Redesign the West End

[vanshnookenraggen]

With all this talk of a new set of towers to replace the Basketball City garage I got to thinking about how to better integrate the West End back into the city. I'm sure there are many out there who would love to see the modern towers leveled and the old West End rebuilt but that isn't in the realm of reality (besides, it will never be the same so let's stop living in the past).

Where the new proposals for the West End fall short, in my opinion, are the lack of connectivity. Contextually all new buildings in the West End still stick to the legacy of the "Tower in the Park". Until the city does anything to alter this mindset we will still have towers in the park.

The obvious solution is the build new streets. We could recreate the old street layout of the former West End but why move backwards? If land prices are so high that it only makes sense to have apartment buildings then a simpler grid makes more sense.




The modernist planning idea for traffic management says that it is best to have all side streets feed into large arteries. This has the desired effect of keeping high speed traffic off residential streets but the unfortunate effect of deadening neighborhoods in some areas while concentrating traffic and pollution in other areas. The West End was planned in this way with major traffic arteries along Charles, Blossom, Staniford, and Lomansey while smaller streets were only left if they went directly into parking garages.

What my proposal lays out is a new grid over the existing West End. To save money the grid is, for the most part, worked around existing buildings (only a couple buildings would need to be demolished). Instead of trying to totally rebuild the West End it would be much better to layout infrastructure which compliments the exiting "urban fabric" so that the buildings can graft themselves back into the city.

The new grid would better distribute traffic through the West End by giving drivers more options while at the same time keeping thru traffic along the existing arteries. The arteries, meanwhile, could be redesigned to handle less traffic and be more pedestrian/bike friendly. The new local streets would break up the street to the point where the arteries no longer feel like highways.

The new grid would also allow for a variety of new building sizes to be built. Small park squares would be left but instead of undefined suburban greenspace the new squares would help define the neighborhood.

Along the western most part of the West End, along Charles St, would be built a two-level road in the vein of Wacker Dr in Chicago (Yellow Line). All thru-traffic would use the lower level while the upper level would be only local traffic. The buildings along Charles St would be slowly rebuilt to have their main entrances along the upper level while the lower levels would be used for loading areas (another way to keep truck traffic down). The buildings along Charles St would be allowed to be built much higher because of this (because of their location shadows would not affect the residential areas).

****

This is a work in progress. I was just really bored at work. I've seen many other similar ideas and figured we needed a place for them all.

 

[PaulC]

The west end was demolished before my time but I had an uncle who lived there and all I ever heard growing up was that it was a horrible slum. What is there now may not be great but it could be someday. It would be nice if this forum was more about how things could be made better and less bitching.

I wish someone who lives or had lived there could post their opinion. My guess is that the people who live there obviously must like it.

On the following link there are potential additional sited for new buildings.

Check out slide 65,66, and 108-110
http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthor...esentation.pdf

 

[BostonUrbEx]

I came across one of those "then and now" type books in Borders today, one man from the West End talked of how getting by was always a struggle for West Enders, but "it was a place that no one wanted to leave" so it shows how those who lived there may not have had glamorous lives but they had a good community. It's a shame that was lost.

I like Van's grid, looks good.

Once the GLX happens, Science Park will see twice the capacity, perhaps some good TOD opportunity there.

 

[NJBostonFan]

If we could, we should knock the West End and the towers in the park down and recreate the original street grid, but with a sustainable, pedestrian friendly design. Influenced from Monocle Magazine's Perfect City Block, the environment would be cozy and cosmopolitan and contained, but well connected. Since posting a link to the article on Monocle's wouldn't work (As it's for subscriber's only), I elected to post the description below.

Monocle's perfect neighbourhood is contained but well-connected, cosy yet cosmpolitan. The scale is intimate and takes its cues from the best parts of Copenhagen (the vibe around Elmegade), stretches of Barcelona (the scale and quality of apartments around Carrer de Johann Sebastian Bach), sidestreets in Tokyo's Daikanyama (around the station) and London's best urban villages (Marylebone High Street and Chelsea Green).
At its core there's a transport hub supporting a tram stop, taxi rank, bike garage complete with watchman, newsstand, caf?, post office, immaculate public loos and a 24-hour branch of Natural Lawson complete with a DHL depot, ATM and outdoor seating.

