Museum Of Science Renovations | 1 Science Park | West End

If you're looking for prime, core, state-owned, transit-accessible pacels on Charles River Dam Rd. for a 800+tower, I'd suggest:
- Boston End: State Police barracks catty-corner from Science Park T
- Cambridge End: Historic (but decrepit) MDC structure

And throw in privately held:
-- Boston: 100 Nashua St Parking
-- Cambridge College building, surface lot, and scrubland @ Museum Way
 
Just want to say that @Arlington has done a great job making this point re both MOS and Aquarium, and as someone who was very skeptical of the value of these garages I've been convinced both of their necessity and their limited downside (due to high rates of carpooling). My only question would be in regards to the MFA, which is significantly less reliant on "family" traffic. However, without signifigant E Line upgrades it also has worse transit access than the others
 
FitchburgLine said:
My only question would be in regards to the MFA, which is significantly less reliant on "family" traffic. However, without signifigant E Line upgrades it also has worse transit access than the others
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We un-schooled 4 kids--which in Boston means lots of awesome trips (ranging from Sturbridge Village to "Plimoth" to Merrimack) and teaching them to take all transit (the MBTA makes it easy for homeschoolers to get student T passes, too). The E Line is simply too far from connecting to where families live in the metro area. I'd wager that the E has the most-skewed "no kid" catchment of any transit line. (GLX will partly solve this)

I hate to say this, but I wondered how much of the "kids don't go to the MFA" is "art is boring" vs bad parking. Neither is a reason to be proud of, but it seemed to me to be a self-reinforcing spiral: kids don't go to the MFA because... garage-beyond-surface-lot isn't good for exhausted kids... because the MFA is not expecting kids to come...

My (tweens) kids can take the 80 to MOS (or, really, to the Cambridgeside Mall), and we know lots of families in Somerville that take the 87/80/etc to MOS, but, even so, once a parent decides to go too, the car wins.

MOS will clearly gain from GLX...now instead of "mostly-just-the-E" you'll get both D&E and real North Station connections will be possible. But I'm an outlier. Most families live far from the MOS's transit, and so back to the garage they go...
 
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One more huge "must have garage" thing:

The Stuff:
- where to take off your coat and mittens (leave them in the car)
- where the books, stuffed animals, and "trip companion" items end up (leave them in the car)
- where the juice box(es) and puffed nonsense is stashed (leave it in the car, fetch at snack time)
- where the Exit Through the Gift Shop haul is hauled (home, via car)

The MOS has nailed this.
 
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The MOS does have rental lockers also, which in my experience are very well used.
 
cden4 said:
The MOS does have rental lockers also, which in my experience are very well used.
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All the museums have lockers (NEAq, MOS, MFA, BCM) and they are essentially recognition that people bring a lot of stuff to manage the I'm Hot/Cold Full/Hungry In/Out cycles that they experience as visitors. Young kids add even more "comfort gear" (books, plushies, screens) for the trip itself.

The MOS' directly-attached garage allows you to most clearly realize: "I've already got a locker, in the form of a car, with 10x the cubic capacity, 4x the doors, 2x the "keys" (that I already hold and know how to use), and involves less schlepping (drop and pickup at the threshhold, rather than after "the tickets"), and for which I've already paid"

So the car wins on both "stuff" and on low-carbon-per-passenger-mile and HOV urban mobility.
 
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