South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

guitarguynboston said:
From the above render it appears you wait inside South Station main concourse to see the Train board then when the platform is announced you run outside through a wind tunnel to only enter another door to where the platforms are??? What's the reasoning for that Archway area to be outside instead of inclosed with the platforms?

Seems strange from a functioning point of view.
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Where are you seeing the second set of doors? I see the nose of a train right in the middle of where the arches are...
 
bigpicture7 said:
Where are you seeing the second set of doors? I see the nose of a train right in the middle of where the arches are...
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i think the 'first' set of doors is the doors to the escalators/stairs/elevators to the new section of the intercity bus terminal
 
Jahvon09 said:
From the looks of things, it would appear as though the tower itself will be sitting atop the arches when it begins to rise to the sky. Am I correct in assuming that this is how things will be? :unsure:
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Pretty much, but its more like when you look at the arches youre looking through the base/core of the tower, so the tower is already rising. Towers basically always have a solid concrete or steel core that rises up the center of the building from below ground level to the roof. Here since there is a train station concourse at ground level they want it all to be open space for passenger flow and not have a concrete or steel core in the middle of the concourse where passengers have to walk.

The tower appears to basically have an open core at ground level that along with some perimeter columns are what make up the arches. Its hard to describe but there are 8 columns that make up the arches. 4 of those columns (the center 4) are from the core. Then on either side are 2 more columns per side for 8 total. These are from the outer 2 perimeter columns on each side of the tower plus the 4 core columns. The arches between all 8 columns create a stable platform where they are able to essentially build the tower as usual above after a few different trusses above the arches tie everything together.

D043FC91-0514-4A33-9360-695D6C0A1CD9.jpeg


I marked on this picture where the 8 columns are that are used to make up the arches. 2 perimeter columns on each side then 4 core columns in the center. Then you add a half moon between each column in front or to the side and you get the arches from the concourse. You have to imagine that the tower is see through.
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Way back.......didn't somebody post a drawing from a subcontractor of the expansion that had a dramatically different concourse without the arches, and we all kind of freaked out? Anyway, I have a strong feeling as a former architect that it will look nothing like the rendering we've been posting. However, it could still be very nice if designed properly with nice materials. Personally, I was never fond of the exact rendering we've been posting because it just didn't look "right" to me. The diamond pattern that is the infill on the archways could be really nice if they are backlit in some way with programmable LED lights.
 
Thanks, stick n move. Another thing is that for people standing under the arches, they're going to be freezing their butts off in the winter, seeing that there won't be any doors & heat at the ends of the archways.How does this happen?!! :unsure:
 
Jahvon09 said:
Thanks, stick n move. Another thing is that for people standing under the arches, they're going to be freezing their butts off in the winter, seeing that there won't be any doors & heat at the ends of the archways.How does this happen?!! :unsure:
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It's worth noting that the equivalent area prior to the tower's construction was not enclosed (and was, indeed, bloody freezing in the winter). They probably think it makes more sense to have the concourse where it's always been, behind the doors, and not require everyone to go through there to get to the trains like at North Station (though how that'll meld with Keolis' idiotic faregates is anyone's guess).
 
Brattle Loop said:
It's worth noting that the equivalent area prior to the tower's construction was not enclosed (and was, indeed, bloody freezing in the winter). They probably think it makes more sense to have the concourse where it's always been, behind the doors, and not require everyone to go through there to get to the trains like at North Station (though how that'll meld with Keolis' idiotic faregates is anyone's guess).
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Yeah. Short of the T electrifying everything and banning diesels ala Penn/etc, I don't see how much could change about enclosing anything much more than the existing concourse.
 
bakgwailo said:
Yeah. Short of the T electrifying everything and banning diesels ala Penn/etc, I don't see how much could change about enclosing anything much more than the existing concourse.
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North Station is enclosed up to the platforms, though I don't know if South wasn't done that way for ventilation purposes (North not having the bus terminal on top of it) or for some other reason(s). (It did have the side entrances direct to the platform that North's location effectively precludes.)

Regardless, I don't see why they'd want to enclose the area between the platforms and the headhouse. It's going to be bad enough with whatever idiotic configuration Keolis hashes together for the faregates, but North Station's circulation (in my opinion) was always harmed by the fully-enclosed design meaning that there's basically only one (pair...if there's not an inbound on the other track) door to each platform, whereas South's outside area meant that it wasn't as bad choke-point wise getting out of the concourse all the time. Might could have done with some screens on the Summer Street side to keep that end of the platforms from being quite such a wind tunnel in the winters, but more than that probably would do more harm than good.
 
themissinglink said:
Seems like the design for the arches might have returned to the "initial concept" design seen in previous renders.

View attachment 29787

For comparison purposes, I've included the other render for the "developed concept" design.
View attachment 29788
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Ugh. God that's so dull. Such a disappointingly typical VE of public infrastructure in this city...
Is there a more recent presentation your pulling that screenshot from? I couldn't find anything updated on the bpda site.
 
I could be wrong but this was the image that made it look like the Archway area is an open to the outside hallway with automatic doors on both sides, 1 to the main station and the other to the train platforms. But another another image posted afterwards shows an Acela Train open to the Archway so maybe you're right and the doors on the right are for a hallway to the bus terminal.

bigpicture7 said:
Where are you seeing the second set of doors? I see the nose of a train right in the middle of where the arches are...
Click to expand...
 

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guitarguynboston said:
I could be wrong but this was the image that made it look like the Archway area is an open to the outside hallway with automatic doors on both sides, 1 to the main station and the other to the train platforms. But another another image posted afterwards shows an Acela Train open to the Archway so maybe you're right and the doors on the right are for a hallway to the bus terminal.
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I believe the door to the right of the image you posted is leading to either the stairs or elevator to the expanded bus platform above (purple "islands" near the center of this image):
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The arrows indicate the Summer St side. Although it is interesting that the plan indicates curtainwall / storefront at this location to the left of the arrow. So potentially they could look at making a smaller entry to cut down on the winds coming in from the North during winter.
plan summer.png
summer.png
 
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