The main thoroughfare is divided into eight lanes - pedestrians at the outer edge, then bikes, cars and finally low-slung trams. The transport hub is at one end and a large park is at the other. The scale of the surrounding area is mostly low-rise. Five-storey buildings along the main streets support shops, restaurants and services on the ground level and residential, ateliers and small offices on top. Zoning laws require all buildings to have green space, solar panels and water collection on roofs. Side streets are cosier, with single residences either opening up directly onto the street or fronted by small, walled gardens. Cars, other than taxis and delivery vehicles, are for the most part discouraged. The majority of residents walk, ride bicycles or use scooters. Those with cars keep them in one of several underground municipal garages.

The park mixes the best design features of Tokyo Midtown with the lush nature of Tur? Park in Barcelona. There is an elaborate playground, four tennis courts, two football pitches, running trail, dog enclosures, seating everywhere and privately owned kiosks for ice creams and coffee. The key feature is the urban country club that boasts a natural lake/pool, tanning decks, Korean bathing house, treatment rooms, conference facilities and dining rooms. Wellbeing and human contact are core values of this community and the facility is supported by an accessible membership fee.

Other municipal facilities in the neighbourhood include a police box designed by architect Peter Zumthor, a fire station by John Pawson, medical centre by Kengo Kuma, day care by Andreas Martin-L?f, kindergarten by MACH Architects, primary school by B?nzli & Courvoisier, high school by Tadao Ando and library with adult education centre by the firm Iredale Pedersen Hook. At street level, pavements are smooth and even - no patchwork of filled-in cracks and resurfacing. Local planners are tolerant and receptive to an array of architectural styles rather than just being conservation-minded.

On the commercial side, our neighbourhood combines a healthy mix of small and independent with the global and interesting. Retailers and service establishments have to follow a tight code of covenants (shopkeepers take care of their own patch of pavement) and small businesses are encouraged rather than squeezed out. Key independent shops include a covered farmers' market that's home to 24 independent vendors (fishmonger, Thai vegetable stand, Polish deli); a hardware shop full of men in workshop coats armed with solutions and products; a dressmaker/tailor to mend, hem, alter and copy; a linen shop; an outstanding florist; a newsstand bursting with inspiring reads and a cavernous bookseller stacked with volumes ancient and fresh. As for the rest, take a walk through our neighbourhood and see where you can sip, socialise and spend.


Some elements, such as the Park, Transport Hub, Farmer's Market and other things won't be included in the redesign, due to constraints. But perhaps the ideas for the park could be applied to Boston Common and the public market would work well in the area planned for one. What do you think?

 

[Charlie_mta]

Van,

I like your grid concept. I had done one a couple of years ago on here and have updated it. Your idea of tunneling the through traffic under Charles Street would allow a surface street to be narrower, allowing for expansion of the buildable area and pedestrain access to the River.

The yellow parcels shown here would be new development; a mix of low, medium and high rise, with ground level retail in many locations. The existing soviet apartment blocks would remain, but hemmed in by many streets and surrounded by new structures.

 

[JohnAKeith]

Those "Soviet apartments" include hundreds individually-owned condo units. Those owners aren't going anywhere.

 

[Lurker]

Those "Soviet apartments" include hundreds individually-owned condo units. Those owners aren't going anywhere.

I'm sure the tenement owners thought the same thing prior to urban renewal.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Those "Soviet apartments" include hundreds individually-owned condo units. Those owners aren't going anywhere.

That's why I left them up. Because the CRP is so open, a huge amount of high density development could take place, as my rendering shows, while still leaving up the ugly 60's structures. Not that I'd want to, but in deference to the current occupants, the apartment blocks could be left up at least for awhile....

 

[NJBostonFan]

Those "Soviet apartments" include hundreds individually-owned condo units. Those owners aren't going anywhere.

How hard would it be to buy them out, offer them opportunity to purchase residences in the redevelopment at a discount, before they go on sale, or in a new skyscraper project? It would have to be worked out with the city, the tennants, the developers. But it could work.

 

[NJBostonFan]

Also think that charles river plaza can be demolished and rebuilt, in a pedestrian friendly design that takes the original street grid into account. Whole Foods can go at the gateway center in the north end, which should be redesigned.

