Harvard Square in Allston?

[Beton Brut]

Now that everyone has done their several years of fiddling, squabbling and grandstanding, Harvard-in-Allston is stone dead, and everyone involved ends up with less than nothing.

Reminds me of Carolyn Forche:

We have, each of us, nothing.
We will give it to each other.

 

[ablarc]

^ Such a sad quotation.

 

[Beton Brut]

^ Agreed. Forche self-identifies as a "poet of witness" (in her case, to the abuses and misdeeds of governments on their citizens).

Who will tell the sad history of all our lost opportunities in this benighted burg?

 

[stellarfun]

The community's reaction to the next iteration of the Charlesview plans may say much about how much they really want Harvard and Allston to be stitched together.

Many in the community will be happy only with a housing and population density as it is now,

As for Barry's Corner, some Allstonites object to Harvard placing its indoor athletic venues on the NW corner. I think Harvard's rationale is doing that will bring some students and fans to the area after dark. The athletic venues would be a counterpoint to the daytime use of the museum(s) on the NE corner. Perhaps, the culture quadrant will have a performance hall, or a movie theater or two. (Faust is big on building the visual arts at Harvard.)

Google now has street view of Paris. Some pictures of how the Sorbonne is stitched together with its neighborhood.

From the front steps of the Sorbonne looking north (pretty sterile):

From the front steps of the Sorbonne looking west:

From Boul Mich, looking in the opposite direction to the picture above.

44 Boul Mich looking south and north from the axis of place de la Sorbonne

Various views of place Edmond Rostand, a sort of Barry's Corner intersection. Near the Sorbonne.

place Edmond Rostand at the entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens.

An observation. Note the street wall, note the density.
____________________________________________________________

By contrast, a look at the bucolic retail and entertainment heart of South Hadley MA, across the street from the bucolic campus of Mount Holyoke. Owned by Mount Holyoke, BTW.

No polling, please, of North Allstonites as to which kind of development they would prefer.

 

[Ron Newman]

I don't know South Hadley well, but both Amherst and Northampton strike me as good college towns, with campus and commercial district near each other.

 

[garbribre]

Not that South Hadley couldn't have worked, looking more rock solid, and I mean that metaphorically, but it's suitable for its environment. Holyoke and Sorbonne are not comparable physical and population places, I mean, really.

Harvard's Allston plan to Sorbonne--yeah, that could work in terms of the density, streetwalls, integration with town and gown. (Eeech, I hate that phrase! Why did I use it?) Good model. Preferable in Allston to Holyoke.

 

[czsz]

Even Harvard Square doesn't feel like the Left Bank, which is more comparable in feel (if not density) to New York. The physical composition of Harvard is more in tune with Oxford and Cambridge...which also draw a dramatic contrast to what I'm sure the North Allstonites would prefer.

 

[blade_bltz]

Yes, I'm in Oxford right now and the similarities to Harvard are evident. It is far too dense and urban for North Allston, especially since most of the centrally located green space is enclosed in college quadrangles, or exclusive to some sporting team etc etc. You can't go around picnic-ing and walking your dog on the cricket club's green/pitch/whatever - you'll get deported. There's nothing comparable to the Yard, or whatever public space they would put in Allston.

 

[garbribre]

And blade... where are your pictures? Hmmmm....?

I would disagree that it would be too dense of a model for Allston. This is just what Allston needs and the adjoining neighborhoods should want.

In the preliminary drawings that I saw, it seemed as dense, with taller profiles along the streetwalls than current Harvard Square. I'd have to look back in this thread to see what the neighborhood groups have asked for, to water the original plans down. I am woefully behind--two years or more.

 

[stellarfun]

And blade... where are your pictures? Hmmmm....?

I would disagree that it would be too dense of a model for Allston. This is just what Allston needs and the adjoining neighborhoods should want.

In the preliminary drawings that I saw, it seemed as dense, with taller profiles along the streetwalls than current Harvard Square. I'd have to look back in this thread to see what the neighborhood groups have asked for, to water the original plans down. I am woefully behind--two years or more.

The neighborhood prefers something like this alternative, prepared for them I guess pro bono by an urban planner. This is an alternative site plan for Charlesview on the Brighton Mills site; IMO, more South Hadley than the Left Bank.

See:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/06/22/neighborhood_sets_its_vision_to_a_color_map/

 

[ablarc]

^ Laughable.

 

[underground]

^Seriously.!

Harvard: So what are you guy's thinking you'd like?

Neighborhood: BUILD US WELLESLEY!!!