- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Messages
- 6,964
- Reaction score
- 1,586
Designed so you'll walk this way
Harvard Square alley becomes a pedestrian oasis
Brattle Walk is a charming tree-shaded, mid-block pedestrian alley that stretches between Brattle Street and Mount Auburn Street in Harvard Square. (wiqan ang for the boston globe)
By Robert Campbell, Globe Correspondent | May 13, 2007
CAMBRIDGE -- In a city, it's the little things that matter.
When we think of architecture, we may think first about prominent buildings by famous designers. Boston's Trinity Church in Copley Square , perhaps, or the Hancock Tower .
But when we do that, we forget that architecture is much more than monuments.
Architecture shapes most of the spaces we live in -- the little streets and alleys, the big squares and boulevards. They're defined by architecture the way a room is defined by its walls.
A case in point is an almost miraculous little place in Cambridge. It doesn't have a name. It's a charming brick-paved, tree-shaded , mid-block pedestrian alley that stretches between Brattle Street and Mount Auburn Street. It begins at 44 Brattle. We'll call it the Brattle Walk.
Here, over a period of more than 30 years, a series of developers and architects, each working pretty much independently, added one little piece at a time until the Walk was complete. It was an amazing act of voluntary collaboration. Everyone saw the potential of the Walk and everyone made sure, as they built new buildings, to leave enough room for it.
The first new building on what was to become the Brattle Walk was a headquarters for the architecture firm founded by Walter Gropius . It was finished back in 1968. The latest was an office building containing a Post Office, which opened in 2001 and allowed the Brattle Walk, finally, to connect all the way through the block to Mount Auburn Street. That's 32 years of cooperation.
With spring sunshine finally here in Cambridge, and the trees beginning to leaf out, the Brattle Walk is at its best.
The Walk really began in 1969, when two buildings reached out and touched each other, a story above the ground. It's as if they were shaking hands. By so doing, they created a big square archway. This opening was the beginning of the Walk. As you look from Brattle Street, the building on the left is 44 Brattle and the one on the right, with a big Crate and Barrel Store, is 48.
At least seven architects worked over the years to create the Walk. None made a building that shouted for attention. All were more concerned with creating a shared public space.
Those architects included two winners of America's highest prize in architecture, the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. One was Benjamin Thompson , who designed the wonderful original Design Research Building , now home to Crate and Barrel. The other was Josep Lluis Sert , who designed 44 Brattle and, in doing so, invented a glass shed roof that shelters much of the Walk.
After so many years, it's hard to know who first dreamed up the idea of the Brattle Walk. Two figures, though, stand out. One is William Poorvu , a developer who teaches at the Harvard Business School and whose office is on the Walk. Poorvu at one time or another has owned at least an interest in more than half the properties along the Walk, including Design Research, 44 Brattle, and the building that contains the Post Office.
Poorvu says he was thinking about the future Walk as far back as the late 1960s. He says he was the one who persuaded architect Sert to cantilever 44 Brattle out to touch Design Research, thus creating the entry arch.
The other key figure is the late architect Thompson , who, with his wife and partner , Jane Thompson, was also the designer and first owner of what is now the Walk's central element. This is the Harvest Restaurant, which opened in 1975. As seen from Brattle Street, it's the bright neon "Harvest" sign, more than anything else, that pulls you into the Walk. Notes Jane Thompson : "In cleaning out the cellar of my ex-house, I found rolls of miscellaneous drawings and there was the tube marked 'Harvest Passageway.' This confirmed for me that I did the scheme." She says she sold the idea to Poorvu and other owners.
It doesn't really matter, of course, who thought of the Walk first. What's important is that everyone saw the potential and acted on it. They're still doing so. In recent years the Walk has sent out a lateral shoot, into the area around the Brattle Theater and Casablanca restaurant. Perhaps, eventually, the whole block will be laced with brick walkways.
Not everyone, alas, values the Walk. Harvard is a special offender. It keeps expanding into the Walk-side buildings. One of those, originally designed as his own office by the prominent architect Earl Flansburgh , is now a Harvard office where the university has, unfortunately, chosen to wall itself off with an ugly black metal fence.
The Brattle Walk isn't an important place or, even, a remarkably beautiful one. It's not going to appear in any books about great architecture. That's not the point. It's not about fame or fortune or what's called "signature architecture." It's about how you make good cities by getting the small things right.
Robert Campbell is the Globe's architecture critic. He can be reached at camglobe@aol.com.
? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
Link
I remember finding this place once while walking around Harvard Sq. It was really nice but there was little to no activity in the actual "alley" which would have made it a lively and interesting place.