Chelsea Infill and Small Developments

9681419A-77FE-4288-BAAD-E836404877D8.jpeg
E5E8FD85-8ED5-4515-A7D3-A7ECAE3536AE.jpeg
281E999B-11DA-448F-8441-8E4A48197DDA.jpeg
 
Dat's some sloooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww -motion construction. Pace a little bit beyond leisurely at this point.
Casual observation but it seems like most commuter rail station projects move at a snails pace... Ruggles platform, Mansfield, Newton stations, Worcester, etc. We've gotta figure out how to move a bit quicker if we're really planning on getting high level platforms systemwide.
 
IMG_1234 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr

IMG_1272 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr

IMG_1274 by Bos Beeline, on Flickr

The high-concept shelters confuse me. Is that really going to keep the weather out effectively the way those slabs are angled way high and short (regardless of what final capper gets put on them)? Seems like way more form over function than the prefab metal jobs they've been doing for the last 25 years. I know from experience the downsloping prefab overhangs on the Old Colony Lines are spot-on at controlling both runoff and blowing wind. And haven't heard anything bad about the upsloping prefabs keeping the wet out on the renovated Fairmount Line stops (Newmarket, Uphams, Talbot, Blue Hill have them...Four Corners has downsloping awnings). But these seem much more heavily stylized than the prefabber examples and...are barely covering the heavy-slanted sun angle in the pic.

Do those things work well enough at SL3 stations?
 
The high-concept shelters confuse me. Is that really going to keep the weather out effectively the way those slabs are angled way high and short (regardless of what final capper gets put on them)? Seems like way more form over function than the prefab metal jobs they've been doing for the last 25 years. I know from experience the downsloping prefab overhangs on the Old Colony Lines are spot-on at controlling both runoff and blowing wind. And haven't heard anything bad about the upsloping prefabs keeping the wet out on the renovated Fairmount Line stops (Newmarket, Uphams, Talbot, Blue Hill have them...Four Corners has downsloping awnings). But these seem much more heavily stylized than the prefabber examples and...are barely covering the heavy-slanted sun angle in the pic.

Do those things work well enough at SL3 stations?
The short answer is that they are the most ridiculous excuses for shelters I've ever seen. Unless there's going to be a roof/shield attached to the sloping areas that will connect them up, with side shields. Unfortunately nearly every plastic installation gets scraped up by vandals and the removed because the T doesn't want to bother keeping them maintained. The solution? Move to FL. There may not be much public transport, but there's also no snow, sleet, driving cold, and freezing temps.
 
The short answer is that they are the most ridiculous excuses for shelters I've ever seen. Unless there's going to be a roof/shield attached to the sloping areas that will connect them up, with side shields. Unfortunately nearly every plastic installation gets scraped up by vandals and the removed because the T doesn't want to bother keeping them maintained. The solution? Move to FL. There may not be much public transport, but there's also no snow, sleet, driving cold, and freezing temps.
History suggests there will be a roof and side shields...
DaHMIBYXkAAlcPn
 
History suggests there will be a roof and side shields...
DaHMIBYXkAAlcPn

Those look pretty terrible too being much higher up off the (lower) platform surface providing negligible enough wind protection that the separate claustrophobic bus shelters are completely mandatory. Though at least the overhangs appear to be designed long enough to cover the whole platform in a straight-down rain (so long as you're not standing under one of the gaps in the shoot-out overhangs).

It looks like they want such rote design sameness that the overhangs are being built 100.00% alike for commuter rail despite platform that's 38 inches taller (good: less over-height vs. platform = better wind protection) but doesn't stick out nearly far enough to cover the mandatory 6 ft. open-space width of a CR platform (bad...you get guaranteed soaked going for the door). So...basically aesthetic hardheadedness leading to some of the worst of all worlds. Brilliant.


Nobody says "prefab" has to be boring. You can do a stylized take. But the whole reason they have generic-spec metal downslope and upslope shelters in the design manual is because they frickin' work decent enough at their one function in life: keeping you dry. Shouldn't following the spec that keeps you dry be somewhat of the bottom line here above inflexibility of having rote equal-dimension concrete edifices when the platform characteristics are completely and totally different??? Of course not...we hired architect-architects not transit architects.:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
The renders show this too
chelsea_station_rendering_far_cropped.5d7fb218269d5.png

chelsea_rendering.jpg

Height looks right (way better than the too-high SL3 ones), but there is no way shadow-figure person going for the door there isn't getting soaked in that spot. They don't stretch nearly close enough over the full platform width. Open-air a solid foot behind the yellow line.
 

Back
Top