Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

It's dense and defines a Tufts Square. I like it. Really, though, they ought to go ahead and rough in plans for a real pedestrian-level streetfront on the College Hill slope between this building (on Boston Ave) and where the Memorial Steps cascade down to College Ave
150427_memorial_steps_L.JPG

They've got the workings of a Roman hilltop village. the sloping lawn in useless, might as well build themselves a real Spanish Steps
spanish-steps-rome.jpg
 
^I actually disagree. I think it works well for the "Tufts" image. The open fields and dramatic institutional buildings set amidst an oasis.
 
bigeman312 said:
^I actually disagree. I think it works well for the "Tufts" image. The open fields and dramatic institutional buildings set amidst an oasis.
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Well Tufts' need to put posts with big banners at the corners of its campus is the tip-off that a random collection of buildings and grass has failed to make an identifiable place or identifiable entry.

And in the long run, the reputation of Tufts depends on the teachers and labs that go inside buildings.
 
Arlington said:
Well Tufts' need to put posts with big banners at the corners of its campus is the tip-off that a random collection of buildings and grass has failed to make an identifiable place or identifiable entry.
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I don't see how this is relevant. Nearly every college does this. Tufts addresses way-finding needs. Good.

Arlington said:
And in the long run, the reputation of Tufts depends on the teachers and labs that go inside buildings.
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Of course. No argument here.
 
bigeman312 said:
I don't see how this is relevant. Nearly every college does this. Tufts addresses way-finding needs. Good.
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Trying to "arrive" at Tufts is nearly impossible. No matter which end you start on, you are confronted with spaces that don't answer the question "Am I There Yet?" (they also don't answer "Am I Done Yet"). Pass around the hill on Boston Ave or College Ave and you've seen nothing. Traverse Professor's Row and you'll be wondering "was that it?" Go up and over and down again on Curtis or Packard and you still won't know. Its a total Suburban "no there there" disaster (as a visitor, anyway). There's no Old Main Hall (as Land Grant schools have), no Building 10/Rotunda-Lawn, no "theme Chapel" (eg Air Force Academy Chapel or Duke U chapel).

Tufts quacks like an office park.

Compare that to Harvard Square and the easy/obvious passing into Harvard Yard. You know you've arrived. And when you pass out the other side, you know you've left and can say "I've been there" (or find Memorial Chapel / Sever Hall-Quad and have a sense of "this is the extension of that" )

Tufts' problem is, of course, made worse by "Davis Sq/ Tufts University" stop which, except for being crawling with young people, has not even a whiff of Academic Village about it (unless a diesel shuttle is sputtering by).
 
Arlington said:
Trying to "arrive" at Tufts is nearly impossible. No matter which end you start on, you are confronted with spaces that don't answer the question "Am I There Yet?" (they also don't answer "Am I Done Yet"). Pass around the hill on Boston Ave or College Ave and you've seen nothing. Traverse Professor's Row and you'll be wondering "was that it?" Go up and over and down again on Curtis or Packard and you still won't know. Its a total Suburban "no there there" disaster (as a visitor, anyway). There's no Old Main Hall (as Land Grant schools have), no Building 10/Rotunda-Lawn, no "theme Chapel" (eg Air Force Academy Chapel or Duke U chapel).

Tufts quacks like an office park.

Compare that to Harvard Square and the easy/obvious passing into Harvard Yard. You know you've arrived. And when you pass out the other side, you know you've left and can say "I've been there" (or find Memorial Chapel / Sever Hall-Quad and have a sense of "this is the extension of that" )

Tufts' problem is, of course, made worse by "Davis Sq/ Tufts University" stop which, except for being crawling with young people, has not even a whiff of Academic Village about it (unless a diesel shuttle is sputtering by).
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I agree with your assessment (based on StreetView - I've never made it to Tufts), but I'm not sure that building over the hillside is the answer. This building will help. I don't think it's an accident that the school is putting "TUFTS UNIVERSITY" in enormous letters on the side - placemaking is part of the point here.
 
