Charles River Esplanade Given Landmark Status

[tobyjug]

Re: Giant Ferris Wheel on Esplanade

Sure.

Ever since they built that gimmicky and useless Eiffel Tower, Paris has done nothing but go downhill.

So it follows that you believe the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas has classed up that place? Shmessy indeed.

 

[whighlander]

here are a couple of realistic goals for the committee:

• Revive the park landscape and improve its maintenance;
• “Rescue” key gathering spaces with a year-round cafe opposite the Hatch Shell, a rebuilt Boston University Sailing Pavilion with observation deck

If you want something exciting -- then how about a human version of the kids foot rocket toy
1) People get in a capsule --and get strapped down
2) a big blast of air lifts the capsule up to say 200 feet
3) a parachute opens and the capsule decends gently onto the Charles
4) a tow boat brings the capsule back to the Esplande where the people leave

You could have 5 or so capsules each holding 5 to 8 people -- fire once every 5 minutes -- nothing like it anywhere

Of course we could always prevali on MIT to actually build the statue which Wells Bosworth intended to site in the midst of Killian Court when he architected "the New Technology" circa 1916

The Statue was to be of Athena 3 or 4 X life size with the milk of human knowledge flowing from her bared left breast -- the flow would then wend its way to the Charles -- today you would need a bridge to carry people and cars over the river of human knowledge as it merged with the Charles

If you think this was just his fantasy -- apparently he coordinated the actual formal cremony of "occupy the new technology in Cambridge" -- including a voyage of the faculty crossing the Charles in a specially modified barge with Greco/Roman decorations

there was also a giant beaver

 

[shmessy]

Re: Giant Ferris Wheel on Esplanade

So it follows that you believe the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas has classed up that place? Shmessy indeed.

#1 Nothing can "class up" Vegas.

#2 Vegas has no substance and makes money out of nothing

#3 Boston has more substance than almost any city on earth, hatches ideas and technology and watches them leave.

#4 Never literally meant Boston needs a model of the Eiffel Tower, just pointing out the fallacy of your comment about the Eye in London or other touristy attractions.

Personally, (and I'm sure to receive lots of bricks and tomatoes for this) a St Louis type Gateway Arch that was solar powered and sold tickets to ride over the Charles connecting Boston to Cambridge further upriver than the Red Line (i.e. shoreline near mid Esplanade to shoreline MIT?) would be fun, could be privately funded and profitable and wouldn't be nearly as derivative and kitschy as just another Ferris Wheel.

People could pay $15 to ride (not more than double what a cab ride between the two points would cost) and it would take cars off the road. Tourists would love it. Win-win.

When you wrote: "The ferris wheel in London is a disgrace. Putting a mini skirt on a dowager. How far the English have fallen from Victorian ambition...Parliament put in the shadow of an amusement park ride."

I had to laugh. Who wants Boston to be a dowager???? We did that from the 1920's - 1960's. It ain't all it's cracked up to be. London didn't enjoy being a dowager from a faded age either. To paraphrase Rick Pitino "India, Rhodesia and The Colonies ain't walking through that door anytime soon". The Eye (and plenty of other non-traditional mini-skirt developments) have helped keep the city vibrant - - and guess what???? Now they are hosting the Olympics.

Londoners will take THAT over being a "dowager" any day.

 

[MBTAddict]

great fountain, but looks very dangerous for kids.

I couldn't find anything in a quick search re: serious accidents that have happened at the fountain. Maybe someone who can dig a little better than I might be able to.

I have a friend from Portland, and they said anecdotally that they weren't aware of any serious injuries.

 

[Ron Newman]

I love the idea of that Portland fountain. But I also recall that the town of Shelburne Falls in western Mass. closed off access to the Glacial Potholes which could be considered a natural version of this.

 

[whighlander]

In case anyone is interested here's some material from a Tech Review article about the archiecting and building of the new MIT campus which opened in 1916

The "New Tech"

The Cambridge campus was--and is--a marvel.

