Harvard - Allston Campus

Harvard claims that Romar's land needs environmental mitigation of unknown amount.
 
Matthew said:
Harvard claims that Romar's land needs environmental mitigation of unknown amount.
Click to expand...

Bigtime. Not so much because of Romar, but the previous tenants of that site. Romar was just occupying previously vacated space from the site's more robust industrial days.

The yards themselves are an even thornier proposition. Soil's very contaminated from 170 years of freight yard use, and the engine yard has an old facility with fuel tanks that--while replaced often enough to probably not leak--are occupying the same sites as 70 years worth of previous diesel tanks that could leak like sieves without penalty. Plus whatever coal residue is still in the ground from the steam era. If Harvard wants mixed commercial/residential usage, it has to all be remediated to a much higher standard than the RR yard (lowest level) and/or light industry (medium-low level) it's currently zoned at. Readville Yard 5, where the NYNH&H engine shops used to be, cost a small fortune to remediate last year. And was only remediated to current RR yard regs, so if ever sold for mixed use the buyer would have to remediate again to higher regs. With how slow their efforts are dragging on the accessible Allston parcels, they've got even less motivation to do anything with the yard for 15-20 years until they've filled in every other Allston property.


This is why all parties are probably better off just renting the engine yard to the T indefinitely in as-is condition. It'll be 15 years before there's any money to remediate that site. And this is why a Pike land swap makes a lot better financial sense in the end for Harvard. Never mind real estate value with better street grid access or increased acreage. The yard wouldn't need very much soil remediation at all if they're just plopping a concrete interstate roadbed on it. Hard-packed roadbed alone seals the contamination from spreading elsewhere in the Charles Basin silt. And the vacated Pike land would have less remediation required because of its more modern construction (although there probably is some nasty runoff on the embankment) and the fact that redevelopment's probably going to re-flatten the embankments and outright remove thousands of tons of soil from the site.
 
But this is why I don't understand why they cannot use part of that land for a truck/bus maintenance facility. That doesn't need the mitigation. It's basically the same use that's already there.
 
Matthew said:
But this is why I don't understand why they cannot use part of that land for a truck/bus maintenance facility. That doesn't need the mitigation. It's basically the same use that's already there.
Click to expand...

The T did a strategic study 10 years ago on where to realign its bus facilities to balance out future loads (including Urban Ring): http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/t_projects/default.asp?id=1008. Some of them, like building at Wellington and reanimating Watertown Yard to shut some of the smaller and more neighborhood-invasive garages like Fellsway make a lot of sense. Some, like adding some capacity on the outskirts on T-owned land like Mishawum/Anderson, make a lot of sense. Some, like busting Lynn down to short-term storage, make a lot of sense. Others, like cannibalizing valuable TOD space at Riverside and invading downtown Malden and Revere, suck. And they of course shat all over JP again by shoving Arborway garage down their throats instead of doing something in a non-invasive place like Readville and just using Arborway for short-term day layovers.

But I can definitely understand why Beacon Park doesn't work so well for the available routes. Even the Harvard diesel lines would do better fed out of Watertown. And it's better for them to be doing their really hefty maintenance at a centralized location like Everett Shops or something at Readville.
 
No ... this is bus/truck maintenance for the Harvard shuttle bus. 45 vehicles operating routes in Allston and Cambridge.
 
stellarfun said:
Residents of Lower Allston, ---which begs the question of where then is Upper Allston?
Click to expand...

Upper Allston, Allston Proper, Allston Village = South of the Pike, east of Everett/Allston/Kelton Streets
Lower/North Allston = North of the Pike, east of Everett St
North Brighton = North of the Pike, west of Everett St
Brighton = Everywhere Else
 
^^ Yep pretty much, I allways considered all of Western ave Allston. But it's all a shade of gray around there, b/c I felt that the second you took a left onto Market off of Western you were in Brighton. Either way I loved both.
 
The area south of the Pike used to be called South Allston, but that name seems to have fallen out of use. And that generally excluded the area around Union Square.
 
I guess Everett is the divider on a technical level, but I agree with GW that for all intents and purposes Lower Allston extends over to Western.
 
I thought there was a differnt thread for Barrys Corner, but I couldn't find it.

After being covered with tarps all winter, the old salvation army warehouse is showing off its facelift. I thought they were building something new here? This obviously derails the rumor I had beene hearing that this was where they had the collections from the Fogg stashed.
2013-05-20_12-20-53_884_zps0559ba6a.jpg



Meanwhile, some artsy-fartsy across the street:
2013-05-13_19-09-40_436_zps7d4098d7.jpg


I hope this tree makes it when the redevelop the property:
2013-05-13_19-10-28_475_zps6f0e86d4.jpg


Depending on whether I can convince verizon to give me a new phone or not, these may be by last pics for a while. Shortly after this I crushed the lens on my phone after riding my bike into a fence. Warm weather + girls in short shorts = very bad bike riding. (I'm assuming there are no girls on this forum to creep out with this.)
 
davem said:
Warm weather + girls in short shorts = very bad bike riding.
Click to expand...

LOL, been there done that. Screwed my knee up pretty good once over a nice behind that I just had to get a proper look at. Damn it we need eyes on the back of our heads already!
 
kz1000ps said:
LOL, been there done that. Screwed my knee up pretty good once over a nice behind that I just had to get a proper look at. Damn it we need eyes on the back of our heads already!
Click to expand...

Then you'll be following two nice behinds simultaneously :)
 
To the question at hand, I thought the building was formerly a Verizon warehouse. Harvard bought it and the first project that was to be built at Barry's Corners was an art museum gallery / conservation (storage) building. There was objection from the neighborhood, one objection being that the proposed building wasn't grand enough, wouldn't be a sufficient magnet to draw people to Barry's Corner. So Harvard shelved it, and decided to rebuild / expand the Fogg instead.

I would very much doubt that the Fogg's artworks would ever be stored in the former garage.

I believe Harvard is converting the garage to now house a ceramics studio and other community-oriented uses that are currently in buildings to be demolished when the Samuels project starts on the NW corner of Barry's Corner.
 
Per some CSX employees on RR.net. . .

-- Beacon Park engine yard closing forever on Jul. 31. Next 2 weeks are last opportunities to take photos before it's vacated. Still pretty busy...driving Storrow EB on Mon. I saw 5 CSX locos in line at the fueling pad.

-- Only remaining freight activity east of Framingham is now the daily round-trip to Everett Terminal up the Grand Junction every afternoon. That run also serves Houghton Chemical behind the Doubletree once a week, and is delivering the T its new commuter rail coaches at BET.

-- Environmental engineers been doing test bores in the main yard to see what nasty contamination lurks in the soil. That assessment has to run its course before CSX can come in and start dismantling the yard, hauling away all usable scrap from the yard rail and staff sheds. Not much of value to preserve except maybe this old B&A baggage car they were using as a crew hut.

-- There is a rumor the DOT is kicking around--at barest/earliest conceptual level--the idea of straightening the Pike through the yard. Emphasis on *earliest*...too early to predict if a real study comes out of this. But somebody upstairs is thinking along the same lines what we're thinking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top