Fair points. I happen to disagree with every single one of them, and experience the campus in a very different way than you do. I compare it to BC's campus in the way that you are wandering through a "Campus" in the truest sense of the word. You get the feeling that you are on a field on a hill with an assortment of institutional buildings sprinkled in. It does not have a central orientation, like Harvard, or an urban atmosphere, like (BU?), but I think it works. It's their brand. I agree with Equilibria that the TUFTS UNIVERSITY signage has less to do with letting people realize they are "there," and more to do with place-making. Way-finding was the wrong term for me to use.
 
Equilibria said:
I agree with your assessment (based on StreetView - I've never made it to Tufts), but I'm not sure that building over the hillside is the answer. This building will help. I don't think it's an accident that the school is putting "TUFTS UNIVERSITY" in enormous letters on the side - placemaking is part of the point here.
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Tufts is currently working on three construction projects within 150 meters of this site, and two of them are pretty significant:

-The Memorial Steps are being removed and replaced, to be completed December 2015.
-A new Central Energy Plant is under construction on Boston Ave, to be completed Summer 2016.
-A 175k sq ft Science and Engineering Complex is under construction at the corner of Boston and College Aves, to be completed Summer 2017.

This corner of campus should look fairly different in the next couple of years, even without an air-rights building over the Green Line.

(Time for a Tufts-specific thread?)

Edit: The University also just finished converting a 95k sq ft industrial building down the street into the new Collaborative Learning and Innovation Complex at 574 Boston Ave. If you include that it makes four construction projects in the area.
 
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What is the ped bridge connected to on the hill - a building? Or does it just empty onto the green?
 
MBTAddict said:
What is the ped bridge connected to on the hill - a building? Or does it just empty onto the green?
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If it ended in a building, it would be the Tisch School (it seems). Then again, the addition to that building looks tired, so maybe there's another project tied to this.
 
I really love that design. If they build it it will really define the area and be a great terminal building.
 
I'm curious to see what the "back" looks like as you come down Boston Ave from the northwest.

Equilibria said:
If it ended in a building, it would be the Tisch School (it seems). Then again, the addition to that building looks tired, so maybe there's another project tied to this.
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Yeah, it looks like the bridge would run right into Lincoln Filene Hall. Lincoln Filene is an awkward mid-century addition to Braker Hall that houses mostly office space for the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. I wouldn't be surprised to see it rebuilt as part of this project.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
I really love that design. If they build it it will really define the area and be a great terminal building.
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And it just begs for another air-rights building on the final "lower playing fields" corner of the intersection (or at least something on top of the surface parking facing the athletics buildings) to get themselves a real Tufts Square.
 
Looks good. Would it drastically reduce costs if each headhouse had a similar design or each site so different that individual designs are required anyway?
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Looks good. Would it drastically reduce costs if each headhouse had a similar design or each site so different that individual designs are required anyway?
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Each site's unique, so probably no. Less-grandiose/more-utilitarian designs would be the cost-reducer, but that ship has long since sailed as far as GLX is concerned.
 
I think it'd be great if the MBTA came up with some sort of standard design for future infill stations based off of the H.H. Richardson pavilions that used to line the Worcester Line.

Auburndale:
Auburndale_station_1959_HAER_1.jpg


Wellesley:
WellesleyDepot.jpg


North Easton (still standing):
OldColonyDepot.jpg


The old Somerville Highlands (now Cedar St) station was done in a different style but also very cool.
Somerville_Highlands_station_1907_postcard.jpg
 
But then even those aren't all uniform. I guess it makes sense since Boston has historically had a tradition of going with ornate or different;y designed stations. The exception is the original elevated Orange Line stations designed by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., though even the terminals at Dudley Sullivan Sq and Forest Hills had different designs.
 
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