Friday, September 8, 2006
By Elizabeth Durant

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17435


Bosworth accepted the premise of a building that unified MIT's academic departments. He even used some of Freeman's ideas for the main building: the central corridor, concrete frame, and large windows. But he mixed a modern interior with a classical exterior. "MIT saw itself as a powerful institution, not as just some factory sitting in the backwater of Cambridge," Jarzombek says. "It wanted to have a huge physical and symbolic presence, so the classical dressing was very appropriate."

The campus was a triumph of engineering. The ground beneath it consisted of fill (largely mud from the Charles River and earth from subway excavations), so 22,000 piles were driven down to a more stable layer of glacial deposits. The sheer size of the main building (now Buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 10) presented another challenge, Jarzombek says. At the time, it was "the largest single unified building in the United States," he notes, and the first private building at this scale made of concrete. Technology Review reported in 1914 that "the making of the cement was practically a continuous process, the chutes of the construction towers delivering without cessation a liquid lake of cement covering an acre at an operation." Once the foundation was in place, the building rose as a unit, almost one foot per day. Finally, the white limestone facade was added.

The Cambridge campus, which Maclaurin called a "great white city," was finished in 1916, at a cost of $7 million. Despite campus growth over the ensuing 90 years, Jarzombek writes, the main building remains remarkably unchanged, an icon "without equal in the American architectural context."

While the statue never was formally constructed -- it has been temporarily created as part of MIT's famous "hacks" -- most recently in 2009 -- though never of the intended scale and minus all of the mamery functions

 

[tobyjug]

Re: Giant Ferris Wheel on Esplanade

#1 Nothing can "class up" Vegas.

#2 Vegas has no substance and makes money out of nothing

#3 Boston has more substance than almost any city on earth, hatches ideas and technology and watches them leave.

#4 Never literally meant Boston needs a model of the Eiffel Tower, just pointing out the fallacy of your comment about the Eye in London or other touristy attractions.

Personally, (and I'm sure to receive lots of bricks and tomatoes for this) a St Louis type Gateway Arch that was solar powered and sold tickets to ride over the Charles connecting Boston to Cambridge further upriver than the Red Line (i.e. shoreline near mid Esplanade to shoreline MIT?) would be fun, could be privately funded and profitable and wouldn't be nearly as derivative and kitschy as just another Ferris Wheel.

People could pay $15 to ride (not more than double what a cab ride between the two points would cost) and it would take cars off the road. Tourists would love it. Win-win.

When you wrote: "The ferris wheel in London is a disgrace. Putting a mini skirt on a dowager. How far the English have fallen from Victorian ambition...Parliament put in the shadow of an amusement park ride."

I had to laugh. Who wants Boston to be a dowager???? We did that from the 1920's - 1960's. It ain't all it's cracked up to be. London didn't enjoy being a dowager from a faded age either. To paraphrase Rick Pitino "India, Rhodesia and The Colonies ain't walking through that door anytime soon". The Eye (and plenty of other non-traditional mini-skirt developments) have helped keep the city vibrant - - and guess what???? Now they are hosting the Olympics.

Londoners will take THAT over being a "dowager" any day.

Shmessy thinking again. No one is suggesting that being a "dowager" is desireable.

If you lust for the faint and derivative, so be it. Boston has a skyline full of the like, so you are solidly in the mainstream. The only surprise? Your paean to Boston didn't include the words "world class".

I'll be sure to keep an Eye open for your St. Louis on the Charles.

 

[stellarfun]

Museum of Science doesn't like the Ferris Wheel.

http://www.bostonherald.com/busines...rks_museum_of_science/srvc=home&position=also

 

[shmessy]

Re: Giant Ferris Wheel on Esplanade

Shmessy thinking again. No one is suggesting that being a "dowager" is desireable.

If you lust for the faint and derivative, so be it. Boston has a skyline full of the like, so you are solidly in the mainstream. The only surprise? Your paean to Boston didn't include the words "world class".

I'll be sure to keep an Eye open for your St. Louis on the Charles.

I guess people in Boston should be afraid of new ideas or even imagining something new.

