Josiah Quincy Upper School | 900 Washington Street | Chinatown

Big crane assembled on site!

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Nothing too exciting - just consistent work and progress on this project since groundbreaking.

I still think the adjacent highway air rights parcels would have been a good place to rebuild the lower and upper schools, and/or local library, park, community center, etc. - a good place for low-rise buildings funded in part by selling high-rise development rights to the terra firma parcels.

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Blasting carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and who knows what terrible particulates into classrooms 180 days a year.
 
While I'm in no way excusing the idea that this area has high air pollution, I have 3 thoughts on that. 1st) all of Chinatown suffers from this level of air pollution, it's not like Kneeland St is some air quality oasis, 2nd) during the expected lifetime of this building (50+.years) all transportation will go electric, thus mitigating both air and noise pollution and 3rd) also within that lifetime chances are better than zero that the Pike will be decked.
 
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Cortes said:
While I'm in no way excusing the idea that this area has high air pollution, I have 3 thoughts on that. 1st) all of Chinatown suffers from this level of air pollution, it's not like Kneeland St is some air quality oasis, 2nd) during the expected lifetime of this building (50+.years) all transportation will go electric, thus mitigating both air and noise pollution and 3rd) also within that lifetime chances are better than zero that the Pike will be decked.
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Bingo. That's exactly what I was about to post - - -this will be predominantly electric/hydrogen in 12 years anyway.

"Don't skate at the puck, skate to where the puck is going to be" Gretzky.
 
shmessy said:
Bingo. That's exactly what I was about to post - - -this will be predominantly electric/hydrogen in 12 years anyway.

"Don't skate at the puck, skate to where the puck is going to be" Gretzky.
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This will be a great relief for the children who are attending these schools right now.
 
Cortes said:
While I'm in no way excusing the idea that this area has high air pollution, I have 3 thoughts on that. 1st) all of Chinatown suffers from this level of air pollution, it's not like Kneeland St is some air quality oasis, 2nd) during the expected lifetime of this building (50+.years) all transportation will go electric, thus mitigating both air and noise pollution and 3rd) also within that lifetime chances are better than zero that the Pike will be decked.
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A huge proportion of vehicle traffic noise and air pollution will not go away with electric vehicles. Most vehicle noise is generated by the friction of the tires against the asphalt, and a good chunk of the air pollution is the result of micropollutants from brake pad and tire deterioration.

airqualitynews.com

Air pollution from brake pads as bad for the lungs as diesel exhausts

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that originates from brake pads may be just as bad for the lungs as PM2.5 from diesel exhausts, a study has suggested. Brake pad emissions make up a fifth of PM2.5 air pollution at roadsides, and…
airqualitynews.com airqualitynews.com
 
king_vibe said:
This will be a great relief for the children who are attending these schools right now.
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You seem to be under the impression that these children live in Yellowstone National Park right now and not in the middle of a city with garbage trucks, dump trucks, cars all around. In fact, idling gas vehicles at stop lights or waiting at corners are far worse for the environment than those driving through at speed.

Last time I checked, not too many of these kids were harvesting wheat before heading to school in the morning.

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shmessy said:
You seem to be under the impression that these children live in Yellowstone National Park right now and not in the middle of a city with garbage trucks, dump trucks, cars all around. In fact, idling gas vehicles at stop lights or waiting at corners are far worse for the environment than those driving through at speed.

Last time I checked, not too many of these kids were harvesting wheat before heading to school in the morning.

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The Mass Turnpike is famous for not having traffic.
 
king_vibe said:
The Mass Turnpike is famous for not having traffic.
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What's your point? That Boston's city streets are pristine clean air environments for these children? - - that no trucks, busses, cars are clogging up the neighborhoods, idling and accelerating, idling and accelerating.......?

Sorry, but it's obvious you did not think this through. Being 200 feet from the sunken turnpike is no worse environmentally for these kids than being 20 feet from a city street with cars, trucks and busses stopping/idling/accelerating/stopping/idling/accelerating....There's FAR more trapped exhaust belch between building at stoplights than on the open turnpike.

It is not a change. These kids already are exposed every single moment. The only change will occur when the city of Boston finally bans fossil fuel vehicles from the city limits. Until then, these kids ain't being bussed in from Charlie Ingles Little House on the Prairie.

Now if they were putting new schools in Charlton, MA next to the Turnpike, you'd have a legit delta variable argument.

