Charles River Park | West End

Ron Newman said:
If you walk from Teele Square to Davis Square in Somerville, you'll see more retail than exists in the entire West End. (I'm including restaurants in "retail".)
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You really think there's more retail on that stretch than there is walking down Cambridge St.?
 
Yes, since the only retail on the West End (north) side of that street are Whole Foods and a Finagle-a-Bagel.
 
Ron Newman said:
Yes, since the only retail on the West End (north) side of that street are Whole Foods and a Finagle-a-Bagel.
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And a CVS! Also, the Liberty Hotel.

Okay, take a look at a map of the West End. Area-wise, it's not huge to begin with. Now, subtract all the land that's taken up by MGH. What your left with rivals Bay Village in terms of size. If we're gonna rail on The West End for lack of retail, then we have to be consistant and rail on Bay Village too. The West End may suck, but I think the argument that it sucks because there's no retail is flimsy.
 
I think there is a quality that we are grasping for when we say "urban" that is hard to quantify and hard to define.

I think one problem might be the lack of defined spaces. Towers surrounded by parks, even different towers, are all basically the same. There are no intimate spaces. When there are parks everywhere you don't appreciate them the same as if there were all buildings and one park.

There is also an issue of street life. The roads in BPC and CRP don't create street life, they are there just to get cars into the rest of the city, which it is removed from.

Ultimately the scale of these places are too big to make them intimate, urban neighborhoods. The only difference between these places and low-income housing projects is money.
 
Urban places have streetwalls; the buildings define spaces: streets and squares. IOW, urban buildings are mostly not objects in space.

In an urban place, when you leave your front door, you mostly don't head for your car.

There are no parking lots.
 
So........why are there so many cars in urban places? But seriously, by your description Ablarc, Venice would be the only true urban place.
 
Nonsense, I didn't say there were no cars in urban places. I did say you could do without one. Much of Boston is urban, and so is all of Manhattan.
 
BTW, one thing I forgot to say in my previous post...nice to see you back Ablarc.
 
Actually, one thing you don't see in the West End are cars, because there are no streets.
 
Personally, I dont think We've seen enough Ablarc ass-kissing.... come on people!!! this is the architectual god here!?!?! Let me hear you!!!
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Ultimately the scale of these places are too big to make them intimate, urban neighborhoods. The only difference between these places and low-income housing projects is money.
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I've walked through the North End and South End many times as I have BPC though I've never walked through CRP. I do, however, find that BPC was as intimate a place as the other neighborhoods, especially in the quieter, evening hours. As far as your last comment Van, you're kidding right?
 
No I'm not kidding. More money was spent on places like CRP because it was for upper and middle class (not the people it displaced). They also limited who could live there. Granted these were privately owned, not public housing, but if the public housing didn't have to be built on the cheap and take the poorest of the population then they wouldn't be as bad. What I think I should have said is that both were designed along the same general principles, towers in a park. Who occupies them is what makes one a castle and the other a slum.
 
BRA launches second phase of West End Master Plan by Dan Murphy

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) launched the second phase of its West End Master Plan last week with a public meeting at the Shriner?s Hospital for Children.
At that time, Bob Kroin, BRA chief architect, and Kairos Shen, the agency?s director of planning, sought feedback from West End residents and stakeholders on the BRA?s July 2003 report, ?A Framework for Planning & Development of the West End Area? and subsequent development in the neighborhood.
In 2002, the BRA began the public process for future development in the West End and commissioned the West End Area Planning Group, a council of 25 members with various interests in the community. That September, the group participated in a ?charrette,? or period of intense design activity, the results of which became the basis for the report.
In late 2004, the BRA approved the West End Residences, a 306-unit, five-building complex that was the first development in the neighborhood in 25 years.
Equity Residential, the Chicago-based company behind the West End Residences, has now expressed interest in redeveloping the Garden Garage, located adjacent to West End Place at 150 Staniford St.
Shen said the second phase of the Master Plan would consider not only Charles River Park in the context of the West End, but would also take into account other planned development in the area, including the Delaware North Companies towers on Nashua and Causeway streets and future Suffolk University and Massachusetts General Hospital projects.
Those in attendance at the meeting cited the height of proposed buildings and the loss of views, sunlight and open space as among their top concerns regarding future development in the neighborhood.
State Rep. Marty Walz advised that the latest phase of the Master Plan should take into account the traffic impact from the nearby Northpoint development in Cambridge; advocated for more family housing in the West End (i.e. units with three bedrooms or more); and she requested that the BRA provide at the next meeting a map of the neighborhood indicating who owns each developable parcel.
As for the next step, Shen suggested that those who attend the next meeting could break into smaller groups and meet with the development team to share their ideas.
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http://www.beaconhilltimes.com/#ST4393

Community Meeting 5-05-09 PowerPoint Presentation
The last two slides are the interesting ones, not sure how current
http://www.bostonredevelopmentautho...y Meeting 5-05-09 PowerPoint Presentation.pdf
 
The proposals for "Back Bay Scale" and "Historic West End Scale" are pretty hilarious.
 
Where do they want to install these scales? A few carnival-type attractions could be a nice addition here.
 
If developers thought that they could sell three-bedroom condos, they'd be more than happy to build them. Since they'd cost $800 - $1,200 per square foot, however, you'd find there are few buyers for $2 million+ homes (as they are discovering at The Bryant).
 
Oh, and don't you love how in the 1950s proposal the pro-tower crowd used SHADOWS as a reason to build more towers? It's true though, the old West End streets were covered in shadows most of the time. The 4-story tenements plus narrow streets meant near constant shadows. Charles River Park on the other hand is full of natural light.

Higher buildings, less shadows. I love the public relations industry. You could argue anything.
 
PaulC said:
The last two slides are the interesting ones, not sure how current
http://www.bostonredevelopmentautho...y Meeting 5-05-09 PowerPoint Presentation.pdf
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I love the bold-face comment on the last slide:

CONCEPTUAL PLAN ONLY
Please note: This slide was the subject of an extensive conversation.
This conceptual layout is erroneous in that it does not recognize
property boundaries and does not represent the intention of any land
takings by the BRA.​

Ron Newman said:
Where do they want to install these scales?
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Scale as in size and character, not weight.

That said, a booth where you could guess the IQs of our elected officials would be quite entertaining.
 
but would also take into account other planned development in the area, including the Delaware North Companies towers on Nashua and Causeway streets and future Suffolk University and Massachusetts General Hospital projects.
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LOL @ Nashua st towers

Also, since when is the gazebo @ Boston Common considered "Back Bay Scale"? rofl. This is the trickery they resort to in sneaking all that suburban open space into the city?
 
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