Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

lynqueezy said:
I think they're installing a crane, what idk
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It's a mast climbing work platform typically used in any kind of facade repairs/upgrades.

Also looks like they're setting up for a trash chute in the background.
 
Looks like they're starting to install the permanent street vendor kiosks now
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^Heh, those weren't there when I was walking to the T at 5 PM. I was wondering what the cones and barriers were for.
 
The trouble when you say things are "permanent", they're very hard to ever get rid of.
 
I really appreciate this renewed focus on the downtown core. When I moved here a few years ago it seemed to me that it was all Kendall or all Seaport, all the time.
 
Is the sidewalk somehow wider in front of Caffe Nero than LX? Somehow they're able to squeeze in outdoor seating, whereas LX didn't (and it doesn't seem to have much room for it based on the above pic).

It would have been great if Legal's was able to put sidewalk seating on Washington Street, or at least have folding windows that can be opened up to the street in the nice weather.
 
Five ideas to fix Downtown Crossing
How Boston could rethink its most frustrating pedestrian zone

The City of Boston first closed Downtown Crossing to cars exactly 36 years ago, just in time for the holiday shopping season. At the time, the notion of pedestrianizing the intersection of Washington Street at Summer and Winter streets was visionary. Instead of dodging cars in traffic-clogged streets, shoppers and workers could stroll in the space between Filene’s and Jordan Marsh, or amble from Park Street down to their offices. The city passed out 120,000 leaflets to drivers that year, announcing the change and dubbing the intersection “Downtown Crossing” for the first time.

Today, the area feels like a job half-done. The rules about who can drive on the streets, and when, are complex and poorly enforced. Confused drivers make wrong turns. Delivery trucks nudge walkers off the pavement. Construction sites extend into the street.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/20...wn-crossing/tRCBY7hyNpGY92hkdyfZLJ/story.html
 
Has anyone else noticed the really crappy sidewalk repairs underway around DTC and Washington Street.

ADA compliant curb cuts are being installed -- large islands of concrete sidewalk cutting into the asphalt pavers and granite blocks. Missing asphalt pavers being patched with concrete infill. It all looks like a cheap ghetto patch job, not at all suitable to a new "high street" district. What gives?
 
JeffDowntown said:
Has anyone else noticed the really crappy sidewalk repairs underway around DTC and Washington Street.

ADA compliant curb cuts are being installed -- large islands of concrete sidewalk cutting into the asphalt pavers and granite blocks. Missing asphalt pavers being patched with concrete infill. It all looks like a cheap ghetto patch job, not at all suitable to a new "high street" district. What gives?
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Yes I work in DTX and have thought the same. In cases where multiple bricks are missing, they pour the concrete and then arbitrarily draw in the course lines! It looks like absolute shit.

The ADA ramps they've been installing over the past two weeks look just as bad with huge swaths of concrete instead of brick and black lumpy asphalt to make up for grade differences at the base.

The strange part is that there is are nice existing ADA ramps with bricks and grey tactile strip on the north side of Washington & Milk and when they installed the new ones on the south side of Washington & Milk, they used the new method.
 
datadyne007 said:
Yes I work in DTX and have thought the same. In cases where multiple bricks are missing, they pour the concrete and then arbitrarily draw in the course lines! It looks like absolute shit.

The ADA ramps they've been installing over the past two weeks look just as bad with huge swaths of concrete instead of brick and black lumpy asphalt to make up for grade differences at the base.

The strange part is that there is are nice existing ADA ramps with bricks and grey tactile strip on the north side of Washington & Milk and when they installed the new ones on the south side of Washington & Milk, they used the new method.
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It really makes you wonder where the Business Improvement District is in all this. Where is the design control, the planning?

Really crappy way to try to redevelop a district.
 
I suspect that they're simply complying with the law with the hope of possible new grants to redo the entire street somewhere in the future. Boston is NOT usually known for doing repairs that actually don't look like repairs. Just walk down Boylston St and look down....you better or you'll trip over all sorts of grade differences, protuberances, missing or cracked blocks, and a myriad of paving designs, one for each building. And in the winter the corner cuts for wheelchairs just get filled with icy water....great for the pedestrians who have to cross...and for the 3 wheelchairs that use the street all winter.
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
Wow, are they painting, power washing, sand blasting, or doing some sort of chemical treatment?
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I work right across from this site, and while I haven't seen them working on it, it looks like paint to me. The taller building to the right is definitely getting a thorough scrubbing though.
 
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