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I want to try to clarify what we're discussing here - is it that presence of the I-90 highway is the MINORITY CONTRIBUTOR to Chinatown air pollution or that it is NOT AN ADDED HARM to the Chinatown community beyond the surface roads? The former may have some scientific backing in that the trench entraps some particles meaning the surface roads are a majority particular contributor, while the latter is totally untrue - in that the proximity to the highway does make the problem worse. I think most posters are not "for" the problems caused by surface road pollution, and are "against" the added harms caused by the highway.

You can see in Figure 6 (bottom panels for Chinatown) of this publication that there is high urban background pollution in Boston's Chinatown, but close proximity to the highway - for instance, this school in question - makes the problem worse. Even if the Pike is only (arbitrary out-the-ass number) 20% contributor to local air pollution, removing 20% of a local contributor to air pollution seems better than not doing so. And #bancars is right that car-caused air pollution goes far beyond just exhaust but relates to tire wear, brake pads, and kicked-up particulates as well, which would be unaffected by a 100% transition to EV cars.

Spatial and temporal differences in traffic-related air pollution in three urban neighborhoods near an interstate highway
In Somerville and Chinatown, concentrations of all seven pollutants were higher near I-93 compared to urban background

The effects of I-93 traffic volume were not the same for all pollutants in the three near-highway neighborhoods. PNC increased sharply in the three neighborhoods when traffic volumes were >∼9000 vehicles/hr, particularly during the morning rush hour when winds were lightest and (presumably) mixing height was lowest.

TRAP concentrations generally increased with highway proximity, consistent with I-93 as a major source

In addition, examination of concentration patterns indicated contributions from major surface roads were often comparable in magnitude to contributions from highways. This effect was largest in Dorchester and Chinatown, where at-grade traffic on major roads may have had more influence than direct emissions from I-93 and I-90.

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Fig. 6. Spearman correlations of pollutants (hourly median) by study area.
Inter-pollutant correlations varied by neighborhood. Spearman correlations were higher among the gases (NO, NOX, and CO) and lower among particulate pollutants (Fig. 6). PNC was more highly correlated with the gases than with measures of particle mass. The correlations of NO with NOX were consistently high in both near-highway and urban background areas in Somerville, Dorchester, and Chinatown/Malden. In general, correlations were lower in Dorchester than in other areas; the only correlation greater than 0.7 in the Dorchester near-highway area was for NO and NOX (0.93). In contrast, the Somerville near-highway area had high correlations for many pollutant pairs, including NOX and CO (0.76), NOx and pPAH (0.83), and NOx and PNC (0.80). As expected, PM2.5 was not highly correlated with other pollutants in any of the study areas.
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In addition, despite the chunky zones, you can see in Figure 1 of this study a clear association of the highest ultrafine particle concentrations with I-90 and I-93:
An exploratory analysis of sociodemographic characteristics with ultrafine particle concentrations in Boston, MA
Fig 1 shows modeled UFP number concentrations by block group. Generally, UFP concentrations were highest in the northern portion of the study area, corresponding to the busiest areas of downtown Boston and the convergence of I-90 and I-93.

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Fig 1. Spatial distribution of UFP concentrations at the block-group level in Boston, MA.
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Break pad particulates at least should be reduced by regenerative breaking that electric vehicles all have, as I find that traditional brakes are barely used when there's regenerative breaking.
 
The designers and architects of the Josiah Quincy Upper School are fully aware of the lower air quality in the area around the school. (Very well documented through multiple Tufts University CAFAE Studies -- the science is real). 300,000 vehicles per day on the Pike and I-93 (only a block away) combined have a much greater toll on air quality than any urban street alone.

The design incorporates advanced air filtration for the interior spaces. That, unfortunately, does not help the outdoor activity areas (all rooftop I believe).

bankerandtradesman.com

Chinatown School Designs Put Environmental Equity at Forefront

With the Mass. Pike right outside, keeping pollution out of Boston’s newest public-school building was a top priority for HMFH Architects.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com
 
Chickenman said:
Break pad particulates at least should be reduced by regenerative breaking that electric vehicles all have, as I find that traditional brakes are barely used when there's regenerative breaking.
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Do you mean one-pedal drive, a quasi-manual drive feature, because that considerably reduces brake use. Regen braking relies on the driver to practice well-timed and proper deceleration, it doesn't change how the car reacts. I drive an electric car and I go through brakes faster than in past ICE vehicles, though this whip's faster than my first time, so the brake jobs are likely because it's too damn fun.
 
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