Commonwealth Avenue Improvement Project

As a follow up to the postings about planting so late in the year:

From the Chester Sq home page:
Since the absolute end of planting time is somewhere between the middle of November and the middle of December, Cathy believes that the bushes for the parks and the eight flowering trees on each side will also be planted before work ends this fall. However, the cold would prevent grass seed from germinating and it is clear that no flowers or lawn seed will be planted until next spring, when the ribbon cutting and formal opening will be scheduled.
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http://www.chestersquareassociation.org/

Here is a picture of the finished park, I saw the fountains last week and unfortunalty they look kind of small
http://www.chestersquareassociation.org/media/CSquareFINALsmall.pdf
 
Off-topic, but to really restore this park, the Massachusetts Avenue cut-through should be removed. Divert the through traffic to parallel streets (Springfield, Northampton, and Lenox).
 
^Whatever happened to that scheme for depressing Massachusetts in a tunnel?
 
^ Why, that will get in the way of the upcoming Massachusetts Avenue subway line ;).
 
Re: silver traffic light poles. I've noticed in Boston and Cambridge lately that they used to use black poles and arms that match the black signals themselves. In the past year or so, all the poles and arms have been silver while everything else remains black. I don't understand why that is. It really looks horrible.
 
Black looks a lot better, I don't know why they would switch. Although, the SOM entry to the NYC streetlight design competition were very nice, very modern. There's a lecture on their website that mentions them.
 
Any one remember way back when Mayor Kevin White went to Europe and was impressed by the black traffic poles he saw. He then hired kids to pain Boston's green light and traffic poles black. Unfortunalty he didn't supply ladders so the top half remained green while the bottom half was black. They stayed that way for a least a decade.
 
Ron Newman said:
Off-topic, but to really restore this park, the Massachusetts Avenue cut-through should be removed. Divert the through traffic to parallel streets (Springfield, Northampton, and Lenox).
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Was this once a complete park and traffic circled around, like Savannah's squares?
 
Yes, just like nearby Union Park and Worcester Square. It should be restored to that state. (I'm not familiar with Savannah so I can't say for sure it's like anything there.)
 
Before work was begun on the Chester Square parks, the city found it necessary to saw off all the low lying branches of all the existing trees. The trees now appear way too tall and too skinny. They used to be nice and full and healthy looking. The effect now is one of a barren open space with an odd looking fountain stuck in the middle. If that isn't aesthetically horrible enough the same mistake is repeated on the opposite side of the street! A double eyesore whammy. They should have just left these parks alone, imo, they were better looking before the city screwed them up!
 
Why not wait till the project is complete to judge how it looks.

This was originally the largest park square in the south end with planted 20 foot malls extending an additional 2 block in one direction and one block in the other. There was a very large fountain in the middle, the fifty foot diameter basin was used as a fish pond.

There are a few house on this square that might even remind you of New Orleans. I think many of the houses in the South End had a lot of decorative iron work that was torn off for the war effort in World War II. No doubt it was pretty rusty and decayed by then

Traffic would have gone around the square, don't forget mass ave did not connect to the express way back then so there probably wasn't much traffic.

Worcester Sq use to be about 12 feet wider.

There is a fairly new book: The Garden Squares of Boston by Phebe S. Goodman.
 
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Just a concept right now and probably ridiculously expensive if they ever go into production, but I would love to see these in Boston:

11-22-08-luxofor-1.jpg
 
the SOM ones were a lot more modern...but I like those as well.
 
Wow, square lenses make this claptrap some sort of earth shattering new 'design'. Too bad round lenses were widely adopted for very practical reasons. No sharp corners if they fall off, better light refraction, easier to seal, etc. Don't let the pretty pictures and the 'uniqueness' fool you, the designs are flashy and technically utter garbage.
 
No sharp corners if they fall off? Really? I can't think of a single time that would make a difference-they're still heavy and would crush the hood of your car no matter the shape.
 
Picture getting hit in the head with grapefruit vs. getting hit in the head by a box or comparable hardness, size, and weight. The corner of the box could very easily cause severe injury and or death, in comparison to being simply knocked down by the grapefruit. Escalate the comparison to a solid shot cannonball vs. flechettes. Crushed and broken bones vs. being sliced in half or perforated.

Lesser of two evils from the nasty falling or flying object wins the safety contest in choosing a shape.

The focusing of light and the far better seal provided by circular lenses are the two major reasons why 99% of traffic lights are round. Some countries and municipalities do use different shapes for each light stage, but that is very rare.

I for one think future traffic control might come in the form of projected holograms. It's been tried in parking garages where the lighting can be kept under ideal conditions, but I don't know if anyone has tested them out in the elements.
 
Well, I guess my point is-square lights aren't that bad. And they most definitely do not pose a significant safety risk.
 
The issue still boils down to: "Why pay 2-4x the price just to change from round lenses to square ones, which will much more easily leak and fail, when we still can't afford to replace all the 1960s lights or paint all the new ones black".
 
I never suggested replacing them, but as a form for the future, they make sense. In the meantime, Boston should paint them all matte black.
 
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