 

[Ron Newman]

Gateway Center in the North End -- what is this?

 

[NJBostonFan]

Gateway Center in the North End -- what is this?

Sorry, I made an error, I meant to say The Greenway Center in the North End, which will be redesigned.

 

[kz1000ps]

I'm a little late to the party, but like CharlieMTA I did a reimagining of the area a few years back (the thread with the originals is around here somewhere..), and looking back on it I still like it.

Though some of you guys probably want more roads than I added, I was going for a realistic proposal, one that called for the demolition of just the lowrise structures and didn't require moving any existing buildings' front doors or service docks. And as you can see, I went heavy on the formal planning, what with the central park and boulevard just north of it (which is where retail would be focused), while the buildings would mostly be of the 6-10 story variety, with a couple towers included where it'd make sense.

Tan is existing, purple-ish is new:

 

[Eiselic]

As the Boston Redevelopment Authority poised itself to grab West End property from its residents, it spent a lot of effort telling everyone that the area was comprised of abysmal, unhealthy slums. Banks and property developers made a lot of money from the land grab, and as many now know, the West End redevelopment was one of the more egregious government land-grabs in modern history. It has since been well documented that the West End was a vibrant neighborhood and its people loved living there.

I know a fellow here in Roslindale who was ten years old when his extended family was displaced from the West End. They were Eastern Europeans, and the displacement scattered his family near and far. He recalls it as a terrible event that fractured his family.

 

[statler]

Hi Eiselic, welcome to ArchBoston.

As a counterpoint to your post I just want to share something that was posted on a predecessor this board a few years ago. The only copy I can find is currently posted in this amazing thread on Cyburbia.

Posted on the Boston forum, this thread received a really cogent reply from someone who lived through all this. It represents a different perspective:

“Great thread... Being born in1929 it brought back many memories. Some good and some bad. I left Boston in 1950 thinking Boston was an old, dirty and corrupt city (AKA Curley) with no future. I was right for the time. Scolly Sq. with its tattoo places, burlesque houses, taverns, prostitutes and drunken sailors made me ashamed of the city. It made the combat zone of the 1970’s look like a haven. I remember Atlantic Ave .with its El. as an old street with nothing very attractive. Full of horse crap (as was Washington Street) along with all the freight cars in the middle of the street. I often remember riding the El with my Mom as a young boy. The only thing I remember with any fondness at the time was arriving at South Station and seeing the trains. Quincy market (see picture) was a dirty mess with lots of flies and more horse crap and garbage. The old cobble stone streets were impossible to walk on for any women with high heels and very dirty and difficult to clean. (Again look hard at some of the photos)

…There wasnt much worth saving. I guess you had to live it to understand. Im glad much of it is gone…

Today Boston has changed and is a new and great city. All of the above is gone and I am happy to see it that way despite the criticism I see sometimes see on this form. Scolly Sq is gone. Atlantic Ave should be renamed something like Great Atlantic Ave. Quincy Market is a delight. Yet much of the old worth saving has been saved and I love it.
Although I have not lived in Boston for many year I have often visited the city and marvel at the great changes. I would move back but can’t handle the weather at my seventy-four years. Yet I never hesitate to brag on it. I now live in San Antonio TX and it is worth bragging on but so is Boston. Remember to do it. I check out this form every day an wish to thank you…and others for tis great site Keep it up!!!”—pwsmith

 

[whighlander]

As somone who left Boston in 1974 when I graduated from MIT, spent 10 years in Austin TX during its wild and crazy boom, returned to the Hub in 1984 and became a suburbanite -- I share many of the senitments of pwsmith

Boston is immeasurably better than it was in 1970 -- with few real losses of significance (i.e. the Hancock House was already gone for nearly 100 years)

This should be all about making it even better by 2030 -- (400th anniverary) -- not trying to recreate the WestEnd or Scollay Sq. for pseudo nostalgia purposes

 

[BostonUrbEx]

It's not necessarily about nostalgia, it's about creating a neighborhood that works. It may have been poor and determined to be a slum, but so was the North End and South End. The natural economic cycle brought them up and those neighborhoods which worked are still working. The West End sucks balls now, and assuming it would have naturally gentrified at the same rate, it would be a great place just like today's South End and North End. Just because the West End was poor didn't justify the government swooping in a bulldozing the place. As for Scollay Square, it sounds like such a dire location would have been prevented had their been a Boston Redevelopment Authority at the time which prevented a concentration of "undesirable" businesses in one spot.

