Copley Square Revamp | Back Bay

From the cheapest of seats here but it would have been nice to see the partial pedestrianization of that section of Dartmouth Street to create a strong common between BPL and Copley. Understanding that this is a strong and important vehicular node in the City but could have gotten away with a slower pavement treatment in this area and some better pedestrian crossings. I also don't see that right turn lane onto Boylston as mission critical for the area.

Preservation of the existing fountain is a win.
 
CancelEuclid said:
Preservation of the existing fountain is a win.
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Definitely. Not sure wtf is up with Boston and fountains -- I get that the cold weather is an issue, but Chicago and NYC don't seem to have the same "fountain problem" (as in: 1) very few throughout the city; 2) frequently completely broken or noticably compromised). Been frustrating my entire life. I am glad that some version of the current fountain is going to remain, rather than the much smaller new fountain proposal of just a few weeks ago.
 
CancelEuclid said:
From the cheapest of seats here but it would have been nice to see the partial pedestrianization of that section of Dartmouth Street to create a strong common between BPL and Copley. Understanding that this is a strong and important vehicular node in the City but could have gotten away with a slower pavement treatment in this area and some better pedestrian crossings. I also don't see that right turn lane onto Boylston as mission critical for the area.

Preservation of the existing fountain is a win.
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Thats a cool idea. I think knocking out st james ave and trinity pl creating a superblock consisting of the hancock, trinity church, and fairmount copley could be an interesting take on it too. Huntington ave could start at dartmouth st instead of st james ave. Or you could add the bpl into the superblock and get rid of the short diagonal piece of huntington ave. Theres definitely a few good posibilities that could be interesting in the future.
 
dirtywater said:
The Copley Square redesign has been revised and updated and, in my opinion, improved. See the design update here, a short video here, and the City's project page here. I really like that they are keeping the existing fountain, but enhancing it. I was skeptical before, but now think this will be a win for the neighborhood and the City.
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MUCH better. And it appears more science has gone into all aspects, given Boston's harsh winters, skateboarders, and seasonal usage. Great for the farmers' market too.
 
Flipping the grass and the hardscape makes a ton of sense. What makes even more sense is closing Dartmouth Street and creating a much bigger, European style plaza bookended by two grand buildings on each end. It would probably become the pre-eminent public space in Boston.
 
This ^^^^^ And it'd really only amount to closing that one block of Dartmouth, so while I get that traffic patterns would be altered by such a change, it feels like the "disruption" would be minor and managable.
 
BronsonShore said:
What makes even more sense is closing Dartmouth Street and creating a much bigger, European style plaza bookended by two grand buildings on each end. It would probably become the pre-eminent public space in Boston.
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And if that's not determined to be feasible, they should reduce the width of Dartmouth St there by one or two lanes. Maybe resurface it with pavers or granite blocks and line it with bollards to discourage drivers from going too fast through there. There's no reason for a three lane high speed roadway to exist there.
 
Close that one block of Dartmouth to open things up a bit more as already mentioned. Remove the parking on both sides of Blagden - remove parking on both sides of Exeter from Blagden to Boylston and make that block two-way and that should take care of any issues on routing traffic with the block of Dartmouth being closed.
 
Roxxma said:
And if that's not determined to be feasible, they should reduce the width of Dartmouth St there by one or two lanes. Maybe resurface it with pavers or granite blocks and line it with bollards to discourage drivers from going too fast through there. There's no reason for a three lane high speed roadway to exist there.
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building on this, drop Dartmouth to 2 lanes in the Copley Sq block and then reconfigure the block south of there between the Westin and Fairmont in which today's configuration of left-left-island-straight-straight-straight (from west-to east) is replaced with left-left-straight-straight, offering traffic calming for entering Huntington Ave Westbound and (especially) the I-90 onramp. This would eliminate that island on Dartmouth, and offer a better streetscape experience.
 
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This feels like a waste of money. Much like the city hall plaza redo. Feel like we can appropriate these funds in a much better ways.
 
It's the preeminent square in the Bay Bay if not all of Boston. Why do you feeling a much needed refresh to be a waste of money?
 
BronsonShore said:
Flipping the grass and the hardscape makes a ton of sense. What makes even more sense is closing Dartmouth Street and creating a much bigger, European style plaza bookended by two grand buildings on each end. It would probably become the pre-eminent public space in Boston.
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The city could start by creating temporary structures similar to when Times Square was pedestrianized to see how traffic flows before creating a new plaza.
 
BosDevelop said:
Do they really need to start this right in the middle of the summer, the square's most active time of year? It can't wait for fall/winter to start?
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I think the idea is to have it ready for Spring 2024. My guess is that doing it all in one shot requires a 6 - 9 month construction window?
 
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cburns said:
I think the idea is to have it ready for Spring 2024. My guess is that doing it all in one shot requires a 6 - 9 month construction window?
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Start in September and finish in March-June. And why would it need to be done by spring when it is 45 degrees, raining and no one wants to spend more time outside than nececssary? Unless this takes more than 9 months to complete, the timing makes no sense to me.
 
BosDevelop said:
Start in September and finish in March-June. And why would it need to be done by spring when it is 45 degrees, raining and no one wants to spend more time outside than nececssary? Unless this takes more than 9 months to complete, the timing makes no sense to me.
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Given the heat surge this summer, it’s not a great space to really linger for long periods of time anyway.
 
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