I merely pointed out how that didn't hurt London (unless gaining the Olympics is considered coming down a peg) or Paris. And yes, the Eye and the Eiffel Tower are both non-utilitarian, gimmicky edifices.

Putting "the miniskirt on the dowager" (as you put it) is not the disaster you portray.

Keep doing the safe, landscraper thing in the South Boston Seaport District. That's a prudent, common-sense girdle.

Perhaps you should question whether the problem is with the miniskirt....or the dowager.

 

[tobyjug]

The enthusiastic new ideas you present, your incisive reasoning and close reading of the posts have helped me to set aside my curmudgeonly fears.

 

[shmessy]

The enthusiastic new ideas you present, your incisive reasoning and close reading of the posts have helped me to set aside my curmudgeonly fears.

Snark all you want. The future belongs to the bold and creative cities.

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/cityfacts/2011/technology/ny-overtaking-boston-in-vc-deals

But at least we'll still have landscrapers with no ground floor retail and Durgin Park.

 

[statler]

Smessy

The problem isn't that bold and creative = bad, it's that over-sized carnival rides aren't especially bold nor creative.

London would be doing just fine without the Eye. It actually has quite a bit else going for it. I don't think the Ferris wheel tips the scale one way or the other.

 

[shmessy]

Smessy

The problem isn't that bold and creative = bad, it's that over-sized carnival rides aren't especially bold nor creative.

London would be doing just fine without the Eye. It actually has quite a bit else going for it. I don't think the Ferris wheel tips the scale one way or the other.

I'm not talking about a Ferris Wheel. I, too, think that would be derivative and a big shrug.

However, the knee-jerk Boston-attitude (yes, it IS a Boston attitude) to any attempts to think outside the box is hurting the competitiveness of the city.

The future belongs to the creative entrepeneurs and scientists. They are increasingly choosing Silicon Valley and NYC (not to mention foreign cities)over the town of the landscrapers.

99% of the time, I am all about careful planning, infrastructure and careful budgeting. I run a financial planning business, for crying out loud.

The Esplanade/River is the one perfect place to go beserk and put something fun/outside the box. Off the top of my head, I came up with the awful idea of a St Louis -type arch that would traverse the river and allow folks to pay $15 for a ride between Boston and Cambridge mid-basin between the Longfellow and the BU Bridges. It wasn't a serious, thought out proposal, just an off the cuff example. It would bring more pedestrians to each sides of the river and take some traffic off the streets.

I immediately got the "Durgin Park Waitress" response.

Boston/Cambridge have built-in advantages with the colleges/universities. It's a shame that it piddles it away with the lack of imagination of its population outside the schools' walls.

History will show that Boston lost when it decided to coddle the Finnerans, Meninos and Bulgers while snarking at the the Krafts, Gates' and Zuckerbergs.

 

[bbfen]

History will show that Boston lost when it decided to coddle the Finnerans, Meninos and Bulgers while snarking at the the Krafts, Gates' and Zuckerbergs.

Uh, Zuckerberg and Gates left Cambridge, not Boston. As for Kraft, you're prsumably referencing the failure to build a stadium along the waterfront. His problem isn't that Boston "coddles" people, it's that, he made an anti-Irish comment to the wrong person. (Which is ironic, for a Jew!)

 

[Beton Brut]

The Esplanade needs more and better access points.

Some wider and grander entryways to this jewel would be very positive for the city.

An excellent point, and a feasible goal as well. The dowdy, utilitarian pedestrian bridges across Storrow Drive have outlived their welcome.

...a St Louis type Gateway Arch that was solar powered and sold tickets to ride over the Charles connecting Boston to Cambridge further upriver than the Red Line (i.e. shoreline near mid Esplanade to shoreline MIT?) would be fun, could be privately funded and profitable and wouldn't be nearly as derivative and kitschy as just another Ferris Wheel.

People could pay $15 to ride (not more than double what a cab ride between the two points would cost) and it would take cars off the road. Tourists would love it. Win-win.

This seemingly silly concept is actually a firm hand on the elephant in the room -- a better connection between Boston and Cambridge that is beautiful and multi-modal.

