Harvard - Allston Campus

whighlander said:
Hate to pour cold water on the dreams

According to the IMP -- no plans in the 10 year window deal with anything other than bus stops and Hubway

I'm guessing all the digging is going to be involved with water, waste water and storm flows
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No one's taking this as anything as other than what's possible. Keep the water in the bucket Westie.
 
whighlander said:
Hate to pour cold water on the dreams

According to the IMP -- no plans in the 10 year window deal with anything other than bus stops and Hubway

I'm guessing all the digging is going to be involved with water, waste water and storm flows
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Harvard is paying for the replacement of a large-diameter stormwater interceptor sewer that runs from N. Harvard St. east to the Charles, south of Western Ave. The sewer had a major failure near N. Harvard St. last year. This is about a fifth-mile of new sewer, and to replace the sewer (work is underway) Harvard had to tear down a building at 90 Seattle St. The sewer work is being done for/by the city as the sewer is the city's responsibility, --Harvard is simply paying for it.
In the summer of 2014, a section of existing Boston Water & Sewer Commission stormwater drain pipe collapsed in the area to the north of Ray Mellone Park. This infrastructure failure resulted in a sink hole that was temporarily repaired to make the surrounding public spaces safe. While the storm drain is a City-owned facility, Harvard University has committed to replacing and upgrading the aging drain with a new storm drain. Approximately 1,000 feet of new storm drain will be installed from an existing connection off of North Harvard Street, will run through the area referred to as Rena Park north of Ray Mellone Park, and will eventually connect to an existing storm drain line west of Rotterdam Street. This new route will require the demolition of an approximately 90 by 40 foot garage building located at 90 Seattle Street. The building demolition and installation of the new storm drain are expected to be complete by November 1, 2015.
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(This ^^^^ is from the Harvard Construction Mitigation website.)

IMO, if Parsons Brinckerhoff was overkill for a demolition project, they are overkill for engineering a relatively small-diameter sewer alignment. With all the civil engineering firms in Boston, the first name that comes to Harvard's mind for a short, uncomplicated stretch of sewer is Parsons?

Harvard, much to the chagrin of many, thinks and plans long-term, and while there are no plans for a transit tunnel in the next ten years, Harvard might want to preserve the option of such in a more distant timeframe. And if Harvard intends building on the old Charlesview site in the next ten years, it might want to preserve/provide for a tunnel alignment before building whatever it intends to build on the old Charlesview site.

I think a definitive answer for Parsons' presence would be found if Harvard were cutting in a tunnel alignment on the east side of the science complex. Harvard's contractor has been working around the completed foundation of the science complex for about a year, which seems to be a rather prolonged period for a mothballed site. This week's work on the east side of the science complex.
Work will continue on Western Ave and Rotterdam Street.
Minor traffic impacts will occur, signage will be in place to assist with pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
This activity will require drilling, generating noise throughout the day.
Concrete will be poured throughout the week.
Waterproofing activities will take place.
Materials will be removed from the site daily.
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Saying this knowing full well that it's not on Harvard's horizon:

Harvard University could easily pay for the GLX-Harvard project in full, including any and all tunnels, river crossings, infrastructure relocation and Red Line connection, all by itself with minimal hits to their endowment.

This is a matter of politics and institutional inertia. If Harvard decides to move on this someday, it gets done (though obviously they'll stonewall to get the Commonwealth/Feds to pay for as much as possible).
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Saying this knowing full well that it's not on Harvard's horizon:

Harvard University could easily pay for the GLX-Harvard project in full, including any and all tunnels, river crossings, infrastructure relocation and Red Line connection, all by itself with minimal hits to their endowment.

This is a matter of politics and institutional inertia. If Harvard decides to move on this someday, it gets done (though obviously they'll stonewall to get the Commonwealth/Feds to pay for as much as possible).
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Busses -- absolutely agree

While this is not the place for the general discussion -- I've argued for years that the great university endowments should be used for major investments in facilities and support infrastructure -- particularly for building research facilities without waiting for a spot at the federal trough
 
stellarfun said:
Harvard is paying for the replacement of a large-diameter stormwater interceptor sewer that runs from N. Harvard St. east to the Charles, south of Western Ave. The sewer had a major failure near N. Harvard St. last year. This is about a fifth-mile of new sewer, and to replace the sewer (work is underway) Harvard had to tear down a building at 90 Seattle St. The sewer work is being done for/by the city as the sewer is the city's responsibility, --Harvard is simply paying for it.

(This ^^^^ is from the Harvard Construction Mitigation website.)

IMO, if Parsons Brinckerhoff was overkill for a demolition project, they are overkill for engineering a relatively small-diameter sewer alignment. With all the civil engineering firms in Boston, the first name that comes to Harvard's mind for a short, uncomplicated stretch of sewer is Parsons?

