Northeastern University - Institutional Master Plan

FK4 said:
Is there a ramp onto that bridge, tho? All I see on the Huntington side is a staircase.
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There's a glass walled elevator just to the left in the photos. Less convenient than a ramp but understandably difficult to fit a ramp with ADA compliant grades in this limited space.
 
reverend_paco said:
No. No ramp. They didn't want me biking through. :|
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1. That’s incredibly shitty and I don’t understand why they would leave that out and

2. How is this possibly ADA compliant? It looks like there may be a way into the adjacent building from above, but that still seems noncompliant to me.
 
FK4 said:
1. That’s incredibly shitty and I don’t understand why they would leave that out and
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Agreed, that would have been a good spot to cut from Columbus/Tremont corridor over to Huntington. However, Northeastern might legitimately have an interest in preventing a bike highway through campus. I certainly would have used it, though Ruggles St. is going to get a bike route in the near future.
2. How is this possibly ADA compliant? It looks like there may be a way into the adjacent building from above, but that still seems noncompliant to me.
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There is an elevator for ADA compliance purposes. This makes me think that space limitations were an issue with ramping at the correct grade, as an elevator would certainly be far more expensive.
 
I honestly don't think they had the room to bring it down.

I have not done the trigonometry nor am I an engineer, but considering its width and the height it needed to clear the service road, it would have had to stretch another 30 feet (at least) to make it to ground level. The paths there by the Snell library are not that wide to have made it feasible (in my opinion).
 
FK4 said:
1. That’s incredibly shitty and I don’t understand why they would leave that out and

2. How is this possibly ADA compliant? It looks like there may be a way into the adjacent building from above, but that still seems noncompliant to me.
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It seems that you have never been at this part of the Northeastern campus. The elevator structure is separate from but adjacent to the library. People using the elevator do not enter the library.
 
While ADA is an amazing thing, it can be incredibly hard to fit ramps in sometimes. I am designing a site specific play in NYC right now and the room has a lading with 4 steps down to the main area of the space. To comply with ADA to get handicapped people to the lower portion of the room the ramp has to be 40' long at minimum. We then need to add a 5' landing since the ramp is over 30' long, and the room isn't 40' long so we also would need to add platforms to turn the ramp which must be a minimum of 5'x5'. In total we were going to have to use over half of the room for ramps. Instead we are just having the ADA seating on the top landing.
 
There is an elevator exclusively for serving this bridge on this end. It was designed this way because there was not space to fit the length of an ADA ramp in this area.

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No different than at Ruggles. Debatably easier actually.

If the permitting hadn’t become the hassle that it was (City, MBTA, Amtrak, etc.), Northeastern’s original/preferred concept for the full arc bridge would’ve included a ‘second’ bridge crossing over to the Science quad. There would have been sufficient clearance at that site to fit an ADA compliant ramp from the main campus over to ISEC.
 
dshoost88 said:
No different than at Ruggles. Debatably easier actually.

If the permitting hadn’t become the hassle that it was (City, MBTA, Amtrak, etc.), Northeastern’s original/preferred concept for the full arc bridge would’ve included a ‘second’ bridge crossing over to the Science quad. There would have been sufficient clearance at that site to fit an ADA compliant ramp from the main campus over to ISEC.
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Is it possible that the other half of the ARC may be built at a future date? I heard that the MBTA/Amtrak said never.
 
TomOfBoston said:
Is it possible that the other half of the ARC may be built at a future date? I heard that the MBTA/Amtrak said never.
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Unlikely, it provides minimal benefits at high cost to Northeastern and duplicates an existing bridge... Also no good construction staging area, this time they had a great square of land to fully pre-construct the bridge then lift it into place, without trashing the new carter playground they wouldn't have that next time. I think they've decided their time and money is better spent elsewhere, their last community meeting they identified ISEC2/EXP, Renaissance Parking Lot and Ryder Parking as their priority areas for new development, along with some minor renovations around punters pub area I believe.

As for the ramp conversation, it provides fully level access from the Columbus Ave side which is better than any existing bridge in the campus area.
 
TomOfBoston said:
This makes me wish that the MBTA had allowed Northeastern to build the other half of the ARC.

Seeing the wooden handrails in detail confirms for me that they are long term temporary barriers. They will likely stay in place until ISEC II/EXP is completed.
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Looks like some of the wooden handrails are being replaced already with more permanent metal ones, must have been some pressure from the powers that be to get open for them to have bothered with the temp wooden ones...

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First posting of the EXP project on the Northeastern website:
https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/...ous-vehicles-drones-humanoid-robots-and-more/
"High ceilings on the first story of EXP will accommodate the robotics program, said Kathy Spiegelman, vice president and chief of campus planning and development at Northeastern. The makerspace—where students can work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge—will be located on the second floor. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors will be dedicated to research and teaching labs and classrooms while the eighth floor will hold executive offices, the faculty club, and a boardroom."
 
HelloBostonHi said:
There is an elevator exclusively for serving this bridge on this end. It was designed this way because there was not space to fit the length of an ADA ramp in this area.
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I'd rather have seen them keep the elevator and just build a non-ADA (ie, steeper) ramp.
 
FK4 said:
I'd rather have seen them keep the elevator and just build a non-ADA (ie, steeper) ramp.
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I would assume that there is a liability issue if you provide an non-ADA compliant ramp, and someone gets hurt using it.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
I must say I'm personally very impressed with how the development is living up to the 2017 renders, everything between photo 1 and render photo 2 match up perfectly. The last photo/render pair the obvious difference is the rather puke orange that we got instead of the more subdued redish orange and the switch from a see-through holy wall on the near side to a solid slab of metal wall instead, I believe that change was made to appease Amtrak's strict requirements on bridge crossings and stopping jumpers.
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I think the hope is that the bridge will patina into that color over time.
 
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