv said:
I really wish I could have made it to this. What else did they talk about, BostonurbEx? Did anyone give any indication that there's a real vision or plan for the next 35 years, or was it just 120 minutes of rhapsodizing about how perfect the city of Boston is, sprinkled with the occasional vague but shamelessly conciliatory idea for the future?
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Yep, pretty much. Absolutely no plan for the future at all, the furthest out was Meade talking about Borders a year from now. Everything else was fantasy or simply general/applies nationally. They repeatedly bashed LA (deserving) and NYC (wtf?). And yet they comment on how Manhattan is the greenest place in the world, and how we should have our own "Eataly" right from NY.

The only negative comments about Boston were: Filene's, City Hall Plaza (a "mixed bag" of good and bad according to Meade (I fail to see the good), Congress St garage (no mention of redeveloping it, and the Aquarium garage (no mention of Chiofaro's project at all)). One of them even turned City Hall plaza into a treeline pedestrian way between Cambridge and Congress but expects the JFK building to remain and maintain it or something. They all dream of this big huge landscraping stubby monstrosities on the Seaport. Also, Meade had nothing negative to say about the casino going in Eastie but literally facepalmed when he told us how someone walked up and suggested to him that a casino go in the Seaport. He then said a casino should go in the postal annex at South Station (the hell with more platforms?!).

I don't know, I think we should host our own panel, it would have been incredibly more entertaining to imagine and much more practical/of a higher caliber.
 
You can rent out the Cyclorama for $945 a day or one of the smaller theaters at the BCA for less than that; all it takes is some initiative to put together an afternoon "symposium".

What if you had it and no one came, though?

EDITED

Real question: how well-attended was the event last evening? I just read the list of panel members; it was more heavy-weight than I thought. Was there any good conversations? What was the point of it? Was there any central theme? What did the Harvard guy contribute?
 
It was in the Boston Room, if you've ever been to an event there, and it was full. Easily 50 people, perhaps even pushing 100. All the chairs were pretty much taken, crowd standing in the back. There were some moderately interesting things about the past mentioned (yeah, the history group just couldn't help themselves but revert back to history instead of the future LOL). But nothing really new really to us here. The central theme seemed to be how efficient "young people" want to be these days and how cities are so efficient and we'll see cities becoming more and more attractive over the coming few decades. The point was supposed to be their views of what Boston will actually physically be like in the future, but it seemed to be more of a side-topic really.

I'm not sure what the Harvard guy said (or which one that even was). I think it was Meade though who brought up an interesting point in that he wonders when cities do become increasingly popular over suburbs, what happens to the Worcesters and Lowells and Springfields of the state, and everywhere else? I'm not sure which angle he was getting at, was he saying these were really nothing more than large far-flung suburbs of Boston these days, which would slip away to the pull of Boston, or that they would be revitalized as people head back for the cities? Not sure.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
Yep, pretty much. Absolutely no plan for the future at all, the furthest out was Meade talking about Borders a year from now. Everything else was fantasy or simply general/applies nationally. They repeatedly bashed LA (deserving) and NYC (wtf?). And yet they comment on how Manhattan is the greenest place in the world, and how we should have our own "Eataly" right from NY.

I don't know, I think we should host our own panel, it would have been incredibly more entertaining to imagine and much more practical/of a higher caliber.
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Urb -- I like that idea -- we should hold our own forum

And -- we should do it at MIT!! The excelent facilities are free as long as we admit MITers for free

Today (Sunday) -- I ws just involved in such a symposium / workshop / tutoriial -- your choise for the terminology

We organized it over the course of about 1 month -- all you need is someone with a vagueish connection to the event with an MIT ID or such

We had about 50 people (45 + the organizers) for our 6 hour technical extravaganza held in in Tang Hall (right next to Sloan) - free parking in the lot on Haywrd Place and the Kendall / MIT T is just 5 minutes away

We brought in our own Dunkin Donuts cofee and donuts for the morning and Bertuccci pizza delivered our lunch
 
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