 

[Digital_Islandboy]

Van,

I think like the above design idea a little better in some ways. Mainly in the sense that the roads don't connect to Storrow Drive.... Also the long redial road that leads towards Cambridge Street is longer and actually would make it less of a cut through for passers-by.

In sharp contrast, see the design below.



Can you imagine how many cars will seek to avoid the stop light at the Science Park/Leverett Circle junction and would seek to cut down that middle long street to get to Government Center/the Financial District? I could envision that road getting traffic volumes like its paralleling neighbor Cambridge Street. Unless that road was one way towards the river? But then again as a neighbor in that area I wouldn't want to be thrown onto Storrow Drive at 8AM every morning have have to endure that big lot of traffic.

 

[Archibald "Harry" Tuttle]

I just discovered this wonderful essay a few days ago. This seems like the proper thread to post it in.

Here's the first (best) part of it . The rest is here.

The Crooked Streets

by Hilaire Belloc


Why do they pull down and do away with the Crooked Streets,
I wonder, which are my delight, and hurt no man living?

Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another
in their capitals and their great towns: they do not know why they
do it; neither do I.

It ought to be enough, surely, to drive the great broad ways which
commerce needs and which are the life-channels of a modern city,
without destroying all the history and all the humanity in between:
the islands of the past. For, note you, the Crooked Streets are
packed with human experience and reflect in a lively manner all the
chances and misfortunes and expectations and domesticity and
wonderment of men. One marks a boundary, another the kennel of
an ancient stream, a third the track some animal took to cross a
field hundreds upon hundreds of years ago; another is the line of
an old defence, another shows where a rich man's garden stopped
long before the first ancestor one's family can trace was born; a
garden now all houses, and its owner who took delight in it turned
to be a printed name.

Leave men alone in their cities, pester them not, with futilities of
great governments, nor with the fads of too powerful men, and they
will build you Crooked Streets of their very nature as moles throw up
the little mounds or bees construct their combs. There is no ancient
city but glories, or has gloried, in a whole foison and multitude of
Crooked Streets. There is none, however, wasted and swept by
power, which, if you leave it alone to natural things, will not breed
Crooked Streets in less than a hundred years and keep for a
thousand more.

 

[whighlander]

I just discovered this wonderful essay a few days ago. This seems like the proper thread to post it in.

Here's the first (best) part of it . The rest is here.

The Crooked Streets

by Hilaire Belloc


Why do they pull down and do away with the Crooked Streets,
I wonder, which are my delight, and hurt no man living?

Every day the wealthier nations are pulling down one or another
in their capitals and their great towns: they do not know why they
do it; neither do I.
..... There is none, however, wasted and swept by
power, which, if you leave it alone to natural things, will not breed
Crooked Streets in less than a hundred years and keep for a
thousand more.

A very relevant quote for all those herein who think Boston should be replaced by a uniform rectangular grid with uniformly boring towers. And especially relevant to those herein who appreciate Boston as it is -- but perhaps don't really know why!

The quote of course doesn't address the most significant reason for crooked streets in Boston -- that the streets preserve the contour map of the hills which once dominated the city.

Colonial era folks didn't bother to cut away a hill unless they needed the material -- they followed elevation contours around the hills with foot paths and then streets. eventually they took down the hills -- but since there were buildings on the curving streets the streets remained -- later a lot of the old buildings vanished and were replaced by newer, bigger buildings -- many whose architectural features accommodated the curved streets. Even later many of these streets were widened -- but because of the economic clout of some of the "newer" curved buildings -- some of the curving was retained.

Today in Boston we have some of the original streets, a few of the 2nd and 3rd gen buildings and some of the 2nd gen streets. Upon this non Euclidean grid we have potted down towers -- and all of these relate to each other in a myriad of strange and unexpected views -- that's one of the reasons why Boston is what it is and hopefully some of this will remain even after the current and next building cycles.