North Station Expansion Project

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Ron Newman

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MOVE MASSACHUSETTS

June 2006 Membership Meeting
Friday, June 16th, 8:10-9:30 AM*
Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels
One Financial Center, Eighteenth Floor, Dewey Square, Boston
(across from South Station)

North Station Expansion Project

with

Chris Maher
Vice President
Boston Garden Development Corporation


Mark Boyle
Director of Real Estate
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority


All Interested Parties Are Invited to Attend & Participate
Coffee, Tea and Juice will be served.

Please RSVP by return e-mail to danwilson1@verizon.net
to be added to the visitor's list for building services.
Photo ID is required for entry to building.


Forward this notice to other interested individuals or organizations.

*Access to the eighteenth floor and conference room is not available before 8:00 a.m.

To be removed from this mailing send your request to danwilson1@verizon.net

Dan Wilson
Executive Director
Move Massachusetts
PH 617.720.4334
FX 617.720.0404
danwilson1@verizon.net
 
Funny how this meeting about North Station is across the street from South Station.
 
Did anyone go to the dedication of the North Station annex ? How does it look? I'm curious.
 
I went. Looks OK, but nothing spectacular. It needs food stands, vendors, and a train-departures board, all of which it's eventually supposed to get. They should really have delayed the dedication until these things arrived.
 
Thanks Ron. Sounds rather spartan... oh well, what can you expect from the MBTA.
 
It will be fine once it's finished. It was just dedicated before it was finished.
 
img1700af0.jpg
 
Yeah I'm in North Station maybe once a year and had forgotten about the expansion, so when I came across it yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. Besides the above comments, my only complaint is the ceiling being all black--I think it makes the place feel a bit too dungeon-ish.
 
kz1000ps said:
Yeah I'm in North Station maybe once a year and had forgotten about the expansion, so when I came across it yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. Besides the above comments, my only complaint is the ceiling being all black--I think it makes the place feel a bit too dungeon-ish.
Click to expand...

I like it, looks very industrial
 
it's the same ceiling that was there before, when it was above railroad tracks instead of a lobby. Look up and you'll see signs saying "DANGER - Do Not Walk on Ceiling". (I am NOT making this up)
 
Ron Newman said:
it's the same ceiling that was there before, when it was above railroad tracks instead of a lobby. Look up and you'll see signs saying "DANGER - Do Not Walk on Ceiling". (I am NOT making this up)
Click to expand...

And they probably saved millions, or at least hundreds of thousands, by doing that - and the end result may look even better than if they had redone the ceiling. This is the kind of efficiency you get from a private business. I can guarantee you a T-constructed expansion project would have cost 5 times as much, not been as functional, and would have taken much longer.
 
^ When I hear stuff like that I'm always reminded of how Trump fixed up the Wollman Rink in NYC in less than four months and under budget while the city had left it in disrepair for 6 years before then and was saying it would take them 2 years to get back up and running. From the day he proposed to take over the project to the day it reopened was in total 5 1/2 months.
 
^On the other hand, nothing about this space suggests a grand entrance. Train terminals should proclaim that you've arrived; this does not.

And yes, it was probably delivered on time and under budget because it was privately built, but the T got this station in exchange for giving up an easement allowing for the construction of a larger station that would have created an entrance directly onto Causeway Street. I believe we're now stuck with those pathetic little side entrances for eternity. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Whatever's built on the Old Garden site should connect into the New Garden lobby, but Delaware North is dragging their feet about ever developing that site. A hotel would be the most logical choice.

The old North Station lobby in the Old Garden was rather plain and didn't really shout out "You've arrived!" either.
 
A hotel next to one of the two major transit hubs of Boston? I would think that a large office building would make much more sense given the fact that it would create (or more correctly, facilitate the creation) of many more jobs and would generate a lot more transit rides and riders.
 
I'm for any development that works here, but I'm not sure an office building would attract tenants. It's a considerable distance from where most other offices are in downtown Boston.

Hotels do make sense next to transit hubs.
 
I think the best use for that site would be a mixed use retail/office/hotel. The first (and maybe second) floor having a retail concourse from Causeway St to the North Station waiting room with a grocery store, a few coffee shops and restaurants and some service related outlets too (dry cleaner, flower shop, shoe repair, etc) and then mid to high rise office/hotel building(s) built above. Being a transit hub with a lot of foot traffic, a retail area there would offer commuters and area residents one stop shopping on their way to/from home/work without having to go out of their way. See Penn Station in New York (and Grand Central Terminal, to a lesser extant) and the Hauptbahnhofs in Berlin and Hamburg Germany as good examples of this sort of use.
 
The Globe said:
STARTS AND STOPS
Reader hungry for more at North Station

By Tom Long | March 8, 2007

The newly renovated North Station is "all dressed up with no place to go," according to Doug of Peabody, who expected shops and restaurants in the commuter rail station.

The rehabbed station was unveiled in February. Tables, chairs, and benches were added during the $5 million overhaul. The restrooms were upgraded, and 20,000 square feet of space was added to the concourse.

But still no shops and restaurants.

"Any info on when it might be completed?" asked Doug.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo reports that the T is awaiting the final plans for the layout of vendor locations from Delaware North, the owner of TD Banknorth Garden and a partner in the renovation. During the next six months food court- style vendors are due to be added.
Click to expand...
 
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