We're never gonna build Ralph Adams Cram's island in the Charles. I recall an an intelligent post from Lurker a couple of years ago about an additional bridge across the river. The natural connection is between Fairfield and Ames Streets. Imagine a Calatrava cable-stayed bridge, with a deck crowned to allow sailboats to pass beneath. It could carry vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and a fare-based people mover.

With the new bridge in place, the Mass Ave bridge could also be replaced (perhaps with a triple-barrel immersed-tube tunnel carrying vehicles and a new branch of the Red Line between MIT and Dudley Square). This would open even more of the Charles River Basin to sailing.

 

[bostonbred]

IAM AreesinG that THIS elePAnt NEEDING the firms hand. Mr. SHmeslssy is RIGHT!!!!. NEEDING such BOLD idea as HE is Puts 4th . SO> Supporting his GRANDE pLAns you OLD FAsIOned oNES!!!!!!
IFS YOU build it feRRIS whel, NO MOR LADSERSkrapers and TURGID parks!!!!
SO THERE!!!

 

[datadyne007]

I agree that a tourist icon (like a Ferris wheel) would be nice for the city, but I would hate to ruin the incredible view of the Esplanade and skyline from Cambridge. It is one of the most powerful skyline views in the entire country. I would rather this icon be placed in the South Boston Waterfront. I do like the idea of Calatrava designing a bridge to span the Charles though.

 

[Ron Newman]

The low Mass. Ave. bridge right now divides the Charles River basin into the part used by sailboats and the part used by crew boats. I'm not sure it's a good idea to freely mix these.

 

[bostonbred]

I agree that a tourist icon (like a Ferris wheel) would be nice for the city, but I would hate to ruin the incredible view of the Esplanade and skyline from Cambridge. It is one of the most powerful skyline views in the entire country. I would rather this icon be placed in the South Boston Waterfront. I do like the idea of Calatrava designing a bridge to span the Charles though.

THIS beingk the PROOF yOU wanTS LADSKRAPERS mit der Durgine Parker Haus BAD FOODS.
such UNINOVATORY thinkink mean NO PROGRESS YOU PILGRIMS!!!!

 

[itchy]

Shmessy, as much as it pains me to say this on an architecture forum, I have to say that I think you're putting far too much importance into architecture.

Businesses (and the individuals who build them) move to Silicon Valley and New York for many reasons, but the derring-do of their present-day architecture is not one of them.

In New York, for every Torre Verre (the fantastic project designed by Jean Nouvel), there are 150 Sam Chang eyesores -- typically the cheapest, cruddiest, nastiest designs you can imagine, inhabited by a Hampton Inn and the slim, 15-story equivalent of any Hampton Inn you've ever seen off of I-95. Oh, and right now, Torre Verre doesn't appear to be happening any time soon, either.

The stuff going up in New York today is, for the overwhelming most part, atrocious. Really, Boston doesn't get buildings anywhere near as bad as the ones that are sprouting up all over NYC.

As for Silicon Valley, man oh man, San Jose is atrocious! Sure, it's comfy and nice and sunny, but the architecture is nonexistent (other than malls and landscrapers in the park) and it's about as urban as the Green Mountains. The various Silicon Valley outposts are no better.

What those places do have is, well, mojo. In terms of culture, hipness, finance and business, New York is hands-down the alpha-dog city of the US and probably of the world. Thanks to the post-war defence industry in CA and the R&D and computer industry it spawned -- plus a fantastic climate and beautiful natural landscape -- Silicon Valley blossomed into the country's tech capital. The architecture out there is decidedly not urban, down to Google's HQ or the proposed Apple suburban office park-cum-UFO. It draws entrepreneurs because, well, it's full of thriving tech businesses, tech entrepreneurs, and the VC firms that finance them.

I'd like to see better architecture in Boston as much as anyone else, but I don't see that convincing as many grads to stick around as would a more lively bar scene, a few examples of world-beating new tech businesses, or an additional 200,000 people living in Boston and making it a bigger urban area with more stuff (and more people to date) for the recent-grad crowd.