Commonwealth Pier Revitalization (née Seaport WTC)| 200 Seaport Boulevard | Seaport

[Longfellow]

All the new MBTA stations have the Y roof design and my answer is no, I wonder if the idea is either A) it lets you make the middle a gutter and keeps water from dripping onto the walkway or B) so that it rains on homeless people trying to sleep there. Cause in my experience rain + typical Boston wind means the Y roof does absolutely nothing.

 

[HelloBostonHi]

I wonder if the idea is either A) it lets you make the middle a gutter and keeps water from dripping onto the walkway or B) so that it rains on homeless people trying to sleep there. Cause in my experience rain + typical Boston wind means the Y roof does absolutely nothing.

In Boston a big consideration is not wanting the potential of ice falling onto people which can be quite dangerous sometimes.

Went by today though and I do think this bridge area is going to be quite nice, especially compared to what it was.

 

[Blackbird]

In Boston a big consideration is not wanting the potential of ice falling onto people which can be quite dangerous sometimes.

Isn’t there a better way of doing that that doesn’t impact the roof’s ability to keep off sun/rain?

Make them heated? Or just have them curve upward at the ends?

 

[Bill Blass]

The Chinese had the answer all along!

 

[Blackbird]

The Chinese had the answer all along!

They’re in Korea, Japan, etc. too. But yeah, that was what I was thinking of.

Not sure if it can stop icicles, but I imagine it at least keeps the hardened/frozen snow from sliding off in chunks on top of people.

 

[Bill Blass]

Since they’re the mother culture of that part of the world I give them credit. But the upwards turned ends came from a desire to let in more natural light, given the types of construction and engineering they had. If you look at reconstructions of older buildings from the Shang Dynasty and even some early Zhou, they look much more like giant “huts” with standard pyramidal prism looking roofs, before they started getting really sophisticated as we associate with them today.

 

[JeffDowntown]

All the new MBTA stations have the Y roof design and my answer is no, I wonder if the idea is either A) it lets you make the middle a gutter and keeps water from dripping onto the walkway or B) so that it rains on homeless people trying to sleep there. Cause in my experience rain + typical Boston wind means the Y roof does absolutely nothing.

In truth, given the high average wind speed in Boston, no roof-alone design is going to give very much rain/sleet/snow protection.

The Y design has several benefits, and it not really any worse than any other design that is not a full shelter.

Center line drainage -- only one drain to install (lower cost).
Water does not drain off on the platform/train interface line -- creating a wall of water to enter or exit the train through.
Ice stays up on top and melts rather than falling on passengers and trains.

But roof-only shelters are about as useful as umbrellas in Boston (meaning not very useful).