Harvard, much to the chagrin of many, thinks and plans long-term, and while there are no plans for a transit tunnel in the next ten years, Harvard might want to preserve the option of such in a more distant timeframe. And if Harvard intends building on the old Charlesview site in the next ten years, it might want to preserve/provide for a tunnel alignment before building whatever it intends to build on the old Charlesview site.

I think a definitive answer for Parsons' presence would be found if Harvard were cutting in a tunnel alignment on the east side of the science complex. Harvard's contractor has been working around the completed foundation of the science complex for about a year, which seems to be a rather prolonged period for a mothballed site. This week's work on the east side of the science complex.
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Stel that work is most probably the 72" diameter interceptor for surface water runoff which is discussed in some detail in the IMP see page 226, etc.
Harvard has constructed new drainage facilities in the area, including new 12- to 36-inch drains in Western Avenue, a 72-inch drain in the roadways around the perimeter of the Science project, and stormwater management facilities in Ray Mellone Park, including a grassed channel and leaching manhole.
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-- I think that some of the electrical and high pressure steam lines are likely to pass through as well

Other work could be related to the sink hole as noted in Stel's post -- obviously not part of the 2013 IMP

If someone wants to see the scope of the utilities work needed to support modern research and development I call their attention to the very explicit continuing story of the building of the MIT.nano facility

https://mitnano.mit.edu/campus-updates/0710-construction-update
from the 6/26 construction update
As you may have noticed from the outside looking in, the activity on the site has changed focus over the last few weeks. We are in the final stage of the utility enabling phase at the same time we are ramping up for the building phase.

Some interesting facts related to the Enabling phase:
  • Over 20,000 lf of rigid conduit installed
  • 2,100 lf of welded Chilled Water Pipe installed
  • 250 X-rayed welds completed and tested
  • Over 2,500 lf of Civil Piping installed (water, drain, sewer)

photo1-2015-0626.jpg

Final connections of 30” CHW lines at Central Utilities Plant
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In the great tradition of MENS et MANUS -- MIT is teaching how to design and construct a beyond state of the art research facility while its being done
 
Harvard Discusses Coming Plans on Alston Science Complex:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/16/new-allston-plans-revealed/

This has no renders yet but supposedly they're coming in a few weeks. The science building has been revised down from four smaller buildings into one, but Harvard officials claiming the new plans remain within the planning principals, more or less, of what was started earlier.

The new iteration of science center will not be only post-grad and research focus, but will also serve undergrads.

Allston residents present at Tuesday's meeting said they were concerned about undergraduates flooding the available parking spaces around the complex.
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Huh? Harvard undergrads all have cars, and will drive them across the river to go to class? I don't know the car-owning percentage of Harvard undergrads but it seems improbable at best that this concern would be realized.

There's also some mention of the new Klarman Hall discussed previously in this thread.
 
The car-owning percentage of Harvard undergraduates must be very low. After securing a parking permit, undergraduates are allowed to park, on a space available basis, at the garage at One Western Ave. That garage is within spitting distance of the science complex. I suppose an undergraduate could try parking off-campus somewhere in Cambridge, or paying for garage space off-campus, but still, the hassle of doing that isn't worth being able to commute to class.
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On Parsons Brinckerhoff and the old Charlesview site. Indeed, the current IMP states that Harvard has installed a six foot diameter interceptor sewer for stormwater around the science complex. Harvard notes that the city asked if Harvard would consider extending the sewer to North Harvard St., and thus help alleviate occasional flooding in Allston apparently south of Western Ave. Harvard did not do so because hydraulic studies determined the flooding stemmed from undersized collection sewers, and a six foot interceptor sewer at N. Harvard St. wouldn't solve the flooding problem.

IIRC, the first IMP proposed creating a drainage brook from about N. Harvard to the Charles, following the path of an old streambed, long since buried. A restoration of bucolic 18th Century Allston. Harvard seems to have thought better of it.
 
Sweet Jesus, finally. I worked on this with a former company a couple years ago. It was ready to go then and it should be ready to go now.
 
Is this where the 4 cranes were before ? what was the original plan(rendering)?
 
Boston02124 said:
Is this where the 4 cranes were before ? what was the original plan(rendering)?
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This is where Harvard finished the underground garage, utilities, and then suspended work at grade level with the concrete slab. Harvard basically mothballed the site, covered and weatherproofed all the cuts in the slab.

This looks nothing like the original design, which had a set of (four?) smaller-sized, interconnected buildings.
 
Some fun nuggets on the building:

One of the plan’s notable features is a skin that will wrap around the facades of the building’s upper four stories and reflect sunlight during the summer and let light in during the winter. According to Noblett, planners are still conducting research on the skin’s technology and have not yet decided what material will comprise it.

The building will also include a water drainage system to store and recycle water for future use, as well as a system that will reflect light from south side of the building to create grade-level flood lighting on the north sidewalk, according to the plans. According to Autler, the southernmost end of the property will be landscaped, but remain open for potential future developments.
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